steveholt

BA offers a soft landing, although that's obviously not a US airline.

Frankly, I feel like the attitude of most people in this forum was that AA status was *too* easy to maintain during the pandemic. I sympathize with the OP that they may have had more important things to worry about over the last couple of years, but this should not have been news and could have been quite easily prevented.

LovePrunes

Not to pile on, but someone who just discovered they went from EXP to nothing...now in MAY 2022, had to REALLY not be paying any attention to their account during almost the entire past 18 months....There were copious emails with shortcuts and promotions how to renew your EXP status after the free pandemic extensions tapered off.

I don't think you'll find much sympathy here from anyone, just a feeling of "one less EXP to compete with for an upgrade." Good luck with DL/UA/SW

FlytheTail

The new status level was only communicated on April 1st. I too hoped for a soft landing but no such luck. Oh well, I've got a boatload of award miles I should redeem anyway since they (like other airlines/hotels) continue to be devalued.

DWFI

If I had to guess, I'd say the amount of KEY/EP members who are not based in the Americas is maybe 1%.
And I'm pretty sure travel within the Americas has been relatively open from about Q2 2021 onward.

tennessetom

You didn’t get downgraded, you simply didn’t make status last year. I know some of the replies seem nasty but hey they rest of us took advantage of offers to gain status for another year, I even agree that delta made it easier but each airline made it pretty clear what you needed to do and in all honesty made it pretty easy.

js1993

I was talking about anyone with status, not just CK/EXP. I know from posts here that AA had quite a few Asia-based elites, and AA apparently did nothing for them.

tomj888

News flash! I just got my lifetime Concierge Key email. I flew 0 miles, spent 0 dollars and AA CEO knocked on my door to shake my hand.

Whoa! Bad dream. No more spicy food for me.

upinsmoke

Goodbye cruel airline.

javabytes

What do you mean by “was only communicated” April 1st? Soft landings have not been a part of any major US airline’s program for many years. It’s long been clear what happens if you don’t requalify. All the airlines were highly communicative around their options to extend status, whether automatic (earlier pandemic) or reduced/alternative qualifications (later pandemic). There should be no surprise where you landed on April 1, and I wouldn’t call that a communication. The communication has been happening all along leading up to April 1.

DWFI

I don't think AA management much cares about anyone other than CKs, maybe EP. Not saying they are right in that regard, but I suspect it is the case.

Not sure why someone based in Asia would be EP/CK, except perhaps a regular on the PVG/ICN-DFW routes.

BlooJoo

Glad to see it. There's been enough extending and giving away of status in recent years.

Ty Vil

OP has 26 posts. We will never see them in this thread again.

cmtlatitudes

During 2021 we were literally bombarded with emails and pop-ups in our AA account to facilitate earning opportunities and retaining status. The constant stream of communications from AA on earning and status retention was almost laughingly nonstop and seemed relentless at times. There was a plethora of communications by multiple avenues -- AA even sent snail letters with offers and status retention.

The opportunities for extra EQDs and EQMs were frequent and generous - although I can see if someone did not have an AA sponsored credit card and did no flying it wouldn't have been as easy. Still, AA also reduced the thresholds and extended the period to earn EQDs and EQMs with two additional months for anyone who needed to qualify by flying. Fares were ridiculously low on a lot of routes to earn miles and at least retain some level of status.

If you truly didn't have time to be aware of what was happening, that's unfortunate. But it's hard to imagine an EXP would have been completely oblivious to their FF status for an entire year and caught so off guard.

mrow

Flying a partner airline like QR, QF, MH, CX or UL who all have extensive networks in that part of the world or even flying the likes of BA or AY and crediting to AA can easily result in EP (CK far less likely) and would make sense if they find better value from the AA FF scheme vs the alternatives when it comes to status and/or redemptions.

DWFI

The amount of folks who do this kind of optimization and are FF of a carrier on a different continent that they rarely fly with is negligible. FT would make you think everyone does it, but the reality couldn't be farther than the truth.

Also -- why would AA care even the smallest amount about a QR flyer who becomes AA EP by flying QR 90% of the time??