radonc1

I find that having some level of elite is better than none at all. So while I am a 1K at UA, I still strive to maintain Gold at AA. Being able to get preferred seating at 24 hrs is better than having to pay for it, and obtaining gold is not that difficult to do, especially when AA many times has better prices out of CLE than UA.

ty97

Fair point, I forgot to include the current 25% RDM bonus and the increased RDMs per $ in the new scheme.

LDVFlyer

+110K, the amount now for a one-way Cathay F Award.

... One of the many premium awards that were getting too easy to obtain, something AA could have gleaned just from reading this forum.

Kneel

We saw this coming. This is why my wife and I both got US Air credit cards, recognizing those free miles would help offset future devaluations.

Remember, just a few years ago AA was in bankruptcy. There was some remote possibility of all AA miles becoming worthless. With the US Air consolidation AA has survived, but it is becoming more and more "US Air-like" as time goes on. We kind of assumed that would happen

Boards like this, and multiple websites that train and inform people to travel free shows that there are plenty of benefits in the airline FF programs. It's great as long as it lasts. This year we've used miles to travel together to This is $16,500 worth of travel for about $1,500 cash and about 500,000 miles on AA/Delta/United. It's actually kind of amazing that doing this is even possible at all. I'm not aware of any other industry that makes it possible to get so much product for so little cost.

Having LTG status we will use AA miles where prudent, which currently areWe are also building a home-based business that will allow us each to get AA business credit cards with the 50,000 mile bonus.

For a long time we flew AA exclusively, but this year began to redeem long-held Delta miles for domestic flights, since the Delta redemption rates for international flights are SkyMiles high. We've found that the Delta agents and flights have been tremendous, and actually more pleasant than even AA flights with Gold status. Of course we have a Delta credit card to get free luggage and priority boarding.

We've also found flying one-way on AA off-peak and one-way on Delta for 30,000 has worked to maximize off-peak AA benefits.

There's still lots of tremendous value and opportunity in all the FF programs, although it may take more work and strategy to find it. As several have mentioned, it may be time to be less exclusive to AA, and find the deals on any airline that work in your particular situation.

blueheronNC

It's a wonder that they only give PLT 1 mile per dollar more than GLD. Flying 2x the amount of GLD should afford a bigger premium.

So now I need to figure out whether I settle for GLD for the coming year, buy up to PLT for $1199, or just use my MVP status on AS for basically the same perks on AA as GLD (minus being able to use 500-mile upgrade certs) and consolidate all my FF accrual to AS in 2016 so that I can hit MVPG which has (for now) tremendous perks.

GrandMoffJoseph

No, they can't, which makes some of the 'ivory tower' attitude in this thread all the more mystifying.

I suppose we unwashed masses should vacate the thread and the program, so the expense account and jet set crowd don't have to hear our protests while they plunk down hard cash for their J/F tickets. (sorry, but some posts in here do sound like that)

Many of those folks have earned their status, and they deserve the perks that come with it. No question there. But the airlines need the rest of us just as much as they need the high-rollers, and yet they've been doing everything they can to drive us away through mergers and FFP gutting. Or, perhaps worse, disincentive us to have any loyalty to anything other than lowest price.


/no, that's not a shot at every high tier person, to be clear
//just a general comment at some of the snarkier posts that have popped up recently

dmayo305

Has anybody tried a status match or status challenge? I'm Delta Silver Medallion, looking to get AA Platinum. I called months ago when I booked 15k miles worth of flights and was told I could enroll in the challenge at any time, called back last month and was told they were no longer offering challenges.

AATrout

All good points. WRT SWU’s, I use them for TATL. When I drop to 4 from 8, this means I add (under current rules - I can’t find any proposed copay upgrade changes for late 2016 or 2017 ) $350/25k per leg. This means I drop $1400 and 100k miles for these trips, with EXP status getting me to at or near the head of the line for an upgrade. So if I spend $11-12k annually now, I add another $1.4k and shave 100k AAdvantage RDMs. In the end, it means 12% more cash out, but my RDMs still grow. Not as much as before beginning in late 2016 and maybe that account stays flat but still not bad. I can appreciate how this affects MRs but when I’ve done them I wasn’t the most efficient. I went somewhere I wanted to go instead of living in airports for 3 days.

I do think it’s prudent for AA to start reducing (or at least flatten the growth of ) its balance sheet issues with all the RDMs banked up. I rarely use them so that will change and I have no issues with that..

ty97

The challenge program was frozen/sunset effective September 23 through end of year with speculation that a new/revised program may be coming, but nothing has been announced. More here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...gram-come.html

eponymous_coward

The unwashed masses you are referring to generally aren't FTers. Remember that 50% of AA's revenue comes from the 83% of their pax that are flying once a year or less. That's not the FT "how can I turn this mileage run into Krug and caviar?" demographic.

Is AA basically trying to "fire" the demographic that wants to convert minimal airfare spend into maximal benefit (in the "fire your bad customers" sense)? Maybe. Or maybe FT is a rounding error (most redemptions are for domestic USA coach... the one thing all three airlines have actually left alone as an award level, so we can see that 25k seems to be a bit of a "magic number"). I think that what USA airlines have seen is a revenue-based system of rewarding customers hasn't hurt VX, B6 or WN, hasn't hurt foreign airlines who haven't given "a mile flown is a mile earned" in cheap Y for decades, and in an environment where they see miles from credit card = revenue, miles from flying = not as profitable... maybe they want to reward the stuff they think is most profitable. Of course, they could get some things wrong...

fly747first

Unless EK bullies its way into flying within the US and then AA, DL, and UA panic and are forced to restore many amenities just to compete.

jediwho

You have until June 30 to max out the Plat benefits. So not totally useless if you ask me. Also, you could try and get a status match with Alaska and then credit your AA flying to Alaska next year.

yyzflyer

In trying to find some good in the changes I'd have to say the new short-haul awards might be useful, however not understanding the premium to fly out of Canada in the new award schedule. It's always been the same as US 48 and still is on most other carriers. Fortunately I'm within 2 hours of a border airport, so will be spending a lot more time in BUF.

Jacobin777

Add me to the "would stick with AA at current status". That being said, I will certainly review my situation once I get to LTPL.



Definitely. They need to change the Gold and non-AA Advantage flyer earnings. Its a total insult to fly 25,000 more miles and get practically no RDM advantage.

Spock Seat

"5 miles/U.S. dollar – non-status AAdvantage member"

Hmmm. So a non-status AAdvantage member now gets bonus miles for every flight based on the price of the ticket? If that's true, they should scrap it and give those "extra" bonus miles to the Platinums. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuupp!!