mikelat

I've been AA EXP for many years now. But, with a baby coming soon, the travel will cut back. I already have 13k miles on AS next year for visiting family and miscellaneous trips. I currently have that crediting to AA but it'll only be for ~6500 qualifying miles due to AA's changes. I'm considering trying to match to AS and seeing what I can get to in the year. Most of our flights will be SEA-SAT/AUS/DFW for family visits and with booking solely AS I'm sure I can get MVP and possibly MVP G each year. We may take a SEA-PHL/NYC/BOS trip or two as well as my wife and I both love those cities. MVP will be pretty easy. MVPG a bit harder, and 75k probably out of reach.

Complicating factor is trying to get to 2MM status on AA. AS miles still count 100% towards that and I'm at 1.8MM now. If I credit 25k/year to AA that does help MM but only gets me 12.5k towards status.

djp98374

Remember MVP gold is just 40k AS metal miles. That would be about 10 RTs to east or central or Hawaii cities. 50 K combined miles. Higher class tickets will get more miles that count than just actual miles.

dayone

Your focus should be on getting to 2MM and Lifetime AA Platinum.

eponymous_coward

Why?

If OP is based in SEA, with their stated travel patterns, hewing close to AA metal is not a particularly great choice (it means all travel that isn't to an AA hub is immediately a one stop: SEA-XXX-YYY), meaning more time away from family.

Sticking to AS metal and crediting to AA means accruing at 50% EQM, meaning they'll likely be AA Gold 1MM and spending ~20 years trying to chase AA Plat 2MM with current travel patterns (assuming they accrue 15k EQM a year on AA, flying AS 30k miles a year). That's an awfully long time to make assumptions about the desirability of investment in a frequent flyer program. By that point AA may have gone totally revenue-based for everything, or reduced what "AA Platinum" means, similar to UA.

If OP was staying at his current EXP travel levels, staying with AA makes a lot more sense (since a 3 year time horizon is a lot less risk), but I would argue AS is a considerably better program for someone who is a) based in SEA, b) not doing a lot of international travel (such that benefits like AA Plat lounge access aren't all that meaningful), and c) a mid to low level elite (AS gives a 50% RDM bonus at MVP, AA currently gives a 25% bonus, and AS gives out upgrade instruments at MVPG, you have to get EXP to get eVIPs on AA).

I don't see that OP's logic that AS is better for their proposed travel patterns in the near future is all that faulty. There may come a time when going back to AA would be a better choice, though...

BearX220

I wouldn't advise anyone to strategize for hitting MM milestones, on AA or any other airline, because there is no guarantee the promised benefits will be intact when you get there or remain so afterwards, and most of the airlines than dangle those "lifetime" perks for million-milers have been incredibly cavalier about diluting all aspects of their FF programs.

IWontRegretThis

I would go ahead and match to AS. Being SEA/PDX based, pretty much the only direct AA flight I take is to DFW/PHX, everything else is going to be at least one stop. AS will get you more directs, and get you higher status for your travel plans, plus if you donot but up to F, AS MVPG will get you very good chances.

dayone

I should have added YMMV. Since the OP is so close to 2MM, it makes sense to me that he should gut it up and make it. It frees him from having to navigate revenue-based elite qualification for the lifetime of him or the program. Of course, there are no guarantees, but AA has not significantly devalued its MM benefits.

I agree that AS is the better choice for immediate benefits. I just think that finishing the long game with AA, then focusing on AS has a lot of value to me.

eponymous_coward

But he's not that close at 300k EQM, especially if he's looking at travel patterns where he might only get 15k-20k AA EQM a year, unless he does lots of AA metal travel and forgoes nonstops, which sounds like a recipe for some delayed flights in DFW and ORD.

OP says he can't keep EXP-level travel patterns. It would be a no-brainer to spend the ~3 years doing additional travel shooting for AA EXP if it was an option. But you only get to be there for your kid's first step and first words (and for your spouse raising your kid) once. AA elite status will still be there in a few years. I can't fault OP's priorities to reduce travel and be there for the family as a father myself.

dayone

Which is what I would do. Clearly you and many others wouldn't. So we disagree. There is no right answer for everyone.

SFOPhD

OK, everyone's situation is different, but here is mine and I'll share my choice because it is somewhat similar to the OP. I'm an AA EXP who only requalified for Plat in 2016. Less business travel in 2016 and more personal trips with other people. I matched to AS and will fly more AS because I think MVP Gold is more rewarding than AA Plat. Upgrades certs and change fee waivers being very distinguishing from AA.

eponymous_coward

Fair enough, but note that OP is also seems to be discussing purely personal travel that will often involve a small child and a spouse. I would be most reluctant to risk inconveniencing them, and one-stops vs. non-stops in order to get lifetime status is most certainly an inconvenience, especially given AS's superior track record to AA for operations, simply for a shiny card I could come back to pursuing in a few years when circumstances change. I think OP has their priorities right in putting time with their loved ones first over time in a metal tube.

GumboCook

I would recommend getting a match from AS and see how you like it and the benefits based on your travel this year. Since you aren't flying that much this year it wont hurt your path to 2MM too much. Another factor is if there are any changes to AS Mileage plan that make AA more attractive. If you start to fly a lot, then maybe getting to 2MM makes sense, but @ ~25k miles per year it would take quite a long time to get the additional 200k miles. If you have any business or first class flights that earn EQMs on AA, you can consider credit to AA as these fares earn additional AA EQms. So give AS a go and re-evaluate as needed. You can also earn AS EQM/RDM with a lot of other airlines.

I am an AA Lifetime Plat, and just got matched to AS MVP Gold. I plan to switch over because I am disappointed in the changes AA is making this year. I like RDM's based on distance flown and status and feel like AA really screwed over AA Plat's w/ the PLAT RDM earning rate that is coming in the 2nd half of the year.

Safe Travels.

Cheers,

lds89

I have a similar predicament.

I'm a long time Delta flyer (PM) moving out of the southeast and will be based at SFO. I refuse to switch to UA so I'm either considering either staying with DL, switching to AS, or switching to AA (completed challenge to Plat last year). I fly about 100,000 miles a year and will probably do a little bit more than that this year

My travel this year will be a combo of flights to Honolulu (the directs from the bay area on AS are very appealing), flights to Dallas (where I can credit at least for the time being from AA to AS at 1:1 EQM), and some international flights to HKG/Asia and Western Europe. All three have great partnerships with airlines that cover those routes out of SFO.

DL has a very limited seasonal route to HI and thus they and AA would require connections in LAX which I'm not too thrilled about. I love Delta (despite their FF program, they're a great airline) and loved AS the few times I have flown them. I am not a big fan of AA / their program is now about as bad as DL/UA

Thoughts on doing AS (and partners for int'l travel) from SFO/OAK given my travel habits?

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

AS to Hawaii can work quite well... And usually an easy upgrade ^

eponymous_coward

For the international flights, the airlines and fare classes are going to be key.

Most AS partners do not credit at 100% EQM for discounted economy. BA credits at 25% for cheap Y, CX credits at 50%, and so on. It's an open question what AS will credit AA at for discount economy once they change over. We don't know yet. If it's as bad as DL and you fly a lot of cheap coach, you won't like it.

If on the other hand you're in expensive economy where 100% EQM is going to be applicable, or a lot of longhaul J/F, you're in good shape. But 100k miles flying in cheap coach, primarily on partners, is unlikely to net you 100k AS EQM or MVPG75k in 2016 (you might even struggle to get to AS MVPG). Just be forewarned. I am not sure that if I was doing the majority of my flying internationally that using AS as my primary program would make sense; you will get no access to alliance status and benefits in OW, *A and ST. The DL partnership may be on the rocks; the only partnerships with meaningful reciprocal benefits after that are with AA, which you want to avoid, and EK, where huge detours through DXB doesn't help much for flying to Europe and SE Asia. It will help a bit on AA and DL at the moment.

That being said, it may be the best of bad options if you want to be a free agent flying in cheap Y, in an era where no airline is really feeling much incentive to give a lot of benefits to people flying in cheap Y... and if you're a free agent who flies a lot of premium class paid fares, AS isn't a bad option at all.