The first year I received CK, i spent around $40k (same with my second year) where my home base airport is a medium sized airport where AA is third in terms of passenger volume (no admiral lounge or partner lounges). In terms of mileage flown before they switched to LPs, it was around 225k. I'm hoping to get renewed again this year as I flew around $55k with about 450k LPs (all premium spends, no redemptions, upgrades etc) from the same medium sized airport.

In all honesty, I would be a little bummed if I didn't get renewed, but won't be heartbroken and will probably switch to another carrier like Delta as my CK experience this last year was a mixed bag. As most people have mentioned, the best part of the program is being able to be immediately rebooked during IRROPs, but even then, I've had some hellacious rebookings, for example, 2 weeks ago with the terrible weather at LGA and the delays, I had 3 different connections just to get home, instead of my usual 1 hop or at max 2 hops. Then, to top it off, for the last half of the year all the way up to today, I haven't had a CK rep call, text, or email me in any of my legs, in which they usually do when I connect through Dallas for international flights, and when I go to flagship lounges or even admiral lounges, they always ask for my ID, even after showing them my boarding pass. What's also funny is that when I book with partner airlines like JAL, they treat me like an actual CK member with private terminal transfers and an agent whisking me through security to the lounge etc.

Good luck to all for this renewal season!