ihdihd

Hi all,

After not qualifying for EXP last year, I was able to requalify in record time using high dollar international travel. I'm now sitting on 150K points YTD and the travel is not letting up. I would expect that I will be at 300K+ points/miles by EOY.

I may at some point get a CK invite due to this, but need some help re-evaluating my airline strategy. Here are some points:

• I'm still pretty burned by AA's suddenly dropping the oneworld explorer miles redemption option
• Sitting on close to 1m miles in the account, and quickly accruing, yet not sure what to do with them
• Still have the old mentality of flying AA, even when slightly inconvenient and inferior
• My preferred airports (EWR, FLL) are not strong AA hubs

Assuming there's still 150K of travel, both domestic (in Y/UPG) and international (in J), is my best strategy to keep sending business AA's way or hedge against other looming devaluations? what would you do in the same position?

Thanks in advance...

JonNYC

You might find some guidance from this pretty similar query:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...what-next.html

ihdihd

Thanks Jon, helpful as always. slight OT- who is best to reach out via personal email to share un-emotional feedback of a 300K annualized point flyer regarding the dropping of oneworld explorer fares? I suppose I can send an email to Mr. Parker, but figure someone actually in charge would rather hear directly...

That other discussion focuses on CK. While I'm curious for sure, I'm hoping those who do this sort of maniacal schedule every year have a particular patter (ie- get EXP on AA, then 1K, the diamond) or something of the sort...

Maybe even continue to fly AA but credit to another airline for sake of points? I suppose the possibilities are endless, hence the question.

JonNYC

OneWorld Explorer Awards, of course-- the fares (ONEx) are still there, just to make sure no one gets confused.

Good question that I don't really have the answer to, unfortunately. Someone emailed me and asked "why are folks so upset about these awards, do people really use them??" And I gave a pretty "full throttle" response indicating that in my experience OneWorld Awards (most recently called Exolorer Awards) were not only of great use, but used IMvHO by "much better than average, much loyaler than average AA customers," "thereby making their elimination most painful to the group that AA can afford to lose the least" and various other points around that theme.

But as far as a contact-point for such feedback... well, lately... it's really tough to say, sadly.

Phasers

Perhaps this thread might be of assistance?

Angry about AAdvantage devaluation / vent / what can I do?

douglas.parker<at>usairways.com,
sean.bentel<at>aa.com,
tom.horton<at>aa.com ?
Customer.Relations<at>aa.com,
ken.fischer<at>usairways.com,
robert.isom<at>usairways.com,
suzanne.rubin<at>aa.com

JonNYC

No one asked me-- and it's just one person's opinion-- but I'm personally strongly opposed to all this posting of AA exec's email addresses that's been going on in this forum. Very strongly opposed.

YMMV, big time. But, think about it.

Phasers

I just pulled them from the wiki of the other thread, however, I would like to get your opinion on how else to get our collective voices heard regarding all the devAAluations being implemented?

JonNYC

Darn good question, a concern a share and wish I had input for ya. But, IMHO, scattershot angry and/or demanding emails to random AA execs is -not- part of the strategy, whatever it might be. YMMV, again.

ihdihd

Thanks for the email information. I don't plan to use it to spam angry notes to everyone, quite the contrary, I would think that if they're serious about maintaining a domestic/premium image that they would welcome the note putting them inside the head of someone (or a group) key to maintaining that image.

Being on the other side of this issue in my day job (I'm the guy who sometimes gets a random customer emails), I enjoy and welcome reading the occasional thoughtful note. It's also why I've waited this long- to see if this issue was one that really mattered to me after a 2 month cooling period (and it really is...).

Will let the group know what I hear back.

In the meantime - any tips on other pattern shifts I should do in airline selection?

JonNYC

Dunno if it fits your needs, but, IF, additional SWUs might sway you, I'd place a call and tell them your sitch and flat out ask for an answer as to if there's any point in you exceeding 150 EQPs in terms of additional SWUs that "AA used to offer to overachieving Exec Plats" Or something along those lines. Could conceivably open a dialog to maybe other things that might be available to you as well, if things go perfectly. You need to get to the "exec office" in order for anything substantive to come out of it. But with your profile (probably 4 or 5 eagle Helix rating and probably unusually high profitability ranking as well,) I'd say they should offer that contact quite readily.

Then there's the angle that if you -do- switch to flying someone else for a while, "the call" will almost certainly come in and you can then tell 'em why you left and that could be potentially productive as well.

If the answer is no, or if that doesn't appeal regardless, sorry to say, I'll have to punt on the question of what other carrier/alliance/etc might be best for ya.

Time traveller

They say it is not always good to put all your eggs in one basket. If EWR is one of your main airports, I would seriously consider going for UA 1K in addition to AA EXP. Depending on where you travel to internationally UA/*A offers real alternatives to AA/OW.

fotographer

[QUOTE=JonNYC;23002841]Dunno if it fits your needs, but, IF, additional SWUs might sway you, I'd place a call and tell them your sitch and flat out ask for an answer as to if there's any point in you exceeding 150 EQPs in terms of additional SWUs that "AA used to offer to overachieving Exec Plats" Or something along those lines. Could conceivably open a dialog to maybe other things that might be available to you as well, if things go perfectly. You need to get to the "exec office" in order for anything substantive to come out of it. But with your profile (probably 4 or 5 eagle Helix rating and probably unusually high profitability ranking as well,) I'd say they should offer that contact quite readily.


I hit over 230K last year, called AA, the best they could do was to offer me 2 swu which of course I took. Was hoping for more, but they insisited that there was no reward in place for heavy travelers in place and that they were..etc etc.. try calling, it never hurts to see what happens

JonNYC

230k EQPs?

mrow

If you like AA, how about flying them and crediting to BA?

If you're likely to get 300K as you indicate you'll most likely qualify for BA Gold which is equivalent to AA EXP. It'll get you domestic Flagship access and AC access on all itins regardless of origin or destination.

Avois are also pretty good for BA upgrades and if you ever do any intra-Europe flying the Avois milesaver redemptions are great value as they include tax and have a reasonably cheap copay.

DillMan

Remember that the Elite Rewards promotion topped out at 150k EQPs and I thing they were a little stingy just outside that mark due to the final reward being 4 VIPs.

I would have expected (based on my experience)

175k = THANKS FOR YOUR BUSINESS!!!
200k = 1 SWU
225k = 1 SWU

One key strategy: call at each milestone! If you are calling on December 28th they are much less likely to be motivated to keep you flying on high EQP flights that year.