Add me to the list of no longer needing to keep my AA Amex, Business Visa, and husband's Amex when our renewals come up pretty soon (although I think his fee is waived as CitiGold?). All of our spending will go to our respective SPG cards now. I like the Capital One Venture Card so I will look into getting the business version of that to replace my AA Business Visa.

Credit cards aside, I don't really know why we need to stick with AA as our carrier when we pay for all of our tickets. The unpublished program was what kept me around. AA hasn't been the most direct route to Europe out of NYC for our last 4 trips (AMS, FCO - off season, HER, MUC). We don't really enjoy flying an AA codeshare on IB and having to transfer in MAD but put up with it for the possibility of LT. Come to think of it, I flew JFK-MIA-SJO to stick with AA while my friends arrived on a direct flight from EWR. Next time, I'll just join them over in Jersey without any guilt.

On the plus side, I will start looking to spend our collected 800k miles on some award trips over the next few years. And I don't have to worry about using that shopping portal so much anymore.

Oh, I'm completely in favour of treating all members equally!

Why then were all the 30th anniversary offers restricted to US members and the only credit cards that are now eligible similarly limited?

I would also argue that 8 stickers are far more valuable to a US based member than somebody who lives elsewhere which I suspect is the reason for the difference in the first place.

Hi,thanks. But I am just LT gold at 1.5mm and I know a friend of mine(also LT GLD at around 1.5mm) got the email on Wed.
May be I just cancelled all AA email subscriptions a few week ago:confused:

^
One of the reason I concentrate on the program is because of the free domestic upgrades with the US and the eVIPs. If it were not for this, I know that the better choice for me would be to concentrate on the BA Exec. program. As a program open to worldwide customers, Adv. should try and include their international customers as well. Looking at DL SM and CO OnePass, I know that they do have specific region promotions and also to a certain extend terms and conditions. Why can't AA do that (I know their international coverage sucks, but still..)

Just my 2cents...

Cheers!

I will curl up into a fetal position and cry myself to sleep.

I was afraid this day would come.

I am upset that elite bonus miles do not count :mad:. Instead of taking 2.5 years to reach LT Platinum, it will take me 5 years since I am at 1.5M.

Anyway, I believe miles that count for the million miler program will now become a perk and it is quite possible that AA will start running promotions offering those MM miles. For example, buy miles and earn x% MM miles, fly certain routes and earn double MM miles, etc. That is pure speculation. What do you think ? Is that something AA would consider doing ?

Yuck..
Anyone else trading in 500 mile stickers for miles? I have 48 stickers and 1.4 mil miles and fly about 70,000 mi on AA a year so it seems like a drop in the bucket. By the same token, I never seem to be able to use the stickers

Well, this is a tough one. The problem is that for many of the frequent, but admittedly not ultra-frequent flyers, the goalposts have been moved so far away.

Flying at the PLT level simply isn't going to get you to MM status any time soon any more. I see a couple others have touched on it, but by removing the elite bonus, AA has literally halved the progress... 5 years away just became 10. 10 years just became 20. And forget about even decades of loyalty at the GLD level-- wouldn't get you close.

It's especially tough because it has already taken a little bit of longer term planning for the mere fairly-frequent flyer to shoot for the MM markers. Now the markers are likely too far away to even contemplate.

(And who knows if AA will decide 5 years from now to change the program again!)

Don't get me wrong, I've liked flying AA in recent years, but this was my major draw to AA. Without what had been a vastly superior LT program, what distinctive strengths will AA have to trade on to attract the year-in, year-out, moderately frequent flyer?

This was not unexpected, but it is disappointing to see that the new program doesn't offer some sort of published qualification criteria for lifetime EXP.

United/Continental offer lifetime 1K (their top tier) through published qualifiers, and I believe that Delta does as well. But AA's new program does not.

And there is one other big difference between AA and UA/CO/DL - AA still charges non EXPs for upgrades, whereas none of the other "Big 4" carriers do. UA/CO, DL, and US all comp their elites to domestic upgrades, so even if one were to qualify for lifetime status at a lesser tier level, they still have a shot at scoring an upgrade. On AA, a person going the distance and earning the requisite 2 million miles under the new qualification rules for lifetime Platinum will still wind up having to pay for upgrades. That's disappointing.

In my case, on my very next flight (next week), I'll cross 7 million miles on AA. I've been an AAdvantage member since the program began, and am in my 21st consecutive year of earned top tier status. In early September, I'll complete requalification for EXP for yet another year. Most of these miles consist of base + elite bonuses; perhaps 10% maybe 15%, of the total came from partners and such, but no more than that. And I was twice an AAirpass card holder. So I've done a lot of flying over the years. I know that there are others similarly situated, but very few, and adding a lifetime EXP qualifier would have cost AA very little in comparison to the good will generated with those of us who have proven their loyalty to this degree over the years.

Perhaps AA was concerned about the possibility of handing out 8 SWUs each year to lifetime EXPs who no longer might qualify annually as a result of being lifetime. If so, they could have handled that simply by reserving the SWUs to EXPs who actually qualified in a given year. There are reasonable ways they could have designed something to grant lifetime EXP without giving away the store, and it surprises me somewhat that they didn't do that.

But at least now the program is official and published. That's a step.

The flipside, of course, is that because AA charges PLTs and GLDs for upgrades, those people who truly value upgrades (like me) can actually get a reasonable shot at getting upgraded since there are fewer people in the upgrade pool.

I can't even imagine what it's like at Delta where you have every DL elite and AS elites fighting for upgrades all for free, all at the same time.

Maybe they only send to people who already get mm status.

AmericanAirline is clear about this in their post. It will not affect current lifetime members.

I do not think AA will do like this, thus will make AA image "Cheap". Just my two cents.

+1

^ ^ ^

Rug....pulled....out....under....


Sorry, Maya. I will not have a hope of reaching 1MM under the new rules, and will not invest my time and money in what is _now_ a foolish pursuit. Perhaps it was foolish to begin with, but the fact remains that AA has benefited from this 'unofficial' program for years. But now the advance notice is a mere fraction of the life of this program.

Yes, I'm sure that many will applaud the separating the 'men' from the 'boys' here. For myself, I will separate my spending from AA. I will continue to fly AA using the many AAdvantage miles I have purchased and earned (BIS and CC). I have been either GLD or PLT continuously for over a decade - - but I probably won't be either next year, or the year after. Perhaps only once now and then.

Cancelling 30K worth of transcons for later this year, that would have gone towards AA for 2012 status. Will re-direct the left-over cash to flights in 2012 on another carrier to continue elite status with them for 2012.

Will continue Citi CC spend, but for less than a year. Will switch back to using another carrier's card.


Disappointed, but pragmatic. But upset that the rules change so drastically after more than a decade of being AA elite. And after so many years of this 'unofficial' program. Just because it wasn't supposed to be 'official', I suppose you and AA feel that it is perfectly justifiable to pull the rug out at any time. Let's pretend that the old program never existed - - right? Yes, all airlines reserve the right to make changes, and without any notice. But I don't think there is any defense in saying that the program was 'unofficial'.

Plenty of us knew about it, acted on it, and spent our money. Now the rules have changed in a significant way. For us, it was an AA sanctioned program, just the same as any other long-standing program offered by AA, or any other carrier. This is a major change for those who knew of the program. Is it our fault that we were more aware of AA's programs? Is it our fault that we spent our time and money in the pursuit of being an elite on AA? Yes, I guess...

My fault was waiting a number of years before becoming earnest enough. My bad. Somehow I thought such drastic changes would not happen. Well, I've learned now. I've learned that 'loyalty', in and of itself, is not necessarily a virtue, or appreciated. What IS appreciated are the RESULTS of such loyalty. Money. Cash in the bank. Cold, hard cash. Profits. Bottom line. Why should it be any different, I suppose?

I will now look to increasing the value of the money I spend. My 'bottom line', if you will. You wouldn't expect anything else now, would you?

.