When VIPs were paper they expired a year after issuance, iirc. When they decided to offer the balances online, the attempt lasted something short of 18 months, again iirc. But the result was to extend the life of the VIP to the remainder of the calendar year in which the VIP was earned and through the following status year - and they have (the last two years) allowed life to be extended beyond even that, as long as the eVIP was encumbered with at least one confirmed segment on a future trip (e.g. we just flew on VIPs issued in C/Y 2006 that were to expire March 1, 2008 - May 13-14 outbound, May 19-20 inbound.)
If the "improvement" comes at the loss of the extended time, they can have it, IMO - though I suspect AA may, given their recent behaviors, leave eVIP validity as modified when they announced they were giving up including VIP balances in our online accounts initially. Is that clair enough?
