Loyal Observations
 

First time post

Looks like I am on the other side of the loyalty equation. Recently completed what likely will be my last SWU upgraded flight. They were earned in 2022 just prior to retiring. Have had an Advantage account since 1984 and for the last 15 years was an EP or CK. But after March i moved down to Platinum status based on LP I earned flying in 2023/2024 (and what my 3.5m lifetime miles gives me as well). Don’t see any change to that in my future.

It does feel strange but given my change in status and the changes to the program I don’t feel compelled to solely fly AA like I have in the past. Actually in 2023 I used bank points to fly international Business class and flew domestically with other airlines. That being said we still did 14 round-trip on AA to include one TATL international. But even doing that and spending a fair amount (home renovation material) on my Citi Exec AA card I still did not get that close to the Platinum Pro LP threshold.

I am interested to see the impact as loyalty programs have evolved. Miles will continue to devalue. The actual benefits of status (like upgrades) are more and more a thing of the past as the airlines are getting better about monetizing them. I have bought upgrades myself when it seemed to be a good value. For customers like me (boomer in retirement) what are airlines going to do keep us loyal if we no longer meet their financial status thresholds? Are millennials and gen X customers airline card focused or bank point focused? Would think that bank cards will continue to get more popular with Capital One joining and maybe Wells Fargo. Would like to know what AMEX experienced with their Delta cards because their devaluation and changes certainly seemed to upset their Delta co-branded card holders. I think very few people have the means to cc spend their way to EP and those that do probably can spend on fares that give them the status they want without the status.

We put the majority of our cc spend on bank point cards now. When used to maximize the point multiples they can add far more value than using an AA card. Both Delta and United customers can transfer in from those systems. Miles while devaluing can be maximized with bank points especially when used internationally. So I have come to the point where I don’t need to limit my loyalty or spend to one carrier or card. More and more don't think anyone should.

I am like you, I retired and went from CK to Platinum due to lifetime miles. Been using the miles to do trips. Use my Am Ex allot more now. AA and other airlines relally only care about high spenders, and it shows.

no offense guys, but it sounds like sour grapes.

you both still fly enough to get platinum. that means you are spending a buck or two. it is far from difficult to get 3,4 even 5 cents a mile out of award tickets. so you are passing up 10 miles a dollar for bank miles. for what? no chance you are getting 30% - 50% cash back with those bank miles.

sure there may be better flights or airports served on other airlines occasionally, but not remaining loyal has its own disadvantages.

yes, the airlines only care about big spenders - and they dont always care for them even! that doesnt mean going elsewhere is maximizing your travel (or credit card) spend!

Did you miss the fact that both have Lifetime Platinum status?

An OG!

With devaluation, I'm admittedly curious what the effective value of AA miles was, say, 10-20 years ago, before my time as an avid traveler. My last few award redemptions have been at 2-4 cents per mile. Was it really much better than that back in the day? Earning at 11 miles per dollar on airfare I feel like that's a pretty solid return, plus whatever additional value I'm getting if that airfare is on Card XYZ with an additional redemption path (Amex -> Air Canada for a Lufthansa flight, or to ANA, or what have you).

As for millennial trends with spending, I can only speak for myself, but it's a mix. One way or another it gets spread into different programs with different transfer and redemption options.

Well, why wouldn't they? 🙂 Reward their best customers - sure! While there's certainly a cool factor to people who have a ton of BIS miles, flying the longest distance costs an airline the most money but does not necessarily bring in the most revenue.

Ultimately, life and circumstances change. Whether you're flying for work every week or you're retired, if you're at a hub or some smaller market, whatever. Go with whatever suits ya best at the moment.

With the majority of premium cabin seats being sold these days, elite status means little now, aside from being able to select an extra legroom coach seat for free and boarding somewhat earlier.

I’ve been surprised at how much more permissive (first class) travel policies are now in my industry (finance), but someone did point out to me recently that F fares are often significantly cheaper now than they were in the past.

I think the move now is the same as at hotels in the US- buy the seat/room that you want to be in, and be pleasantly surprised if you get an upgrade.

I guess retirement gives one free time to ponder, or even care about such things.

A corporation really doesn't give a hoot about loyalty, per se. It's your dollars, always has been. That upgrade, was an unsold seat, always has been. The award seat may have been unsold, or they'll just make up the difference with someone buying a ticket the day before. Corporations have scads of data and they're better about using it.
It's not so esoteric.

Work on your golf game, or take up pickleball. The musings in this thread aren't worth the time in the grand scheme of things.

If you are retired and not flying that much, just choose the airline that you actually want to fly on, be it with cash or points. AA was always a good short term loyalty program, and never a great long term loyalty program.

AA has great short term rewards such as a better premium soft product (ie. CK treatments; award flights), but the tradeoff was a non competitive million miler program.

Looking back, do you wish you would have credited towards UA or DL instead? 500k away from having you and your spouse be both GS. You would have made lifetime Diamond with their new program change. Then again, maybe AA will turn around and make your lifetime Platinum to PPRO when they finally revamp their million miler program.

the op said he did 14 round trips and his status dropped to platinum based on LPs.

From the OP:

"But after March i moved down to Platinum status based on LP I earned flying in 2023/2024 (and what my 3.5m lifetime miles gives me as well)." (Emphasis added.)

Two million miles = Lifetime Platinum
One million miles = Lifetime Gold

yes. his status moved down to platinum based upon LP earned last quaifying year.
so he is still flying and buying tickets. where is the confusion in this?

if both posters are talking about being free agents then presumably they are talking about revenue tickets unless they were banking multiple airline miles. presumably something someone who is only just now becoming a free agent wasnt doing before. so again we are talking about buying tickets.

im not suggesting he is needs to fly to keep platinum. Via maintaining loyalty he is earning at the max return for his spend and not diluting his miles across multiple programs.

I don't work in an industry where anyone travels heavily, but every millennial I know (who does travel at least 5+ times a year) doesn't really care about any travel program. A lot of them will have 1 cheaper CC for the bag benefit on the airline they travel the most, but otherwise it's all about cash back CCs and Rakuten, and I know a lot of people that are pretty tuned in to how to maximize cash back. I think there is a small potential in doing better with airline miles (if you know that tricks of the trade), but the biggest problem with airline loyalty is that it's often unclear what the real benefits are.

With a sub $100 a year CC, you can get a free check bag and early enough boarding. Once you do that, what is there to gain by even getting gold?

MCE seats? Meh. unless you are long legged, it just doesn't make that much of a difference to a lot of people. Cramped is cramped whether your knee-to-seatback clearance is 2 inches or 4 inches. (and, the chances of sitting next to people of a somewhat bigger size in MCE seems like twice as high, IME, vs being farther back).
Being on an upgrade list? Meaningless. Except on short regional hops, you often have to have like 300K LPs to have any hope and chance.
Companion upgrades on the upgrade list? Even more meaningless since IME it's impossible since AA hardly ever releases two seats at a time. So you just get skipped. And skipped, and skipped, as they trickle clear 1 seat at a time.
International lounge access? Most people would hardly ever get to use such a thing, and let's admit it, lounge access is more vanity than value.
More than 1 free checked bag? Such a rare person who checks even 1 bag, let alone 2 or 3.
Bonus miles on flying? Perhaps this is the truest benefit, but, it's hard to justify loyalty for an extra handful of devaluing miles.

Personally, as someone that is now in my 40s, I am only loyal to AA because they are the only airline that flies to my airport and that's convenient for me. I do often reach for 2 miles vs 2-3 cents cash back because I still have some faith that I'll get more than 1.5 cents per mile of true value towards trips I want to take. But I've stopped caring about my airline status, deleted my LP tracking spreadsheet, and am downgrading my AA CC. I have no real interested in travel awards CCs either.

(That being said, I feel like I get crazy value in my hotel loyalty program)

Not sure about the theory of the bigger size people, but perhaps. The nice thing about MCE is you can sit near the front of the plane, and be off quickly. And if you would like to enjoy an adult beverage after a long day of work, it is complimentary.

True. The more loyal you are, the higher your rate of success will be.

Not sure about the one seat at a time speculation. But there is also the option of selecting to be separated if only one seat is available.

If you are not traveling internationally, then correct. But if you are, you couldn't be more wrong about the vanity vs. value. Would you rather be spending a 9 hour layover in genpop, or in a lounge with sit down menu service, sleep rooms, showers, even massages, etc? Even domestic lounges- I had a 7 hour misconnect in CLT, and as much as people complain about the Admirals club there, it was way more comfortable than out in the wild. Breakfast and lunch included, and also agents ready to help without the big lines trying to re-accomodate the masses.

This is good if you have kids.

While miles can devalue, you can also find some great deals. (international partner awards).

Its been a very long time since I chose to earn hotel loyalty points- even as Marriott lifetime titanium. I see way more value in AA points. 62,400 Marriott Rewards points will give you a night in Boston at a hotel with a rate of $548 per night. Or 60K AAdvantage points will get you a business class seat on Japan Airlines from Boston to Toyko at a value of ~6700. Add that to the 10X benefit of the Citi Exec card and AAdvantagehotels, you can rack up LPs and RDMs pretty quickly.

But I do see your points- If you are not traveling a lot, then loyalty programs may not make sense. Since partner awards are becoming more scarce, my spending pattern may be shifted to American Express, or I may even look at Chase (transferable points to other airlines).

Loyal Obervations
 

Thanks for the water cannon salute D3Kingg Appreciate the replies.

HaleiwaFlyer thought about your question. After getting to 2MM on American I was traveling to Asia quite a bit either through NRT initially or via DFW to HKG. So UA/Star Alliance LT status was possible. But I was able to use SWU to upgrade to first quite a bit so I would have given that up. Would be nice to see AA expand their LT status options like UA and DL have. Other than bonus mile multiple though not sure the level of status is really material as some have noted.

MarkOk thank you for your perspective. I think you summed it up pretty well, maximize points (airlines or hotels) but status benefits are not necessarily worthy of pursuit.

I will say because AA has excellent and perhaps better short term loyalty benefits than UA/DL, I would actually recommend sticking with AA. Being retired, you have an advantage of having flexibility, so redemptions on JL F and Etihad F will be a lot easier and attainable.

I view retirement time as taking advantage of programs that offer you the best bang for the buck from a short term perspective as the long game is no longer on the board.

Enjoy retirement and may many awesome travels be ahead of you.