About 70% of my work travel is in G/S/N, and most of my personal travel is in Q (O often requires 5am departures that I'm not willing to take). If AA makes it impossible to be a mixed flier between say S/Q fares and earn 100% EQM, then I have to look carefully at strategically buying YUP fares on DL on Tue/Wed work flights east of the Rockies and earning 1500 MQM/pop, and cutting way back on domestic revenue leisure travel and coast into the easiest status necessary to maintain exit row and one checked bag on AA, which is probably actually BA status.

Nice thing about BA Silver is that you'll get comp Admirals Club access anytime you're flying on AA. You'll also get comp FL access if you make BA Gold.

Is there anything you lose on AA by switching to BA's plan (outside of the obvious stickers and SWUs)?

When I came back to AA from WN a couple of years ago, my original plan was to make BA Silver, but I had an opportunity to easily hit the PLT challenge instead so I went that route. Then I had a ridiculous uptick in my travel so I was able to hit EXP last year and this year with a little bit of strategic segment (2014) and mileage (2015) driven leisure trips, only one pure "run" each year.

The free upgrades are definitely nice, and definitely cause me to generate more travel as much of what I take is discretionary both for work (what I propose to clients, how I travel to see my staff or make them come see me) and for leisure (parents a few miles away, no obligatory family weddings to attend out of town or the like).

2016 was going to be the last possible year I'd requalify for EXP based on work travel, as we're already planning the promotion of some of my staff to take on some of the more repetitive travel. Hopefully they'll do whatever they do by March 1, so I can plan out the second half of the year to transition as needed, including getting comped DL Plat if needed.

I care very little about the RDM part of the equation - I can't even spend what I earn right now each year, and I have a backlog of deteriorating assets that should still get me through 2017-2020 with only paying the confiscatory fuel surcharges and APDs. All I really care about is reserving at ticketing a comfortable 34" or better aisle seat for flights under 5 hours, and a 38"+/19"+ window seat for flights over 5 hours.

And the folks at Citibank probably won't admit that they'll miss my $3500 of spending each month once I cancel the AA card.

Upgrades are of course the biggest loss. Other things I can think of off the top of my head would be losing dedicated phone line access (EXP desk) and no complimentary EXP snack and drinks in Y. Can't really think of anything else at the moment.

For lower tiers though, those other elements don't really come into play.

Ridiculous Avios long-haul pricing that can cost as much as double the current AAdvantage mileage rates. Clueless EC agents. Award change fees even for BA Golds.

True. But given that somebody on either the East or West coast of the US can obtain BA Silver with three 4-segment trips (one transatlantic Y on BA, one A on AA with a low-end transcon each way like LAS-MIA, one Y on either AA or BA), one really has to compare BA Silver with AA Gold.

I'll be shocked if AA doesn't at least follow DL and UA. I fully expect introduction of spend thresholds, partner credit card spend thresholds, and new, even higher mileage/points earning based thresholds. I see a strong possibility that AA will "lead the pack" in even deeper devaluation mechanisms relative to all the other carriers. Also expect a deep cut to SWU's. I see 2, maybe 4. (And then try to use them! lol). Only suckers bank RDM's any more.

I think you'll be wrong about most of those guesses. One of the guesses not even making any sense.

It would be nice if you are right, but I don't expect nice from the airlines any more.

I hear ya.

You are at least aware that JonNYC, is "right" far more often than he is wrong, yes?

Regards

This doesn't make sense, their FFP is their best draw, they won't decimate it. They will probably cut it a little, but that's about it.

But do Parker & Co. realize that or more importantly, even care? Look what they did to domestic catering? That they subsequently had to walk back some of the damage suggests that they didn't realize that it was one of pmAA's best draws.

US tried charging for drinks on domestic flights. Nothing is off the table, but I expect full communication of changes in advance of them coming into effect. December 31 announcements for March 1 start date seems plausible.