gemac

Yeah, I ate a bunch of Kellogg's during that promo too. It was nice, but not really attractive enough to make most people buy the cereal just for the miles. Pudding, yes. IIRC, the fondue wasn't as good as the pudding, but still good enough to make it work just for the miles, and the fondue company put a limit on the redemptions, then backed off and put a limit on redemptions for purchases after a certain date, then more fol-de-rol. Still, all that is in a different league, IMO, from the company president who does a gold challenge, then puts all the company purchases on his Citi card, and achieves MM status in a year and 2MM the next year.

Efrem

I got my six cases of Corn Flakes while my local store had a $1.98/box special. At the time I valued AA miles at 2¢ for their redemption value alone, so it was worth it. Most of the boxes I ate cost a lot more: I don't like Corn Flakes all that much!

(Lately I've valued them at a bit less, though getting two J saver tickets BOS-CDG a couple of months ago, with no compromises on dates or anything else, went a long way toward restoring my faith.)

gemac

I never found them that cheap. I paid around $4 per box, so only bought cereals that I ate anyway. At that, I bought a year's supply (don't eat cereal every day), and then skipped that cereal for a couple of years.

But we FTers are...er...extraordinary. Most people wouldn't even think about that. I still think the idea of lifetime status has occurred to a lot of people since the movie.

Ritz

There would be an inherent irony to AA enacting a fundamental change to the LT programs from its exposure in a movie being heavily promoted on FlyerTalk.

metallim

i can't imagine how they could reset the counter. if they were to take away already earned lifetime status it would be a pr nightmare for them. and if they were to allow people who already earned the status to keep it but reset people who hadn't yet earned it, it would be obviously unfair and would also be pretty hotly challenged.

Efrem

If they were to do it, which I tend to doubt, they could avoid these particular issues by doing what Delta did in 1995: leave lifetime totals where they are, with everything having counted until then, but add only BIS miles to the lifetime total going forward.

gemac

Actually, it would be pretty easy, since this is an undocumented program. They wouldn't actually reset the Program-to-date counter, they would just start a new counter, Miles-toward-lifetime-status, which would start at zero. If they chose this path, they would announce (with great fanfare) the ability to earn lifetime status by accumulating miles in that counter, and would tell you what miles would qualify and increment the counter. Those who had achieved lifetime status under the old program would keep it. Would some people be pissed off? Sure, those who knew about the existing program would be, but that would be a minority of AAdvantage members.

Assuming that only BIS miles added into the new counter, and that they set levels of 500,000 miles for Lifetime Gold and 1,000,000 miles for Lifetime Platinum, they could start anybody who already had Lifetime Gold at 500,000. For anybody who already had Lifetime Platinum, the counter would be irrelevant except for the eVIPs, so they could start them anywhere - at 1,000,000, for example, and give them 4 eVIPs every time they went past another half-million. This paragraph is all just an example of how it could work, not an exposition of how it will work.

I don't think the above scenario is likely - quite the opposite, it seems pretty unlikely, but certainly not impossible or the PR nightmare you describe.

aamilesslave

Then again, the movie was factually inaccurate regarding the MM program...so I don't see how it would really matter.

Keith Flyer Maven

I'm about 4 years away from LT PLT and can't help but wonder if this discussion might still be active when I make it there.

metallim

that's a long time to hold your breath

EmAAx

Not only that, but why would they want to? Giving someone status costs nothing, promotes loyalty and you make a few bucks off them buying stickers.

Ritz

Um...not sure "what" would really matter?

I was simply making a humorous comment on gemac's very astute observation. Not really sure how inaccuracies of the MM program portrayed in the movie come into play from our comments, but, uh, ok...

crazyMRer

1) I don't think those who already have MM status have anything to worry about. AA wants those people to keep buying AA tickets when they fly - taking away a promised benefit would chase many of these customers away. So while AA could change the names of their status level or rename the AA FF program, I don't think they would use this to take away already granted status benefits.

2) AA may well change the requirements to earn this status again. The problem is that most people do not realize AA miles are worth more because of the difference in MM program. So as long as the public does not seek AA miles (giving AA more revenue) becuase of the MM program, AA has little incentive to not match UA/DL. I do think what the new UA does is very relevent. AA has long seen UA as the #1 competition and the new UA will be the biggest thread ever to AA. Will AA seek to make the ways AAdvantage is superior known and compete that way?

dayone

Is irony ever not inherent?

Landing Gear

It was cheese wedges for the most part and it was 500 miles per package. [I don't know what Pudding Guy got, but 500 per unit seemed quite good to me then and even now.]

I'm not sure what you mean by "folderol" because several million miles were collected by FT members. There are a great deal of things that happened behind the scenes that haven't been discussed publicly on FT. I should know because I was the one behind them.