Please let us know how it goes. I was planning on getting 1MM after 12/1. now I might not have to.

Yes.. Since they are flying 50,000 miles a year and so are qualifying for Platinum anyway, there is no impact unless they stop flying. They will still reach the target in the end

Sorry, but that makes no sense to me. Whether you have 999,999 or one million, if you never fly AA again, none of it means anything.

That is true, but it's hard to predict your travel 12 years out.

Can someone confirm if US based flyers can credit their final year of Plat level flying to JL and get the CC that lets them keep Sapphire?

I'm years away from considering that for myself, but it might be useful for people who are further along, but not close enough to LT Plat.

I just used mine last week, Will you let me do it anyways?

edit: As in charge me for the Upgrades and let me exchange them for miles. It took several flights before I was able to use them.

I'm sitting at >2 million lifetime with almost no credit card miles, hotel miles, etc in the count. My prior long-term employer required us to use only the credit card it arranged, which did not provide miles. Consequently some folks got LTP much sooner than I did -- merely because of their credit card arrangements -- with far less BIS time. Didn't seem fair to me then, but that's life.

I never believed the LT programs were sustainable. To its credit AA didn't create a lifetime EXP element. I wasn't surprised when LTP was raised from 1 to 2 million, and I'm not surprised by these changes either.

Gee, I must be spending too much time in the DL and UACO forums, I was under the impression that AA is the only one of the 3 that provides useable SWUs...

When was Lifetime PLT ever 1MM?

I can't believe so many people are complaining here. AA's lifetime Gold/Platinum program has been more than generous in the past and an anomaly amongst the FF programs. If you fly enough to qualify the normal way each year to qualify for GLD/PLT, you will still enjoy all the benefits that come with those elite levels. If your travel pattern changes and you travel less, then you probably won't be using some of the benefits of GLD/PLT. Also AFAIK, you can still pay extra to get priority boarding, free checked bags, if that is important to you. I think they should have a LT EXP for those who have exceeded a certain LT miles threshold and have been EXP for a set number of miles (e.g. 10 years).

As usual, AA took the scorched earth approach and killed one of its better advantages over the other airlines(which are few these days). A better approach would have been to allow EXP and/or Plat members to accrue any miles towards LT elite.

:mad: Yet another reason to hate Arpey!

my 2 cents
 

:( Well, I am bummed...

...recently crossed the halfway mark on my way to the first MM. I had hoped to reach 1MM, and then 2MM before my flying cuts back considerably and will need the LT Platinum benefit. With the change, I should make LT Gold with no problem, but it kinda puts LT Plat out of range. (OK, I'm old :eek:)

Like so many others, I will try to earn as many RDMs as possible before the deadline. I plan keep my loyalty with American as I do enjoy my elite experience with them. Seems like I just got on board with the program a little too late!

The concept is simple. If I never actually hit 1MM then any prior "investment" toward that goal has been wasted. Of course I will continue flying AA, but the chance of hitting 1MM within my lifetime is pretty slim.

At the moment, I have roughly 350k LT miles. Say I can get that up to 400k before December. That leaves me 600k miles to go. If I fly 25k miles per year (which is actually on the high side for me, historically) then it will be 24 years before I hit LT GLD. I am pretty sure that will never happen. So my previous efforts to build towards LT GLD have been wasted.

Request to change the start date of the AAdvantage® Million MilerSM program
 

Dear American Airlines:

Even though you have now announced the changes in the AAdvantage Million Miler program, there are gripes of frustrated customers who don't have enough time to plan what they want to do.

To coincide with the elite membership period which runs from March through February, I recommend fine tuning this program by changing the implementation date from December 1, 2011 to March 1, 2012.

The last thing frustrated frequent flyers want to do during the Holiday season is worry about the details of their frequent flyer program.

As American Airlines waited decades for this program change, would another three months be a burden to the AA bottom line?

That's pretty funny. Good luck! :D

Agree. Like I said elsewhere this is a business descision. The same kind of descision I am making to stop taking the Metro North train to Grand Central and then a taxi to LGA just so I can fly AA on my monthly flight to CLT when SWF is just down the road. Nothing personal, but I'm not going to reach LT GLD anytime quick, so let's see what US or DL can do for me.

I will still collect AA miles, but just not through the BIS route.