Well I just traded in 60 500 mile upgrades for 30,000 miles. 30k closer - 85,590 miles or 42,795 flying miles to go before Dec 1 for 1 million.

Now would be a good time for others to trade in their 500 mile upgrades.

I love your comment. It's 'bang on'.

Of course, if you plan to be EXP next year, you don't need to to anything prior to 12/1.You'll be EXP in the interim and hit 1MM next near on natural flying...and you'll get miles instead of stickers if you wait.

Cheers.

This is what happened to frequent flyer miles when Aloha airlines went bankrupt
 

Only after the lifetime member dies, or American Airlines (AMR) goes bankrupt or if American Airlines decides to change the name of the program. However, if that lifetime member is reincarnated, to requalify on American Airlines, it appears they would start earning miles from zero miles.

I was in Hawaii when Aloha Airlines went bankrupt. Many customers who were stranded at the gate from suspended operations, were asking the gate agents questions about their frequent flyer miles. The staff said they couldn't say or didn't know. A very vocal customer then demanded a supervisor and asked what happened to their 600,000 frequent flyer miles they had earned. The crowd at the gate waited to hear a response.

Reluctantly, the supervisor yelled back, "Tough luck braddah (brother). You lose all your miles. Your miles are worthless and I quit."

http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/u...tml?id=2541751

http://www.mauigoodness.com/2008/04/...lines-bankrupt

I'm still 500k miles away from the 1MM mark. :(

Think it's time for me to turn in the credit card and shift into neutral.

AA may well be put into bankruptcy some day, but it would likely be a Chapter 11, not a Chapter 7 liquidation, so the relevance of loss of Aloha miles here is lost on me.

I have to agree with pkerr, the value of LT PLT is much more than waived baggage fees. For me, I prize the double miles, international lounge access and first/business class check-in. On numerous occasions, the check-in line for coach in Frankfurt, Rome or Paris has been out the door (literally). It feels so good to just walk up to the counter and get a boarding pass (or check a bag) in 5 minutes or less.

People concerned about the Aloha Airlines bankruptcy were told not to worry about their frequent flyer miles because the bankruptcy would likely be a Chapter 11, not a Chapter 7 liquidation. They were unfortunately, misinformed and lost all their frequent flyer miles earned with this airline.

It is safe (necessary) to assume frequent flyer miles are not bank/govt backed asset. So, good idea to always keep that in mind. Its surprising people sometimes boast about the number of miles in their account.

Rest assured, the value of miles will not be going up, quite the contrary (although the rate of decline varies).

you can, but the exchange rate sucks! 500 mile sticker exchanges to 500 miles. 8 stickers = 4000 miles. stickers were meant for upgrades.

i thought upgrade stickers only convert to 500 miles. 8 x 500 = 4,000. nowhere near 35,000.

Absolutely. You are taking credit risk to a pretty poor business (when has an airline ever made lots of money?) and priced in a currency that the issuer controls and is almost constantly deflating. Earn and spend is my motto while the going is good

I don't understand all this talk about turning in the credit card. Even if you don't earn BIS miles, you still get *miles* which you can use to *fly* with. AFAIK, there are no other programs where you can earn BIS miles for credit card use, and no other programs where you can transfer points earned through purchasing things to AA (e.g. Amex doesn't transfer). So, what credit card are you going to switch to that will be preferable?

My thoughts exactly. We've known about these changes for months with an original estimate date of AUG 1. AA just gave you four extra months and made it less restrictive (all airline partner BIS miles count) than the original rumor of just AA BIS miles.

I doubt it will affect the way people earn non flying miles because the majority of miles earned are (surprise surprise) not by FT members but the general public and the general public isn't even aware of the MM program to begin with.

For those who claim they will not fly AA anymore, guess what? Chances are that your MM counter with the other airlines is lower than your AA one and just because the other airline MM program is better today doesn't meant it will stay that way by the time you get MM status.

Lifetime AA status doesn't mean your lifetime. It's referring to the lifetime of the AAdvantage program. There's no guarantee that it will survive an acquisition or bankruptcy years down the road. Just ask the "lifetime" TWA club members what happened to their lounge memberships after AA acquired them.

The argument is AA CC offers only 1 mile/$. There are other credit cards which are better at earning and more flexible (e.g. Amex MR or SPG). The advantage with AA was these miles counted towards lifetime and now they dont. So, for people who earn miles for free flights through CC should now switch as they are better options.