So depressing but makes sense
 

I don't know you all, but I'm 99.99% sure I'm the saddest of all. I had such a good thing going, but I do understand. AA was losing so much $ on me and my status benefits. Sigh. I guess I'll consider using up my miles and going rogue.

+1. Also, on award bookings to Europe UA does not add on fuel surcharges.

delete.

Email I just sent to AAdvantage:

"Wow, AAdvantage, from first to worst in 2016. So now you have a frequent flyer program that mirrors Delta and United but your operational efficiency is at the bottom, it routinely takes 45 minutes to an hour to receive bags (with no guarantee), your premium cabin food has been downgraded, your US Airways planes have no power, no AVOD, no MCE etc, etc.

"Tell me: why on God's green earth should I choose to fly with you? Understand that, based on increased mileage requirements for awards and massively decreased mileage earning, I will be looking very hard at switching carriers and will strongly encourage friends and business partners to book away from AA. After all, if AAdvantage is the same as all the others, then we might as well book with the much better airline - which, for the past several years, has been Delta."

Forgot to mention that, with a greater number of partners, availability is generally better when redeeming on UA and DL. Very dumb move by AAdvantage - no competitive edge remaining.

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Don't you worry - they still win. It'll be renamed Best of the Worst!

On Saturday, I was calculating the nights needed for Lifetime Platinum with SPG. By Monday, that changed to how to transfer a fair bit of miles to AA only to realize the miles would be even more worthless.

All these miles and not even time to make great use of them. It's like sitting on a pile of turd sprinkled with gold dust.

I feel your pain. I was half looking forward to the 2x EQM on discounted J until I found out it only pertains to AA flight nubmers. So things didn't change a bit for me, moving from 1.5 EQP to 1.5 EQM, amount of flying does not reduce and losing 4 SWU in the process.

The new program dinged partner earning hard. Looks like they are really focusing on making that buck for themselves.

Time to check out Virgin.

I typically do a month-long trip to LHR and then nestle a BA trip somewhere else in the middle. The 50% EQM thing is going to make BA completely lose my business... I guess I'll have to re-connect in the USA to use AA instead of flying LHR-SIN-SYD on BA.

As a PLT I'm really unhappy, particularly with the RDM earning chart for the second half of 2016.

Also, the $10 increase in the price of 500-mile upgrades was an extra twist of the knife.

Makes sense. But, those extra SWUs are hardly an announced benefit currently, I would sense similar will occur in the future for you ;).

Agreed.

I may have missed it, but was there a change to the $75/15K Miles and co-pay upgrade to First?

SPG yesterday, AA Today...boom-boom

Were you somehow expecting that airlines and hotel programs would stop devaluing programs the same way they've been doing for over 20 years? (This is one in a LONG SERIES of AA devaluations, all the way from the 1980's.)

This isn't like having Krugerrands, currency or owning shares of Apple. You're accumulating things that historically have been devalued consistently. So why on earth aren't you burning for something?

Exactly. Hoarding miles and points for the future is like stockpiling snow during a Chinook.

What it feels like to await the death penalty
 

We knew it was coming but that doesn't make it any more pleasant.

So this is bad isn't it? I ditched UA and DL in 2015. Looks like it's time to seriously think about Southwest. I have known this was coming for a decade.

And looks like some massive mileage runs for miles in June and then the term goes in the history books.

It was fun while it lasted. Probably too much fun which makes this a sad day.

But it looks like a great half a year ahead of us on AA. A trip to Sydney I think. And Europe. And maybe Asia. Do I have the time??

As someone else said earlier in the thread...they have to save something to cut in 2017. :D