Originally Posted by beyounged

As said, a bunch of new AS elites redeeming SIN-HKG-PVG is not a huge blow to natural AS elites, but that is still a problem.
1. just like 3 day close in limit and stopover in Asia, it erodes the program's general value. Imagine they do this constantly on SYD routes, or JNB routes, or maybe to HNL, within a few months we will have no stopover allowed on a vast majority of pacific region.
2. there are suddenly many more people with a small stockpile of AS miles since this program becomes the dumping ground of nearly everyone's OW flights, so let's say FJ releases a bunch of availability per their tradition of releasing premium awards in batches, we now have to compete with not just each other, but also hundreds of people acting upon reading those blogs.
3. what if BA refugees decide to also maximize their value, so LGW-DUB-AGP, LHR-HEL-RVN with stopovers get significantly more bookings, and AS decides to shut down stopovers in Europe? This suddenly starts hitting close to home, eh?
4. besides OW, other carriers like KE have shown significant interest in severely devaluing their programs, now that it seems like for certain carriers, AS might be the single best place to dump their flights into. Consider me weird, but I want AS program to mostly cater to AS customers, but now it seems like we will soon be joining ranks with casual DE vacationers and SIN-KUL road warriors alike. A3 used to be the case for *A, and a significant of their elites just use it as a dumping ground for their LH/CA/UA flights to get Star Gold, and then they forced you to have segments on A3 metal. AS now belongs to a global alliance but decides to eliminate this restriction and going against the trend, whether that will be profitable or not, remains to be seen.