I made my lifetime primarily with flights, too (guessing about 1.5MM of actual AA flights). Also have 1MM lifetime locked in at UA though I'm not sure that isn't going to be seriously eroded next month in terms of benefits. Took 19 years to get that, including a 5 year hiatus during their bankruptcy.

I would have preferred AA extend lifetime Platinum to those with 1MM of flight activity as UA does instead of raising the goal to 2MM, but maybe that's just too difficult to sort out with their software. Two million flight miles is a pretty lofty goal for someone just starting with AA year-end with actual flight miles and it will be a pretty elite group to be in.

Tom in Albuquerque, New Mexico today

You might be interested that one of the unpublished benefits for 10,000,000 mileage mebers is your choice of free hour with a shrink or a proctologisit.

Ophtamologist, not proctologist, needed for those who see that 10,000,000 miles comes with anything more than 4 SWUs and new card/luggage tag set with a letter.

Ms. = playing the field; and/or mind your own business; and/or have different family name than spouse/significant other? :D

Don't need to be in opthamology to see that.

Yes, yes, and yes. For now, and through 11/30, anything at all that increases your mileage balance (except for award redeposits) will increase your lifetime counter.

As 11/30 approaches, you'll need to pay attention to how long things take to post, since it seems that it must post by 11/30, not that it must be earned by 11/30.

Let Every AAdvantage Mile Count
 

American Airlines's announcement to quit counting every AAdvantage mile towards a flyer's lifetime status is an appalling decision. Every mile should count. Changing the rules for loyal customers in the middle of the game shows no respect for the loyalty received.

Show your support at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Let-Ev...866722?sk=wall

Don't worry most US based customers can't or won't get that card, leaving us all in the same scow. As I previously posted, I now won't reach LT Plat until around 2027, and that assumes I maintain EXP for all 16 years.

The very meaning of lifetime status changes when it takes 20-40 years at an elite level to lock it in for the future. Loyalty programs are not pension plans and should be structured to motivate customers, not provide retirement benefits.

This change was one of the worst kept secrets around--it has been telegraphed here for months. Thus I'm surprised by some of the comments here about going elsewhere etc...it was generally accepted that BIS was going to be the std. going forward.

True AA 1MM BIS only gives you Gold while UA 1MM BIS gives you the eqv. of PLT--but on AA JAL, CX, BA also count whereas UA has to UA metal. If LH counted on UA I would be much closer to 2MM there.

I just wanted to say thanks to all who posted here over the past year or so re this--I accelerated my AA flying in place of UA, used only my Citi AA card i/o Chase UA card, etc.. so I am closing in 2MM which quite luckily I should hit early November. I'm just glad that I had the opportunity to take (if you'll pardon the pun) advantage of all the extra ways to earn mileage while they were out there. This and other FT forums served their purpose in my case and I say thanks for that.

Well, it's very unlikely I'll ever make 7, let alone 10. I think a gastroenterologist would be a good benefit, way too many pAstA dinners over Colorado.

And a giant supply of Preparation H.

Welcome to FlyerTalk :)

t possible. Everything else de tha
 

I think it's a good move - sort of. I reached LTG last month and the Citi VISA offer and 75k mies made that possible. Everything else was flying.

I would rather have had AA eliminate all the non-flying deals because I didn't really need Citi. In the last 6 weeks I've racked up another 80k as a PLT anyway.

Figure I will log nearly 500k actual BIS-only miles in the next six years or so which would have pushed me me to LTP with the existing plan.

But I never use miles anyway, so making LTP for the 100% bonus thereafter doesn't motivate me. And the incremental benefits are nice [primarily upgrade priority] but aren't that essential if you are an annual PLT anyway.

In short, I don't care about this change. Unless there was a way in the next year to move 600k in AMEX Rewards points to AAdvantage. That $6k in buying power is nice but I rarely use those points either so I could do that if making LTP quickly was a big deal. Not sure it is for me.

Not so far fetched. You will get a pro-rata refund on your current year's AC membership (which of course you could put towards the following year if you subsequently cancel the card). See T&C under ADMIRALS CLUB® MEMBERSHIP PRIVILEGES.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/citiexe...rd&flash=false

As far as I can tell, almost every big American corporation does this. PR-speak is one of the things that annoys me most, and I wonder who's dumber: the corporations who think we're stupid, or the customers who are in fact stupid enough to buy it. My credit card companies, insurance companies, banks, brokers, rental car companies, almost every business I deal with other than local mom-and-pop businesses have professional liars doing all the customer communications.

End of rant.

So you'll no longer accrue AA miles to redeem on award tickets? Your only reason to have those credit cards was for lifetime status? I don't get it. If you fly AA, and use an AA credit card to build up miles, what's really changed today other than the goal being raised for lifetime status?

Why would you not continue to build up AA miles to redeem for future upgrades or award travel? Isn't that what those credit card miles are for? It's certainly how they're marketed (in terms of redeeming your spending for award flights).

Gets them faster to accrue lifetime worth of bennies when traveling on award tickets that includes OW partners :D

1MM = LT GLD = LT OW Ruby = lifetime of OW Ruby benefits across all OW carriers
2MM = LT PLT = LT OW Sapphire = all OW Ruby benefits + lifetime of lounge benefits across all OW carriers

So essentially, one who has reached LT PLT by obtaining 2MM on AA's lifetime counter would essentially have priority seating, baggage, boarding, standby and lounge benefits on BA, CX, AY, IB, JL, LA, MA, QF, RJ, S7, and upcoming members AB, IT, and MH.

Put it another way, if you reach 2MM on AA, you also get "VIP treatment" on 13 other OW partners. :D