They will definitely merge the mileage balances. For example if you had 30,000 miles with US Air and 50,000 with American, you will have 80,000 miles with the new American. Otherwise, there would be a customer mutiny.

What if I have 40,000 AA miles and 20,000 US miles? How many will I end up with?

/sarcasm

I find it impossible to believe that you wouldn't have 60K miles plus/minus miles earned/used between now and when the miles are combined. As oldgoldflyer said, there would be a mutiny if they messed with the miles already in people's accounts.

Now, if you're asking what status you'd have after the programs are merged that's a completely different question...

Jim

Let's not propogate speculation as information. There has been no official notice of EQM merging, so everyting who asks should be advised of that fact. When it comes to likely but unannounced benefits, your mileage may indeed vary.

OP appeared to specifically be asking about EQM and status, not RDM.

Yes the OP did and that was answered (no one knows yet), but oldgoldflyer's post didn't distinguish EQM's from RDM's, and neither did I when I said it was impossible for me to believe that they'd mess with miles already in people's account (which includes both EQM's and RDM's).

In other words, anyone having an AA and US account can count on the total miles in those accounts being combined. Only EQM's for this year or whatever year they combine accounts are in limbo.

Jim

Since nearly the beginning of the year, you have been able to get credit on your choice of AA or US FF program when flying either AA or US.

If you have status on one - the you should be crediting the EQM to that airline. I think AA provided enough warning. Pick one airline and put all AA and US flights into that one account.

Why would you in 2014 put some miles in one account and some miles in a different account (unless you are high elite status on both airlines).

I would certainly agree to that course of action; until the actual FFP merge, and the terms and conditions regarding it, are announced, stick with one program.

Follow-up question: US Air Barclays card
 

Curious as to people's thoughts whether the 10K US Air EQMs earned by the Barclays US Airways card will combine with miles flown on AA, and even the 10K AA EQMs earned by the Citi Executive card, to earn AA status? In other words, if you hit the spend on both cards, do you only need to fly 5k miles for Gold, 30k for Plat, etc?

Nobody knows for next year's status, but they won't combine for this year.

So if you hit the 10k on both cards and fly 5K on US, you won't be made Silver this year just based on that.

Now maybe if they combine all EQMs next year at some point to determine 2015 status they may give you Silver, but I think that is becoming less likely to happen with every passing day.

I still believe that they will take the higher of your status based on qualifying miles/segments to determine your status in the new AA, but again, all speculation.

Let's look at this analogy:

You get a free bag with an AA Visa card.

You get a free bag with an AA Amex card.

You do not get 2 free bags if you have both cards.

You get up to 10k back in 10% rebates on award redemptions with an AA Visa card.

You get up to 10k back in 10% rebates on award redemptions with an AA Amex card.

You do not get up to 20k back in those 10% rebates if you have both cards.

Even more on point: Since Citi allows you to have 2 normal AA cards, it's quite possible that Citi allows you to have 2 Executive cards (for those who like to spend $900 on annual fees!), but I assure you, you don't get 20k EQM in that case.

IOTW, there are lots of precedents at AA (as well as elsewhere) for 2 things to say they give you this, but for it not to be additive. There are extremely few precedents I can think of where things to the slightest degree analogous to this are additive.


... And in any case, there's no guarantee that in 2015 or 2016 (by the time the US card is an AA card) that EQM alone will get you to any status. AA's 2 main competitors, DL and UA, have already added EQD (elite qualifying dollars) requirements for elite status, meaning at those airlines you can no longer get to status simply by doing cheap mileage run flights or by doing a few cheap flights on top of getting EQMs from a credit card. Are you sure AA won't follow? Would it matter to you if they did?

For comparison, the requirement "over there" is something like 25000 EQMs + $2500 spend on that airline's tickets. So even if you get 20000 EQMs from a credit card, you still have to spend $2500 even though you only have to fly 5K more. (And no one has figured out how to do "Manufactured EQD Spending", last I heard. The EQD requirement is for spending on flights actually flown, so buying refundable and later cancelling without flying doesn't work.)

Appreciate the response, but I respectfully disagree with your analogy. The reason I thought this may be additive is because it is 10K EQM on US Air, while the other 10K EQM is on AA.
If one flies 20K on one airline, and 30K on another airline, will they hit Platinum on AA (or the equivalent on US)? As an extension to that question, what if 10K of the 20K and 10K of the 30K, separately, was through credit card spend?

We can only speculate at this time what the FFP merger will bring - and when it will occur. When announcements occur, you can be sure there will be a thread here, and that it will be discussed sufficiently to keep it active and on the front page.

Exactly - if you're elite on both, then you'd want to get those elite benefits when traveling on each airline, and elite benefits ate not (yet?) completely reciprocal. But yes, if you're elite on only one or none, there's no real disadvantage to picking one program. Except maybe if you need to top up one or the other for a partner redemption since the partners are still different.

As for speculation, allow me to speculate: Announcement will be Q2 or Q3, status earned on either airline this year will be applicable in 2015, under the new FFP rubric.

Maybe there will be an interim way to earn on both, but it may be tricky until there is an FFP merger of some kind, because of the different ways of tallying status, miles, points, spend, etc. etc. so doubtful (but I might be surprised).

New combined FFP begins 1 Jan 2015, three levels of status as per oneworld and most partners, measurement for said status to be in EQ Points. A "superlevel" similar to Concierge Key to reward shakers, movers and coordinators of travel for larger companies. "Assimilation" / merger of both accounts happens easily for those who have made sure their account data matches (as it was when AA assimilated TW).

AA IT is happy because they only have to make some superficial changes - rename status levels, etc. and they continue to use existing numbers - EQ Points, EQ Miles for Million Miler status, RDM for using on award travel, etc. And, given the IT platform, it's probably best - changes to this very old horse are tricky and have untoward results (e.g. SWu counter, Million Miles, "Ventana" upgrade, etc.) If we're fortunate, no major IT issues like UACO. :cross fingers:

Some of us will be happy, some of us will be unhappy, but in the end, we'll just have to see what Mr. Parker brings us. Hope for enlightenment, simplicity and an affinity program that is proportional and values frequent customers.

I hope they merge EQM, only because I flew United flights and didn't want to credit them to UA (what with PQD and the massive devaluation for partner awards), so I credited them to US. Have about 22K EQM with them. But I credit all my US/AA flights to AA since I'm an EXP.

What I do hope is they give us a concrete answer soon.