"Test marketing" a life membership for $5,300? ROTFLMAO! As andrzej says, someone in marketing is smoking that wacky tobacky again! I'm paying $300 a year, my membership is current 'til June 2006 and they want 15 - 17 years up front (figuring I am Platinum for life, but not that fees may rise in the future) I wonder what an actuary would say to that, given I'd be 77 -78 when I'd get back into the black (without calculating on my interest loss and AA's float gains.)

Given the many twists and turns an airline can take in the future, and how AA disrespected lifetime TWA Ambassador Club memberships - this is not a bet I will probably take.