Originally Posted by ILUVCITIBANK

JerryFF, pardon me, but before AA's milesaaver implementation in spring, 2004, there were PLENTY of 25K "planaahead" awards. I could, and did, and often, make use of 25K domestic awards for years. My last "great" use of planaaheads was to get a group of 13 people on the same flight using 25K awards booked only 5 mo prior to a major ski resort, only fall, 2003.

Then along comes spring, 2004 and the secretive implementation of milesaaver and AA just threw the wraps on this program. Clearly they (AA) were and are modeling after Continental's Nonepass program, and applying hidden capacity controls and yield management schemes to aadvantage like never before.

Respectfully, you are 100% wrong in your assertion that standard awards should be the expectation - airlines ALL, to this day, make it appear that 25K should be the norm - not 45-50K. Capital One makes great fun of this very failed/false expectation by the legacy airlines.

You have been conditioned, my friend, and are playing right into the legacy airlines' scheme. You are playing right into their trap of dumbing down of expectations. me - I cold-turkey abandoned my citibank/aadvantage card and all efforts to accumulate AA miles by late spring, 2004, due to absolute disgust w/ AA's milesaaver and all the inherent semi-fraud it represents. So far AA (and indirectly Citibank) has lost a massive amount of my business. I eagerly await the day when more consumers wake up and smell the coffee.