Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 35894347)

There's a huge cost to providing the benefits at the 250k level and I wouldn't have been surprised to see them bump it to 300k. They moved it from 200k to 250k for this year. Don't get me wrong, I'm elated. I'm also surprised to see the 20% and 30% kickers sticking around!

Originally Posted by fgodden (Post 35896329)

Interesting changes, sure, but how about rewarding million milers like other companies (United, Delta) have done ? They have given their best customers lifetime elite status. I am a 6 million + flyer on AA with no opportunity to earn Loyalty Points through purchases because I live in Belgium and can not get an American credit card, so all my miles come from flying plus some class bonuses. ??

Originally Posted by Catbert10 (Post 35896342)

AA views their MM program as forever tainted by the CC miles that used to be counted toward MM status. Maybe in enough years for the credit call MMers to age out AA will reconsider the program.

Originally Posted by Herb687 (Post 35895941)

What benefits are provided at the 250K level that impose huge cost on AA?

Originally Posted by WannaTheater (Post 35896622)

At 250K you can choose any TWO of the following:

• 2 Systemwide upgrades
• 30K AAdvantage bonus miles
• 6 Admirals club one-day passes
• $250 American Airlines Trip Credit
• 2 Gift of AAdvantage Gold status
• 2 Flagship Lounge single visit passes
• 35,000 AAdvantage miles towards a Priceless Experience
• Carbon emission offset
• $250 charitable donation
• Admiral's club membership (requires both choices) - Currently grayed out for me (perhaps "Sold out?")
• Some Bang and Olufsen products - also grayed out for me

Originally Posted by Herb687 (Post 35896667)

Interesting. After the $250 credit, the charitable donation is the one that probably costs AA the most in real money... except when they're already in an NOL carryforward which is probably pretty often! Admirals Club / FL day passes are interesting but I doubt that they displace too much revenue from sales of same. Wouldn't most 250K LP passengers already be AC members or have FL-qualifying itineraries? The bonus RDMs of course do cost AA a little bit but, as with SWUs, we assume they aggressively yield manage flights in a way so as to avoid displacing actual revenue demand by allowing an award redemption.

If I ever hit 250K LPs, I'd probably go for 2x $250 travel credits. That's real money out of AA's pocket and into mine. Most of the rest is soft-dollar for AA.

Originally Posted by prathetkrungthep (Post 35894171)

And the SDC benefit for all members. I think you have to be AS MVPG75k to get SDC on AA. As someone who barely made plat, I am contemplating hopping to AS for this qualifying year now that AS has removed metal requirements and MVPG is a much more attainable OWS status via actually flown miles. I’m already tired of playing the LP game after a year, but these enhancements surely are making me think twice.

Originally Posted by Herb687 (Post 35895941)

What benefits are provided at the 250K level that impose huge cost on AA? I'm not familiar with the 250K benefits because if I ever reach 250K LPs on AA I will clearly have been doing something wrong in my life (I strive to fly AA as little as possible, not as much as possible)

Does 250K mean extra SWUs? SWUs theoretically do not cost AA much unless they displace a revenue J/F booking. And with aggressive revenue management, AA certainly tries its best to make sure that no SWU ever clears unless that J/F seat was almost certainly going to go unsold. The incremental cost of one additional J/F meal and a few additional minis of liquor just isn't that much. And remember that, by definition, a SWU can only be used if one has already bought something.

I question that any of the benefits provided by AA status cost AA all that much provided AA is smart in its revenue management tactics.

In my time as an AA FF, I've had more SWUs expire unused than I've been able to actually use.

Originally Posted by prathetkrungthep (Post 35894536)

Credit card company operating an airline on the side

Originally Posted by hhdl (Post 35897051)

Tell that to Citi, who had their airline analyst on Bloomberg a few days ago to say that his buy recommendations in the airline sector were DL and UA because "the others don't have profitable credit card arrangements with reputable card issuers."

Originally Posted by HaleiwaFlyer (Post 35896370)

They can always make a brand new competitive MM program based on LPs; in addition to keeping the current MM program based on the old criteria.

Originally Posted by WannaTheater (Post 35896622)

At 250K you can choose any TWO of the following:

• 2 Systemwide upgrades
• 30K AAdvantage bonus miles
• 6 Admirals club one-day passes
• $250 American Airlines Trip Credit
• 2 Gift of AAdvantage Gold status
• 2 Flagship Lounge single visit passes
• 35,000 AAdvantage miles towards a Priceless Experience
• Carbon emission offset
• $250 charitable donation
• Admiral's club membership (requires both choices) - Currently grayed out for me (perhaps "Sold out?")
• Some Bang and Olufsen products - also grayed out for me

Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 35897014)

As an FYI SWUs have a book value of about $100 internally at AA and those funds do get allocated to the revenue manager(s) responsible for monetizing those market(s). If a single SWU is applied to multiple flights, the $100 or so gets split between the applicable markets. This isn't published online anywhere to the best of my knowledge, but I have a friend in AA revenue management who told me this.

Originally Posted by hhdl (Post 35897140)

More likely than being based on LPs (the only advantage in having a cumulative LP metric over MM with the old card spend is that the card spend mostly benefited (the defunct) AMR, not AAL) would be the "consecutive-years-of-status" qualification method.

LT Gold: 1 million lifetime miles OR 30 consecutive years of at least Gold status OR 25 consecutive years of at least Platinum OR 15 consecutive years of at least PPro OR 10 consecutive years of EXP/CK
LT Platinum: 2 million lifetime miles OR 30 consecutive years of at least Platinum status OR 20 consecutive years of at least PPro OR 15 consecutive years of EXP/CK
LT PPro: 30 consecutive years of at least PPro status OR 20 consecutive years of EXP/CK
LT EXP: 30 consecutive years of EXP/CK
LT CK: 20 consecutive years of CK OR 40 consecutive years of EXP or CK



It's reasonably clear from those that they value a 250k LP reward at $200 or so (take out the profit margin from the trip credit, or the tax benefit of the charitable donation, half the price of an AC membership for an elite and you get pretty close to $200... they probably can buy the $400-500 (retail at Best Buy) B&O products for about $200 also), which confirms the $100 internal valuation of a SWU.