Originally Posted by higgies

Maybe I'm thick, but I can't make heads or tails of any of this, even after reading numerous pages in this thread. I can't figure out if I continue my normal yearly strategy of making Platinum a priority or it'll all be worthless. I don't know what I need to do get there, and what may stop me from making it. Maybe I just give up, let the chips fall where they may, and then never worry about it again in the future as it seems that us "marginal" customers won't get many benefits moving forward.

Originally Posted by SFO777

I assume you mean why FB? AF currently has the best First Class in the world and FB has a very generous mileage based program including 4.5x EQMs and 4.75x RDMs on all paid AF First Class tickets, even discounted First. DL First credits at 2.0x EQMs and 2.25x RDMs. Also, only FB elites can book AF First Class awards.

Originally Posted by jcrossen

Possibly a stupid question about EQDs. Say I purchase (on the same reservation) a RT ticket for 2 people and it the EQD amount is $300 per seat ($600 total), are we each getting $300 EQDs or am I getting $600 (hoping for this )

Originally Posted by jcrossen

Possibly a stupid question about EQDs. Say I purchase (on the same reservation) a RT ticket for 2 people and it the EQD amount is $300 per seat ($600 total), are we each getting $300 EQDs or am I getting $600 (hoping for this )

Originally Posted by econometrics

You're only going to get EQD for yourself.

However, if you want to get points for purchasing other people's tickets, you should sign up for Business Extra. ^

Originally Posted by RustyC

I can relate certainly, flying out of one of the worst airports in the country for the security lines. If you're on F9 or NK then you can't do TSA Pre-Check even if you're signed up.

OTOH, it's not written in stone that you have to get the poor treatment. We shouldn't ever forget that a lot of it is due to airlines deliberately degrading the product just so they can sell back to us what used to be included.

I think we'll need minimum standards written into law, as the industry has abandoned common sense and certainly hasn't earned the kind of trust needed for "self regulation" (a recipe for failure if there ever was one). They'll charge $250 to change an international ticket or introduce a "fuel surcharge" when fuel costs are high but not remove it when costs go down. There's a long history of questionable practices done in bad faith.

The point being that it doesn't have to be that way. We've had some notable regulatory successes in greatly reducing the incidents of people stuck in planes on a ramp for hours, or airlines playing pricing games with near $0 advertised fares but massive hidden fees. The bag situation might be next.

Originally Posted by Smiley90

You're ignoring an airline that HAS an FFP, arguably one of the best if not THE best now and has been very successful and just expanded - AS.

I would think a lot of especially west-coast based flyers will take a very long and hard look at AS, especially after acquiring Virgin. And they award plenty distance-based awards with ambitious redemptions like CX, Emirates and newly JL F.

Originally Posted by nk15

People get confused because the RDMs are so low that they cant believe it is true, lol, they think there has to be an additional bonus. And the lame marketing attempts to show you how lucky you are with the "bonus" you're getting feeds into their wishful thinking.

Originally Posted by thekidvintage

I guess this means I cant fly seven LAX-GRU $590 roundtrips every year (via JFK) and qualify for ExPlat?? And get 200,000 redeemable miles for just over a $4000 spend?

Oh well..... it was enjoyable while it lasted.

It will be tough for me to hit the $12K spend.......and any AA FF level less than ExPlat just doesn't bring much value to the table for me.

I'm REALLY REALLY hoping that there will be some kind of CC spend level that will waive the EQD requirement!!!

Originally Posted by ubernostrum

Pre-merger Dividend Miles was, to me, a better program than pre-merger AAdvantage, as well as better than immediately-post-merger AAdvantage. Those of us who actually flew pmUS had a very different experience than people who just posted on FT -- the upper tiers of Dividend Miles had plenty of exclusive stuff to encourage getting there, but also spread out real benefits across all tiers to provide an incentive to get started and progress upward.

I mean, yeah, I hit top tier two years in a row for merger-positioning purposes, but at the time I was mostly about an 80k-85k EQM/yr flyer. Under AAdvantage every mile I flew past 50k and up until 100k was next to useless since stickers weren't a real benefit (especially given how cheap they were to just buy outright whenever needed) and bonus RDM are a joke given how easy it is to make RDM rain from heaven. pmUS had a solid 75k tier with good benefits, and the Special Dividends benefit at 85k made it worth my while to keep all of my flying on pmUS.

Then the merger yanked that tier out from under that; the reason I stretched and worked and made it to Chairman's Preferred (in order to match in as EXP) was because US Plat -> AA PLT was a gigantic devaluation.

Now it looks like the leadership feels confident enough to steer the ship back a little bit in the direction of the pmUS program, and I for one welcome it; last year when I realized I wasn't going to hit EXP again I literally cut off my AA flying past the 50k mark simply because it wasn't worth it (and used my final 25k miles of the year to pick up a pre-emptive DL Platinum match in case I needed to jump ship entirely). In 2017 I might actually put the effort into hitting AA's 75k tier because now there's actually a benefit in going beyond PLT but not all the way across that gap to EXP.

Anyway, my point is that if offering real benefits across the entire program, and providing incentives to keep flying by making you feel you're getting value for money, is "penny-pinching", then I say bring on some more of it.