inlanikai

What irks me about this is that the miles are supposed to be the currency of the awards and not the US dollar. It was the reward to the frequent flyer for loyalty that did not have to cost them cash out of their own pocket.

Yes, they have always had hybrid cash+miles awards but they were to reduce the miles otherwise needed and make award travel accessable to those with low account balances.

Having said all that, maybe just maybe, they will open up sooner and/or increase the C/R and A/X inventory since they will now be able to bring in some cold cash.

Bottom line, this is a betrayal of the basic principle behind frequent flyer reward programs, IMHO, and once again proves:

American will always do what's best for American.

Robert Leach

My two cents, having been with AA for one year now:

1. If they had a marketing brain they would announce this change in conjunction with, or just after, the announcement about an enhanced J product.

2. One thing that would mitigate this change in my mind is to charge the fee but eliminate capacity controls for the upgrades. In other words, we value your business and the miles you've accumulated, therefore we'll upgrade you for $500 plus 50,000 miles as long as we have a seat.

3. I am a bit surprised that they would not differentiate discounted from deeply discounted fares. Seems a little odd to me.

4. This now creates yet another transaction that will have to be completed to process a same-day international upgrade when one doesn't clear the waitlist in advance. It takes about 30 minutes to do it already (unless you're in Rio, where it takes an hour).

Gardyloo

I just got invited to complete an on-line survey of my Aatitude to AA.com. Do you think my answers were as moderate as they might have been yesterday?

But it got me to thinkin' - does AA ever use focus groups or other market survey techniques before they roll out these changes? Who amongst you old-time elite types has had first-hand contact with marketing/consumer attitude/etc. types either from AA or hired consultants? I can't shake the strong impression that they're making these changes with only a very limited feedback loop from their customer base, if any. Make the change, p**s off and alienate their best and most loyal, then what? - try to lure newcomers over to their new and improved product? Then see where we are? Can that really be the recommendation of a marketing consultant? Or just an auditor?

Man. if I were a competitor, I would let us sit and stew for a month or so, then after the first of the year announce a one-time only status match, roll back the miles/dollars for u/gs so that it undercuts AA by 20% or 30%, then let AA invest in new J cabins all they want for their diminished pool of elites.

As for me, I think my end-of-year, transatlantic business class plans just started speaking Gaelic.

Doppy

What a giant scam. Now they want us to pay for the privilege of using our miles?

These nuisance fees are getting out of control.

And how many of us look like complete jack-a$$es for referring friends and associates to American because it had a good upgrade program?

I only use miles for international upgrades. Now that AA has decided to crap all over us and devalue our miles, I have NO loyalty left. Next time I feel like burning miles, it will be for free tickets, rather than paying for tickets (oftentimes at prices higher than the competition is charging) and using miles to upgrade.

Yes, of course AA's J product is completely terrible. The seats are always broken; one time they wouldn't even give us more than a pitance of water to drink. But 25,000 miles each way was right in line. 25,000 + $250 is lunacy. Burning the money for heat would give you a better value.

Bottom line = less revenue for AA, at least from me.

Next there's going to be a fee to check fares on the Web site.

Time to send off a nastygram.

FlyerTim

Hmm:

DL: highest Coach fares only
NW: highest Coach fares only
CO: highest Coach fares sans surcharge, lowest fares with surcharge
AC: highest Coach fares only
US: nobody cares about their UG policies anymore

So yeah, among the North American 2-cabin players, AA was the lone holdout.

pauleeepaul

While sucking major yak scrotum this change will incentivize me to return to EXP this year, which is within reach. The 8 VIPs are now worth $2,000 more than they used to be. What will change is that my wife, who I previously would upgrade with miles from a cheap Y fare, will now fly on an award J ticket, and I will use a VIP. 8 VIPs ought to cover my annual ex N. America Y to J upgrade needs.

Trvlr

AA just took away the only real reason why I use them and not UA. I wonder how many other FF's are going to reconsider their allegiance...

Aaron G.

bedelman

Right. The fees might be commensurate with the value and quality of AA's enhanced J product, when available. But in the interim the fees will be totally out of whack with reality. It will surely take quite some time to upgrade J on so many planes -- especially given that AA's widebody fleet is stretched thin as it is, so it's not like they can upgrade 4 planes at a time. Until the upgrades are complete, pax will be paying for (presumably) lie-flat quality, and getting, well, the same broken seats we now know all too well.

What will happen when there's a last minute equipment substitution from the (presumably) lie-flat new config to the dull old config? It's not hard to imagine a fair number of pax who would be willing to pay for upgrades on the new config, but not the old one, who might want their $250 back in a downgrade.

Lots of details to deal with here.

Meanwhile, as a long-time AA loyalist, 1MM+ flier, multi-year EXP (every year on points, not miles), I can't say I'm happy. The decent upgrade policy was the major factor that made AA number one to me. It's still a strong carrier, probably still better than any other single carrier, but no other single carrier is "the competition." Rather, the competition is booking whatever carrier is cheapest and most convenient for any given single trip. Once AA sends me down that road, it's not so obvious that I'll be coming back.

-Ben, with 16k EQP left to earn this year to requalify for EXP... will he do it???

tinnub

Apparrently AA doesn't know why I fly

paullgo

All my flying is on my own $$, so price is important to me. I use my miles for international upgrades, so these fee's will put a lot up upgrades out of reach.
I have platiumn for life, so I see no reason to stay loyal to AA. I will go out of my way to fly AA, but I fly to London several times a year, and if I have to do coach anyway, why fly to LAX or JFK when I have a choice of 5 other airline non-stops out of SFO.

sgm

I understand AA have to make money but this os not the way to go - annoying the most frequent of flyers. I don't think I would ever pay $250 plus miles to upgrade. Exit seat with 2 1/4 bottles of wine (purchased) will do fine.

I really think it would be best for AA to impose such a charge for non-elites, although perhaps not very many non-elites upgrade.

Of course the effect of this change will be for Y to be full of elites with J pretty empty = more operational upgrades. Moreover, more people will use miles for tickets.

Shame on you AA, you made life great for domestic EXP this year but are now going to dis-improve life for international frequent flyers.

Spiff

Let's move on, please.

FWAAA

Revising your profile moments ago to remove the disgusting "USAir, it's time to Die" remark shows improvement in maturity.

GuysInCT

Uh, priority check-in, elite security lines, pre-reserved exit row, double miles? Granted, the miles won't help you for upgrades, but if you fly to London several times a year, the extra miles will get you free J tickets more frequently by sticking to AA rather than going with the lowest fare of other airlines.

FlyerTim

Does this change only affect discount Y-fare upgrades to C, or will flights taken on discount J tix required a surcharge for UGs to F?