Well if one was going to do that level of flying anyways then you come out ahead vs paying for AC and you get FL where available which is far better than the AC. I think if you're flying primarily paid J/F and flying enough to hit BA Silver but not enough for EXP then that's a reasonable strategy, you get access to FL and AC on all flights, Avios do have some sweetspots for short/mid length flights in the US as well.

This:
My point was that if you're not a big spender but still fly a lot, you might only get to Gold or Platinum on AA via more than double the credit card spend required on Chase/Amex for United/Delta status just below top tier.

Huh? This makes little sense. AA's internal evaluation of the cost/benefit to the airline of the elite program is surely defined by many factors: including OW alliance terms; what the competition does, how many members AA has at the various elite levels, and a whole host of other things. "DL did it" makes a nice FT-soundbite - but its not as universally true as people think it is.

And many benefits of the program have nothing to do with OW: MCE is one, award redeposit fees and other fees waivers is another, the (largely useless) same-day change policy is yet another, etc...

And you're glossing over the fact that this very program change announcement contains additional benefits.

And yet for the past couple years they have followed their competitors (primarily DL) religiously. Yes I'm sure they have a cost/benefit internally but that was my point, competitive pressures will outweigh those internal costs but when they get the opportunity (aka DL/UA does it first) AA will happily follow suit. To be clear, this isn't necessarily a complaint; minimizing costs in response to changes in the competitive landscape is a logical thing to do. I'm just not naive enough to think that this, or any other change, is going to be to my benefit. When the next economic downturn occurs and the airlines are hurting we will be courted again, until then they will give as little as possible.
MCE...kinda like...C+ oh and the inclusion of free drinks/food for MCE which AA was a pioneer in re... followed DL in adding. I predict that AA maintains these not because they want to but because they feel they need to, if other airlines did not provide these benefits do you really think AA would do so? That bridge BTW, did I mention its very lightly used?

What additional benefits? If you're referring to the 150/200/250K EQM thresholds...that's something many EXPs will not see and I pity those that do. Plus now if you fly 200K EQMs you get the same number of SWUs you had before EQDs...quite the additional benefit there!!

Also need the minimum 4 BA metal segments in there. Hardly worth it unless you're doing it anyway. Better to get lounge access in another way. I fly mainly international trips so I'm covered even with LT PLT, though I will miss the FC lounges especially at HKG and the QF at LAX. When I have domestic trips, I can use my BE points for day passes, or just hang out at the gate.

The changes were expected. Since AA moved to EQD's for qualifications, my AA spend has trended down.
2016: Total spend $8571 with $6600 on AA;
2017: Total spend $5524 with $1514 on AA (requalified wih 17k+ EQD's;)
2018 Total spend: $6871 with $2600 on AA (requaified with 12k EQD's;) and
2019: Estimated total AA spend of $2000, $1413 already ticketed for PEK-LAX-HKG-PEK and will add another HKG-LAX to use my (last) 4 SWU's until I cross 5MM probably 2020..

There are still inexpensive ways to get 15k EQD's and 150k EQM's with CX and BA PE fares, and one routing that CX offers a decent schedule on, costs $965 RT, and would require only 4.5 RT's (pushing the return into the next year of course,) and generates 112k EQM's and 165k RDM's. I wonder how much rev AA generates from those miles. Total cost of $4421 and no need for SWU's.

I'll be happy with my AA LT PLT and *A Gold (OZ thru 2021.) Expectations in check always.

Been there, done that. Not as good. I will give up 1K next January and my *A Gold will be from OZ thru 2021.

I did some crazy MR last year to get to EXP and have three more trips planed this year, some purely to get to EXP for the next year. AA will lose revenues from flyers like me, but I guess they don't care. They assume they'll pick it up elsewhere. Well, good luck to them. For now my plan is to use my almost 1M RDM balance with AA to fly in the foreseeable future. And even if I get their Citi AA Executive CC to gain AC access for the $450 annual charge it would still be cheaper then spend on all those MR.

I expected to be outraged when I opened the email, but I probably spent around 15k to hit ExecPlat this year and had to slog out way more BIS with only 1.5x on AY, BA, IB J flights. With this new earning chart, the amount of EQMs I already have booked for 2019 travel jumps substantially and for the same amount of travel I did this year, I'll have a good shot at hitting 150k and getting extra SWU. First time i've seen an "enhancement," that wasn't a knife in the back.

Just wondering, why didnit AA consider a new level for their new requirements.. something like EXP pro? or EXP look at me or EXP I spent too much?

Positive changes for economy warriors? Wait, what. What year do we live in?

I am confused about the calculation of EQD's on OW partners with the discount economy fares. The chart has confusing column headers. It list base miles 0-100%. Then it lists EQD's per mile flown. Does that mean the column in base miles is multiplied by the percentage in EQD's? e.g. 1000 actual mileage at 50% = 500 miles * 10% (EQD's/mile) = 50 EQD's. Is this correct? Or is it 1000 miles * 10% = 100 EDQ's

Did you type that with a straight face? A quarter of a million dollars is not that much? A person who is barely in the 1% does not have that much in total income after taxes. SMH