neo_781

Technically true but what's your point?

TheBOSman

Which was my point. Nobody knew that this was available on April 24th. There are 7 months left now, so unless you started after April 24th, with no expectation of this payoff, the time doesn't matter. I based it on the time remaining.

Also, I technically earned my EXP at around 75k BIS EQMs due to the DEQM promos. Is this really any different in purely mathematical terms? The math and the reality are two different issues here.

greathustle

Just got this email, too. I fly about 200k-225k per year, but prior to this email was planning to complete the 30k challenge for the SWUs, then soft-land to PLT next year, re-evaluate my travel patterns, and decide whether I should push back up to EXP. I would have put the rest of my miles on UA and DL to requalify 1K and PM.

Now? I am definitely going to push business to AA and meet the 55k requirement. Not sure whether it will come from flights that would have been on UA, or on DL, but the bottom line is AA is going to get about twice the business from me this year than they would have with the SWU challenge alone. Appreciate that long-time EXPs may be unhappy with this 55k requal offer, but I hope the extra revenue from people in my position will soften the blow.

So far I am enjoying the EXP experience and at this point I expect to re-qualify in 2013 the traditional way.

Edited to add:
Hope I can help with that. The lack of options ex-SFO, compared to UA, was my main reason for not jumping head first into a 100k requal effort -- if it would jeopardize my ability to requal on UA.

SK

Mathematical accuracy was my point .
I am a physicist, I couldn't just ignore a 19% discrepancy .

neo_781

Fair enough

TheBOSman

Yes. Won't bog this down too much further, my thought process was based on the time left in the promo, as the promo can only influence travel that isn't booked yet. This is an added incentive in case someone didn't think they could make 100k (normal EXP qualification) since April 24th, which is hard to do in 8 months time. If someone flew between April 24th and today, they got lucky and are that much closer. And I'm a math major, I know how you feel .

aero0729

This is not a general offer. I just called and was clearly told I must fly 100 K by a supervisor in the department that handles matches. Also was told this offer was targeted to certain members. I ave already hit 14000eqm on AA but 100k by end of the year will be tough!

dgsplace

I can't complain too much, but that is the ONLY reason I bought the card. Oh well.

Clarkcc1

I am one who falls in the 'serious' about retaining EXP category. Haven't flown one paid mile on UA since January. I planned to get 100K via miles not points by EOY. It was going to be tough with a decent number of MRs, but now I can do it a little more leisurely. Rather than searching for inexpensive tickets to fill the void, I can stick to more 'normal' flying patterns which mean fewer flights but at higher price points. Probably would end up fairly revenue-neutral for AA from me personally, just a little easier on me without the need for a variety of redeyes for no reason other than MR haha ^

fieldeng

This is a brilliant move by AA.

Look at it this way: Most UA matchees were totally reluctant to commit to UA long term because of the amount of time and 100k needed to reup. They planned to use the soft land and then re-evaluate.

This changes the game. Now they will be shooting for AA EXP via this method and going full bore to AA.

In terms of revenue generation, this is a great move.

On top of that, it means that AA management is serious about retaining these new matched flyers. They want them as long term customers.

I do wonder if they have been tracking how much travel was booked on AA and HOW they targeted it. It'd be interesting to find out what the criteria was.

MarkedMan

Do keep us posted on whether you get one eventually. I had 50k by mid-April, by no means one of our super frequent fliers, but invested in UA enough. I'll be at 80k on July 7th, and at that point I would have had an obvious incentive to go back to UA in the fall and hit 1K, since all I could hope for with AA was plat + 8 SWUs (which would have been in the bag). At this point my fall travel figures to be 1K w/UA vs 55k points on AA and EXP requal; I'm a pretty paradigm case of someone they'd want to target.

After T2 @ SFO, BA C LHR-DFW with Galleries F, a wonderful DFW-SFO flight yesterday and a great all around experience both ways, it's hard to not switch. I'd end up planning all my euro trips the way I used to when I went VS, by how much time I can have in the LHR lounges

EDIT: @fieldeng, one other factor is a round trip booked in C since the match came through. So AA knew I had done a fair amount of flying on UA, plenty enough to requal as 1K (disincentive to go AA), and that I booked a C trip on AA (albeit at the exceptionally good jubilee sale fare) so I was willing to give AA a good try. Either one of those could be reasonable criteria for targeting me for this offer. Will be interesting to hear from others' experiences on this matter.

PaulInTheSky

+1 to most of the AA FTers in the pool. I haven't said a word about AA trying to lure 1Ks/GSs over, but this will be an excellent business strategy by AA.

For the sake of the EQM, folks should be grateful to take extra segments for extra EQM even for work, especially most of the 737s and all 762s are equipped with GoGo WiFi. If I am based in SFO, I would still gladly take AA over UA even though UA has more non-stop options.

cdfinney

After I got my match offer I then responded to them that it would be difficult to fly 100k in really just 6+ months. Not to bog down the discussion above, but yes the offer started on Apr 24th. Mine didn't really start until May 22nd the day I got my email match. Even then most of my travel was already booked to the end of the month. So that really only gave me 6+ months . I got an emailback stating that I had to do 100k to retain status. So I figured I would just do the 30k by Aug 1st and take the soft landing. Then I received the email today 55k to retain status. This will persuade me to fly them 25k in the final quater this to retain my status.

aero0729

SO frustrating that they are targeting this offer to some and not others. Makes no sense at all for this specific offer to be targeted. I love flying American and the EXP desk rules, but Advantage customer service, not so much. They did not seem to care when I called.

Thunderroad

I'm a loyal EXP and I'm delighted by this move. Anything that helps AA attract and retain UA customers increases the chances that its good FF program will be retained and that UA is paying a price for a lousy FF program, SHARES and the many other ways in which the management is intentionally making the airline far less customer-friendly.

If it makes it a big tougher for me to score upgrades and awards -which I'm not even sure will be the case - that's still a price well worth paying for increasing the chances of the last relatively good FF program surviving. It still will beat the mess that UA has become.

^

+1