This is sheer speculation.

Does anyone else think the EXP ranks may have jumped significantly late last year?

It seems to me that many FTers have reported making EXP for the first time due to the extended available of low fares last year such as the $217 transcons (and of course the occasional availability of fares even lower than that). Plus, the institution of the free unlimited domestic upgrades last year, plus the changes to international upgrades that made VIPs more valuable compared to upgrading with miles, also motivated some folks to shoot for EXP I think.

I realize there are no reliable hard numbers on the numbers of EXPs, though several people have been told by AA staff that there are around 60,000. Does anyone else suspect there may now be more like 75,000? I'm not considering the temporary inflation of the category due to the fact that people who fell short last year don't drop to Platinum until the end of February 2005.

This may be a case of making the mistake of assuming the FT community is larger than it is, or more representative of AAdvantage membership than it is. But I'm curious what people think.