Not being snarky, but where would any of us go even if we wanted to leave? SWA is no better than a greyhound bus, and Alaska's network isn't big enough.

I think what we'll see isn't a mass migration, but more a mass divorce from loyalty in general. There's absolutely no point anymore if you're not a frequent biz traveler and/or a jet setter.

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When you include the credit card spend waiver in the lack of a minimum spend really that big a deal? It seems like AA decided to "innovate" in that regard. ...I wish they would have copied the minimum spend and thought more about the other "enhancements."

Safe Travels

For now. Race. To. The. Bottom.

Precisely.

Not to mention the fact that WN arguably helped start this migration to revenue-based mileage earning with Rapid Rewards 2.0...

Here's a laugh:

From the original merger announcement in 2013. Among the benefits for customers, this point:

Haha!

The frequency, scope and scale of the devaluations has not been consistent over time. Nor has it been consistent across different markets.

The US airline program loyalty market has had more competition until it came down to just the US3 for the most part. Those non-US airline program markets you bring into the discussion (and I've had an account with all of those for years too) have had less competition for far longer (when it comes to airline loyalty programs party to Oneworld/Skyteam/StarAlliance) than the US.

Less competition amongst loyalty programs --> worse devaluations for loyalty program customers? More so than not. And now AA is making that more clear too via this official announcement about the program changes next year.

This would be a really good time to nix the restrictions that prevent non-US carriers from flying domestic routes here. The extra competition is needed now more than ever.

Well they have been expanded. You need to fly a lot further to earn miles!

They have plenty of competition. Many of their customers are fleeing for FR, AK and U2. So, how exactly does one redeem for SQ F on AK, U2 or FR? Others are fleeing for the ME3... who also don't hand out 100% RDM on deep discount Y.

I still maintain the USA is catching up to where most of the world is as far as loyalty programs go; there's no need to treat someone like a god who buys cheap Y like anyone on Kayak, even if they buy it consistently from one supplier, because there's a lot of people who buy whatever's cheapest on Kayak. If you want to buy what's cheapest consistently from us, sure, we'll sell it to you, but don't expect a crown of laurels for it.

So you can earn 10% RDM on SQ or 25% on EK on a deep discount Y fare when they fly LAX-JFK ? LOL.

Look, this is simple; if you really want to fly the best product and disregard mileage acquisition... the door's open. It's been open for a while (VX, B6, etc.).

My post on AA's Facebook page.....can you say FUMING MAD!!

As a 4+ million miler, who has been socking away miles to use once I stop flying for business, and a 16+ years Executive Platinum member, I am appalled at the upcoming mileage redemption changes just announced. As an example, today a 1st Class round trip award from US to Thailand is 135K miles. With your new award chart, it is now 220K miles. That is a mileage devaluation of over 40%, or a 60% increase in miles required for an equivalent award. Well, come the end of this year I will no longer be purchasing flights on AA, and start redeeming my now pillaged and ravaged 1.5 Million miles that I banked, which are now worth about half of what they were. You have lost a loyal and once dedicated customer.

Sad to see both AA and SPG dumping me at the same time.

Is there any indication of what is happening to TATL cash + miles upgrades?

new DISaadvantage program (my RDM calc for 2016)
 

So, I only spent ~$8K to achieve EXP this year. But I earned ~200K RDM. If I were PLT, ditto.

But if I did the same next year, I would earn ~88K RDM, a 56% devaluation.
Worse, if I were PLT, I would earn only ~64K RDM, a massive 68% devaluation from this year !!!

Then of course, the U awards to Europe now cost 15% more, but I'm betting virtually none of those will be available anyway.

!!NEW NAME FOR AA ffp: DISaadvantage

:td::td::td::td::td::td::td:

Right, so I am going to put all of my AA flying the first 1/2 of the year, and all my UA flights in the second half.

Haha! Get into business...You'll go far, my boy! ;)

Well, I'd LOL if it was that stingy too. But, I'd propose a more attractive offer than that. Raise that to 50% minimum, higher for members with status in those carriers specifically. The point would be to use domestic offerings as a feeder mechanism to lock the customers in for long haul stuff.

For example: If BA offered me 50%+ RDMs to fly their metal around the USA (in addition to any RDMs I might normally earn flying them anywhere else), I'd likely go out of my way to fly BA metal on any overseas flight. They'd only be giving me a fractional RDM around the USA, but they'd stand a good chance of turning me into a dedicated longhaul customer.

That's the competition I was referring to.

Yep.

For anyone who thinks this, I suggest purchasing a domestic Y ticket on a carrier which you have no status on. Then get back to us with a trip report.

I'm planning on switching to AA for next year. Will do lots of Mileage Running while it still means something, and hope to get EXP for a year. If they don't axe all the EXP benefits, maybe I'll stick around for another year. The way I see it, 11RDM always greater than 7/8 RDMs. I fly a lot, but super cheap (I've met the UA plat miles but not even gold dollars this year).

I just want to pile up some miles for a honeymoon trip on CX F. I'll always have the option to move back to united and status match to 1K if it gets bad.

Amen-- It can be *highly* dispiriting experience!

Such a pax would have to wait to board with his/her group, instead of getting priority boarding. They would have to pay for checked baggage. However, both of these could be gotten with a credit card.

The pax won't get to sit in E+ without spending a few tens of dollars. Also, if things go south, they'll have to fight it out like everyone else.

You act like this is the same as being sent to state prison for 5-15.

When was the last time that QF sold F to Hawaii? What AA is doing is very misleading, as there is no way that QF is going to deploy a 4-class A380 to a leisure market like Hawaii and you need an A380 for F on QF (the last two 744s with F will be retired soon and are often flown to markets where F isn't sold).

To me, the EQM earnings on partner airlines, especially Alaska, is one of the biggest losses, and will make it harder for many people to re-earn status levels.

You again. Ok I'll bite.

I have purchased a ticker on a carrier I have no status on. So let's review.

• Did not earn miles to my preferred loyalty program - AA is nuking mileage earning anyways, so it's a wash now
• I flew coach - With AA I'm batting around 40% for domestic upgrades this year, and 0% for international upgrades. Sure with AA I get MCE, but booking at the last minute I get MCE seats about 50% of the time anyways since 737s only have 3 rows of MCE.
• No checked bag allowance - I only bring a carry on anyways for domestic trips, as I'm sure many business travelers do

Many of these issues could be solved with simply getting the cobranded credit card.

UA won't match to 1K. I did it to get started again on UA (I had flown them and Continental) and get my million miles. As long-time EXP they matched me right away - to PLT. Wasn't too bad. 30% hit rate on domestic upgrades, but no overseas bumps up. RDMs were fine until UA followed the example set by DL.

AA's moving more and more toward the DL model when it comes to the loyalty program for retail customers. And the results there aren't so pretty unless your regular paid flying is mostly represented by something like passengers flying in flexible business class from the East Coast to Europe. But even there the goal seems to be to fluff up the elite ranks so that churning of the FFP customers resulting from the gutting of program participation benefits isn't all that problematic for the airline.

I think that I will have to start opening and closing (after 13 months) some credit card accounts....the ones with "30,000 RDM bonus...etc."

A few of those a year might make up for the loss of RDMs with the new system.

Perhaps OP has a corporate status match available? I know I can match my EXP status to 1K through my corporate travel dept.

I am in practically the same situation. Unfortunately my company does not allow me to purchase biz class tickets, only lowest fare. So now I am screwed all the way around as what I have been managing to save up is worth a whole lot less, and the long trips I have to endure at the low rates will not amount to many miles even at EP level.

Let's face it, AA doesn't really care about the frequent flyers that kept flying with them through thick and thin. It's all a race to the bottom of the barrel :td:

If you always want to fly First, but want to spend as little as necessary to do so, then I can imagine being willing to pay enough for first class tickets to get to EXP as early in the year as possible, then for the rest of the year purchase coach tickets and be ahead of all the PLT's for upgrades. You're a lot more likely to get the upgrade as EXP than PLT.

As a discount Y flyer for both personal and business, I am getting hit by at least 50% on my RDM earning, and another 40% on the back end when I redeem.

That's a 70% devaluation for a LT Gold who actually flies the airline regularly and likes the occasional F trip as a reward. Even if I want to take my wife for a long weekend in Hong Kong in J class, I'm getting dinged for an extra 60,000 miles RT. If I was EXP, then my biggest benefit just got devalued 50% (only 4 SWUs).

It seems to me that the <redacted> either can't do math or they just plan on churning Citi cards even faster.

The CC allows you to standby for free?

Exactly.

I'm curious how many react like me and just stop flying as much or being loyal when I do fly. I don't see 2nd half 2016 being a good year for the airlines.

That's true, but most people don't fly standby on a regular basis (who would?). It's like bag fees, MCE fees, etc...--something you pay for as you need it.

Tell us. When AA was bleeding billions of dollars in cash, which benefits did you offer to forego in order to help save the company money?

Looks like Alaska is literally the last frontier when it comes to frequent flyer programs!

Glad I'm near AS hubs.

...I'm a reAAlist. The industry has changed several times over the past few decades. This is just another one of many. The era of being able to get 1 free roundtrip award ticket by flying two really cheap Y tickets is over. And it ain't coming back.

I've done it, and it's not the end of the world. And with the a la carte selling of priority benefits, discounted sales of premium cabin space to even the elite status-less, and non-elite-status means to access the lounges, the great difference was the value of miles earned from flying for use for "free" flights. But now that difference is being diminished too.

The FAs and pilots did just that--they took massive pay/benefit cuts to save the company. And they did save the company, with their sacrifice. And management rewarded them by bending them over a table, like we are.

Loyalty runs one way when it comes to ... modern American corporations.

...And the era of my loyalty to AA is gone as well, after 26 years.

Also I think you overestimate the amount of people who spend 3 straight days on a plane just to earn miles.

I kept flying AA, even with no status at times. Also, it's not my responsibility to ensure their profitability.