I envy that guy, as I'm 950k short of lt plat

The gap between my PTD miles and my MM miles grows almost daily and is now 40,000 miles apart (advantage to the PTD miles).

I had assumed that I would fly my way to LT Plat in a couple three years, but now I see LT Plat as nearly impossible.

I've asked before but will bring it up again: Why can't AA throw us a bone on this and give us a chance to move toward LT status?

Buying AA miles and credit card miles earn AA an awful lot of money. I went over to a real 2% cash back credit card when the rules changed and use that card for my major purchases.

I'm at 100k difference between PTD and MMM now. I don't think AA should throw us a bone though. MMer was meant to reward those of us that actually spent time on AA. Enough ppl became MMers w/o even setting foot on AA, so I can understand why they've clamped down. It could've been way worse (like UA).

At any rate, if I do cross 2MM in 8 years, then great! If it takes 16 years, then meh, but I'd be happy if AA still existed by that point. Who knows? The only fact that remains constant is that MM is for the lifetime of the AAdvantage programme.

Those who say AA didn't want to have lifetime members who rarely fly (like myself) are missing an important piece of the calculation: We cost them next to nothing.

I'm sitting on a ton of miles, as is my wife, we accumulate more than we use each year (presumably, when the kids are in college, that will reverse course) and when we do fly we get, maybe, better seats, free luggage and bonus miles. We don't always check, and we'd get free luggage anyway with Citibank CCs. Upgrades are extremely rare.

And AA gets our loyalty.

Seems like a pretty good deal for AA to me.

Oh - and my PTD is now almost 300K more than my MMB.

I think Maya Liebman intimated that sentiment somewhere, but I forget. I am like you. Did a lot of AA flying, but also did a lot of spend on my AA debit and credit cards. So sad to see those opportunities dry up.

I suppose AA could institute a two-tiered mileage purchase program. Pay 2.7c/mile to get standard RDMs and 4c/mile for EQMs.
;)

With the bankruptcy and possible merger looming, do people think it is worth pursuing 2MM? I'm about 90k away from it but not that frequent of a flyer these days.

If I were to pursue LT Plat, I'd be buying international tickets and upgrading with miles + copay. Otherwise, I'd be burning my miles on C award tickets. I've got a couple international trips coming up in the next year and trying to make a decision.

Deb

If I were that close (rather than a bit past 1.5M) I'd definitely be going for it; the 2x RDM, free lounge access, and higher priority during irrops all make it worth it for me. On international (assuming the recent seating changes doesn't push me over to being a purely CX/JL/BA flyer), free access to MCE even after they cut it off for Gold will also be very nice.

As it's hard to know for sure what the future holds, this is just my opinion, and I would pursue LT PLT if I were in your position. Unfortunately, I'm not close to that.

I think a lot depends on how many miles you have. I have been burning miles since the bankruptcy declaration. I've burned about 500k with more to go.

The next few months will tell you a lot about Aadvantage. I fully expect it to continue to be the best program out there. But particularly if you are flying international it may be worthwhile to wait and see. The information that will become available in the next months will help you decide if you want to have a horde of AA miles.

You are 90k away; if you are doing occasional travel you will likely reach it; is the benefit of getting LT Platinum that alluring as to make it worth spending money on flights that you otherwise have no reason to take. I would just wait and when it comes, it is a nice benefit

More specifically, lifetime Gold status is for the lifetime of the Gold Elite feature of AAdvantage, and lifetime Platinum is for the lifetime of the Platinum Elite feature. They could conceivably remove Gold and Platinum Elite status levels and thus their associated lifetime members, while retaining AAdvantage in general.

It's unlikely that they would; devaluing them is more likely, and indeed, I think probably coming sooner rather than later (note the time limit on MCE for Golds, and United's move to a 4-tier status hierarchy.)

And that was not the language used on the MM packages. I join nkedel in severely doubting the removal of either tier. If anything they add a Super Executive Platinum AAdvantage Premium tier as a fourth tier for those of us that live aboard AA201 or AA10 like Ben Stein. :)

I don't understand. If and when AA emerges from bankruptcy, wouldn't they want to leave AAdvantage untouched for a while so as not to drive anyone away? I can't tell if you're saying you know something or you're just guessing something will change "in the next months."