PaulInTheSky

Of course, one would argue if it is the important to get upgrades when most of the time it is booked in F/J.

I started looking at BA Gold benefits and requirements, and they apparently have upgrade vouchers to earn when they earn 2500 TPs or 3500 TPs. Turns out they do not have minimum fare requirement either.


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1 x Gold Upgrade for Two voucher can be earned by Gold Members when they earn 2,500 Tier Points and 2 x Gold Upgrade for One vouchers can be earned when they earn 3,500 Tier Points. Gold Upgrade vouchers are a single cabin class upgrade available on a single or return booking. For example:
Euro Traveller to Club Europe
World Traveller to World Traveller Plus (where fitted on the aircraft)
World Traveller to Club World (where World Traveller Plus is not fitted on the aircraft)
World Traveller Plus to Club World
Club World to First (where fitted on the aircraft)
World Traveller Plus to Club World
Club World to First (where fitted on the aircraft)
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I compared the BA Gold and AA EXP status a little bit:

Let's stick with flying 100k with $12k USD, most of which are AA domestic first

so, AA EXP: 132k RDMs

BA Gold: If you fly 100k BIS, you get at least 200k Avios + Premium class or service bonus miles.

Let's say you still look at JFK-HKG in CX J/F on awards.

AA -> J 70k, F 110k
BA -> J 105k, F 140k.

It does cost more miles to book with BA, but it is actually not that much of difference.

I think the best strategy would be to:

Get BA Gold with most Premium cabin credited into it.
Cancel AA Admirals Club membership.
When flying AA Y, forget about upgrades most of the time, credit them to AA, and use the BA Gold card to check you into the Admirals Club lounge. Heck, you could go to Flagship lounge too if you fly through LAX, ORD, JFK, MIA. In worse-case, LT GLD/PLT will earn stickers, and can use stickers on most domestic flights too.
If one makes EXP, then great, enjoy two RTs of discounted Y->J or J->F trips. Otherwise, just use the AA miles+copay to get upgrades.

In 2018, I can guess the upgrade list of difficult routes will wind down, lot more C space open for DFW-HKG/LHR. Spending $12k just to get four eVIPs does not make sense anymore. That will be roughly 100k+$1400, and we all understand that it will not cost that much to get 100k RDMs straightly for upgrades. If it costs $3k USD to get 100k, then you essentially spend $4200USD just to get upgrades. Well, $4200 is almost enough to get you two RTs from Canada to Southeast Asia. No hassle to gamble for upgrade either.

crashnet

It is my understanding this change won't affect my plans to join the challenge (after June 16th) and qualify for Platinum on an already purchased ticket which yields over 12.5k miles?

24left

Wait, I received the same worded email from Air Canada. (lol, or not)

(A fellow FTer one amusingly suggested all CSRs for all airlines, are all the same people working out of an offshore call center - so maybe you got the reply intended for me about the melon that was frozen. lol)

As for AA, I'm pretty sure they had someone test potential complaint emails and had already prepared drafts of responses. So far no one is reporting any copy & paste emails with other names in place of theirs.

rjw242

Most customers don't care, but the bonuses only apply to elite customers, who are far more likely to care about how many miles they're earning. All I'm saying is if many (better informed on the whole) FTers found this confusing, it doesn't bode well for the general elite population.

crashnet

I live in Los Angeles but I have addresses in Brazil and Netherlands. Would registering as a foreign resident with AA help me in any way under the new rules?

PS: I have the Citi AA Exec MC card and I would keep it.

PaulInTheSky

A lot of responses and interactions with AA twitter indicate that there will still be spend requirement to achieve AA status.

So, in short answer, no. They have not publicly confirmed whether spend requirement will be waived for non-US addresses or CC spend.

JonNYC

Nope.

milehound

Elite customers may not be "sheeply" as much as stuck with limited options where they live and/or work. I am a lifetime gold with American Airlines, earned back in the days when miles from all sources counted towards MM status (sigh). It may not be much, but if fares are comparable, I'm going to fly the OW airline over SleazyJet, Whoa!, NorseAir, and other LCCs, reduced benefits or not. I care less about int'l upgrades than I do about extra legroom and using miles for a ski vacation. As a lowly gold, I know I'll have to pay extra for MCE seating, but that might be better than doing mileage runs to maintain Platinum status in terms of time and money spent. I look forward to reading The Points Guy's review of the 2017 program, and the $ value assigned to each tier. Next year I'll probably join AARP to avail myself of BA's Biz Class specials.

flymia

Well, more JetBlue flying for me. Already have been leaning that way anyway, superior product in economy, better crews, better service. Sure the mileage upgrade is nice every now and then, but now, forget about it. For those who are Gold or just below it there is no longer any incentive to fly AA over say B6 or DL. I might even need to look at changing my credit cards to something more useful over AA miles.

To think I would earn less miles for a round trip MIA-LAX ticket than I used to earn for just a one way MIA-LAX ticket is absurd. It sure is pathetic what the airlines have done to the their programs, and that AA says "they have the best program" is a joke. They have the same program, which gives people like me no reason to fly them anymore. They clearly don't care about my loyalty, the little I had left for them, so I'll won't care about them.

Always enjoy my JetBlue flights more anyway.

bse118

If I was regularly flying paid J I would hardly be concerned about this change...

I live in DEN: pre-EQD AAs elite program offered enough distinguishing features that I flew them over the sometimes more schedule convenient UA, with its Denver hub. Now, I am not so sure...

Acid

For me, the only real drive to try for EXP will be the free award cancel as I need that flexibility. I had booked my tickets until december this year to reach EXP but may not stop at Platinum and credit to Alaska if that remains as is.
I have gone out of my way to reach EXP this year (for e.g. cancelled award ticket on EY A380 J BOM-AUH-JFK) to fly BA(AA code) to earn the EQM's.
I feel liberated now I can decide freely.

Jacobin777

I agree, especially with upgrades harder to come by now.

When loyalty is over even incentives tend to fail many times. If I leave AA and 3 years later they give me some incentive to come back, why would I want to come back especially if I'm entrenched in some other program or see that having no loyalty is the best way to go?



I never said it will uniquely damage AA. IMHO all 3 will be damaged in a recession. Who "takes a hit the most"...I have no idea. I guess we'll have to wait to see what happens in a recession.

enviroian

Like many have posted, it was a good run and we all enjoyed major free trips up front all over the globe and enjoyed sitting up front frequently. Those days are over as AA has aligned itself pretty much exactly with the other two domestic major airlines. The old days are dead. I'll keep plat status and for me redeeming miles to see my family in the UK once or twice a year is now the biggest benefit to me at least.

All the big three are the same so there is absolutely zero incentive to switch back to UA or DL. Same crap, different plane.

God I wish competition was still around....wasn't it nice to have all those airlines vying for your business?

trekker954

in November, I, an EXP, fly MIA-LHR-MUC BUD-LHR-MIA. My ticket cost about $1050. Base air is something like $350. and taxes $700. So this sucks for me.

I'm really glad the upgrade policy isn't changing until next year. I bought this ticket the day I was able to 330 days out from the return so I could apply SWUs. Rep cleared my outbound flight right away; Waitlist on the return which is just inexcusable since the entire flight was open when I booked. Still is pretty much open in J but I guess LHR-MIA just doesn't clear ahead of time.

Looking at the glass half full, I'm already at 89,000 EQM this year with a few paid trips left besides that Europe trip. My work travel budget was slashed considerably making me likely to retire in 2017. So I can then start dipping into and enjoying my million and a half award miles that I've been hoarding for retirement.

LINDEGR

I could not agree more. This seems nuts to me.