Future of AA? and What are you doing with your miles in case they’re lost?
 

At the risk of being flamed into the seventh level social media hell.... I'm genuinely worried about the future of AA's mileage program.

Seriously, after the recent earnings report (showing them hemorrhaging $44 million a day), furloughs & layoffs, delaying the return of new planes (737Max), and further lock-downs being announced globally, I am a little concerned for the future of the airline as a whole, too. I know it won't go bankrupt because the US has an amazing corporate welfare program, but I can't see how the AA mileage program continues in a state of any value to the end user. I see our miles being de-valued below the worth of Venezuelan rubles.

With no responsible way of traveling during the current global pandemic, what can we do to capture the value of our miles before they disappear? Does anyone recommend a miles transfer to a different program, or should I be loading up on a million miles' worth of magazine subscriptions?

Worry about something else.

Go online.....look for deals....book some travel.......get out of the basement. :p

Not clear on what you are asking. I don't think anyone here every suggested using miles as an investment.
There is no indication the program will soon end, and until the US - AA merge, AA spent many years losing many $Billions............
There are still some very good ways to use miles for flying. Why not use them for flying instead of magazines?

The miles will not disappear. They will just be be devalued with AA enhancements.

I am Gold with over 500,00 miles and flew Delta on our first flight getaway last week. We heard AA asking for volunteers for an oversold flight. (only $300 for a bump). The passengers were loaded like cattle without requiring distancing as people lined up, as if lines should be the same as a year ago. Our flights had a middle seat empty and agents in the terminal kept asking people to line up according to the 6' markers on the floor. We are 70+ and have many more bucket list adventures on our list, but not planning to use AA.

I dont think I will ever "lose" the miles.. but with the EXP carry over this year.. booked 2 international J awards to use up my miles...
(if I had to purchase .. $17,000 and $9,000 per ticket .. so I think this was a good use of miles..
but than again.. every year I use my miles to fly my wife and myself.. somewhere really nice

Banking hundreds of thousands if not millions of miles is never a good idea. They aren't an investment that grows over time. However, I don't see AA going out of business anytime soon and if their assets were sold in a Chapter 11 363 sale most surely DL/UA/B6/WN would want to buy that block of FFs.

I've got nearly 400K miles but at this point going anywhere outside of the USA is very dicey. I'll wait six months to see what pans out but normally by this time I'd be looking for good J International redemptions.

1. It's never a good idea to consider miles/points in any program as an investment. If you are saving them for the future, don't. That applies in the best & the worst of times.
2. In BR, it is highly unlikely that the FFP becomes valueless as it represents customer loyalty which someone will want to purchase. The easiest way to do that is to simply "honor" the miles.
3. AA is hemorhaging cash, but so is everyone.else. In fact, AA appears to have marginally recovered, although nobody seriously expects anything significant before 2024.

Bottom line is that there is a lot to worry about, but your FFP isn't one of them (unless you let the balance sit there).

They aren’t going to disappear. Your premise is completely wrong.

I’m in no hurry to burn our approximate 400,000 AA Miles.

As another pointed out you are less at risk of having your mileage balanced wiped out (if AA goes bankrupt they will either be absorbed by another airline or will restructure/shrink), more a devaluation of your miles. Anything you do to move your balance of miles out of AA would likely create a larger haircut than the devaluations you would endure in the worst case by sticking with AA - they know their mileage programs are cash advancing lifelines so will keep the devaluations small for now and ramp them up later so just look to work down that balance over 2021/2022 while you can.

You are more likely to get struck by lightening than get Covid on a plane.

Just used the last of mine to book a 32.5k award in Flagship F from MCO to LAX via MIA.

The miles will always be there, and they'll always be worth something, but their value / purchasing power has been shrinking for 15 years and will continue to do so. COVIID-19 isn't influencing that decline curve very much.

I'm at 3 mm- mostly earned through flying- and i am not concerned. Nor am i counting on them to fund my retirement :D. But I will probably not renew my $450 per year AA MC that brings AC membership, and that card is not seeing a lot of use these days.

I wouldn’t worry about an AAdvantage program collapse or major devaluation and I wouldn’t attempt to move the miles out to some other program. That said, I’ve resumed international travel in the past three months, making six trips. I don’t consider my work travel to be “irresponsible” during the pandemic but rather difficult and unpleasant with the constant PCR testing I must complete prior to each trip to avoid quarantine. If you’re older or have health issues that would put you at risk for a severe illness with COVID-19, it IS irresponsible to travel, especially to a foreign country if you have no insurance coverage there. I carefully considered the decision to return to work a few months ago and on balance decided my risk was low.