Does AA miss its former elites?
 

With the EQD requirement and other similar changes AA must have lost thousands of elite members during last year. I was Platinum for a couple of years and did not even try to re-qualify for 2018. I have been receiving offers to purchase Platinum all this year ($1299), latest today. Have, of course, not even considered, but these e-mails have made me wonder whether AA lost too many elites and actually would like the flock to be a little larger. What do you think?

I think they would look at $1299 from you as a profitable transaction, since you would then have significant incentive to justify getting $1299 of value by buying more expensive AA fares over the competition.

If you're thinking they're pining for the days of college kids with tons of time on their hands doing TPA-LAX-SFO-JFK-ORD-DFW-MIA routings so they can get EXP for a thousand dollars in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression, I suggest they're probably not.

Au contraire, they are glad to be rid of the deadbeats...

Exactly.

Hell no, not in this day and age. Today, we need AA. 2002, AA needed us.

Hey, I was not a college kid when I did things like this. I was just lucky enough to have a job that let me work from anywhere. :) Also, you left out the San Juan legs

Sure. So, which travel blogger are you? :D

(I keed, I keed.)

I was US CP and then AA EXP for a combined 12 years. Then last year, I completely stopped flying AA. I get offers to "secure" elite status almost every week! Not a chance. Free agent these days - it's just amazing how liberating that feels. I do admit, I used to throw in a couple of unnecessary segments here and there, and spent almost all of one December doing mileage runs.

AA lost a couple of grand from me but I doubt they care. On balance they're probably making more money by imposing this EQD stuff since most people (high-level elites at least) don't travel on their own dime.

You don't even register on their Advantage spend radar. Anything <CK is nothing more than an annoyance to AA .

With the <???> requirement and other similar changes UA must have lost thousands of elite members during last year.
With the <???> requirement and other similar changes DL must have lost thousands of elite members during last year.

They will be flying on xyz airline. Nett change is zero.

I must admit, direct flights to my destinations rather than forced connections on AA outweigh the 2 or 3 upgrades a year I was getting as an elite chaser. And coach isn't that bad on DL or B6.

I've been getting the same e-mails. I do miss the AAdvantage line and free MCE seats, but not enough to spend $1299. I think the biggest things for me are my unused upgrade certs and upgrade requests on International flights. So far, I've been flying Southwest more this year with some AA flights because DFW is their HUB.

Network engineer. I relish the Lifetime PLT earned, thanks in part to the assistance of FT members
The best thing about my AA status so far this year has been a status match on Alaska... We are flying DFW-SEA for a cruise this summer and the 4 (any fare) upgrades for getting MVP Gold came in handy in gettng us in FC for a low econ fare
(About $200 less than the AA DFW-SEA fare)... So, thanks AA for the status on AS :)
In 2 1/2 weeks I will have my first AA MD80 flight in many years. I am surprised they are still around

Most of AA's revenue comes from business flyers who don't spend money for their own tickets; so naturally they've figured out how to cater to those flyers. And AA only really cares about losing corporate contracts; not individual flyers.

All that said, I still think AA treats EXPs very, very well. I still get a lot of value out of the Aadvantage program as a ~$20k EQD, ~150-200k EQM flyer. I'm not CK but I'm treated very well; upgraded 85% of the time domestically, don't miss SWU upgrades for my quarterly trips to Asia, excellent lounge access abroad, good handling during IRROPS, a decent EXP line, free SDC, etc. The upgrade rate is far, far higher for someone of my stats who flies from the Bay Area on DL or UA, so I stay loyal. Is it as good of a program as it was a few years ago? Heck no, but neither are the others. And we don't really have competition anymore. I switched from DL a few years ago and I don't think they noticed because I never got any surveys or buyback offers.

I actually don't think the herds been thinned all that much. Sure, there were a small percentage of mileage runner types who used to hit EXP on Gold EQD numbers and some others which may have landed a bit lower at Plat Pro if they do mostly economy domestic work flying, but there are plenty that are moving up as a result of premium cabin EQM bonuses or just generally increased travel budgets as the economy has done well