I expect that could run into some legal challenges on the basis of age discrimination (though I'm not a lawyer). People could have started their FF journey with AA at various ages.

There was/is no one, simple, 100% equitable way to assign the million miler thresholds due to program history. Some people came from US, some from AA. Some pre-merger AA people got a lot of LT miles under the pre-2011 program, some got a few, some got little, some got none. Unless AA is going to go back and recalculate all those balances (and I doubt they even have the retained data to do so) then AA is just going to have to draw the best line in the sand they can. I suspect that line has been drawn based on AA's metrics of current membership at each LT tier. If those metrics change over time, perhaps the thresholds will as well.

Timed almost perfectly to line up with finishing college and starting to travel regularly. :(

I'm close to my 1 Million, but that's about it.

Interesting. Miles/redemptions have precisely nothing to do with why I like the LP program. I have a nearly million miles in my account, miles just pile up unused. Redemption "value" is not currently a concern of mine.

(Aside: I don't follow your comment about MCE on BA... BA doesn't have MCE or anything equivalent, other than a few exit rows)

I like the LP program because I can easily qualify for EXP by supplementing my flying activity with a bit of related activity through hotels/other (I don't have an AA CC - that's low value place to get rewards). I maintain EXP because of the LP program, at UA or DL I'd be the next level down. It just makes more sense as a elite qualification program. So closer to this below (altough flying is like 80% of my LPs).

I'm mixed on this thought. I earned my UA 1K previously the old fashioned way, BIS. That meant there were fewer 1K's.
Now with AA, group 1 (EXP's, CK's, military) is sometimes one of the largest group to board. It might have thinned out if it was BIS only.

You’re right, I think I based my date on when they went to the spend based model in 2016.

I started with AA in 2002 at 20 years old. I’m 43 now, starting solid business travel in late 2003. I’ve never really used their credit card (for spend, I do have it now for Admirals). I wish I banked more in the good ole days. I’m almost at 2.4mm, and despite averaging 300k LP almost all in air (~130k annual miles), it’ll be another 12-15 years to get to 4MM on BIS, and I intend to retire or cut back on business travel within ~10 years.

I’m old school, EXP since 2006 entirely based on flying (my cc spend and hotel is all direct to Marriott and Hilton), but it’s still a large hill to climb. If they dangled PPro at 3M, I’d strive to fly more on AA, but I’m getting closer and closer to going free agent these days.

Yup. Shortly after the time I switched to AA after years of being top tier on NWA. The changes once Delta took over turned me away and to AA. I wish I would have been able to predict the future back when I first started flying for work. I would easily be closing in on 4 million. As it stands, I will not be able to get to 2 million on AA since all of my work trip are relatively short. The lifetime status will never benefit me as long as current loyalty program remains in effect. If rules are the same when I retire, I will keep the credit card and earning mid tier status will never be an issue.

I thought about the age angle as well and agree that there is no simple way to do this. It probably works out even with some of the old timers with lifetime status since they wont be flying as much.. I have 89/90 year old relatives, one has 6 million miles, the other 11 million miles, but they wont be flying so the status wont mean anything. The 69 year old relative with 6 million miles is very happy to move up the ladder. Count us among the ones that still find value in the program, we have been members since the early 80, redeemed our first award for 4 persons in First Class to Australia in 1998 and just flew to round trip to Vietnam last month on award redemptions, with many flights and wonderful travel in between. I'm doing better understanding loyalty point scheme, but you just have to play the game as the rules change.

There are lots of people with 40 - 50 MM - these people earned if from mileage schemes - CC bonus churn, manufactured spending, etc.
Maybe AA calibrated to minimize this group.

Having a high number of MM doesn't really mean anything - large CC spend, MS, churn, etc.

Even on UA - Tom Stoker is at say 25MM - and he is top. He flies alot from purchase of an unlimited travel pass. Now he doesn't earn any miles now - since his flights are now no-cost.

We had a contest with the head of AAdvantage to guest on top MMers, way back when they hosted a megado - and the top person 12 years ago was at 75MM. And lots of people in the 40MM range.

Yes, but with AA using Rolling 12month LP's as their main tiebreaker for EXP's complementary upgrades, giving legacy mega million milers EXP status is of minimal impact to me as an active flyer.

I do wish it were lower, as these are out of reach for me as a domestic road warrior, but it's an upgrade over what it was.

I just came here to say that for all the hate AA gets from basically all the people I know, and even on FT sometimes, I am thrilled that they didn't follow UA and DL for once (I did expect higher thresholds). Sure AA has its issues, but overall, the miles go further with partners, I can use SWUs, and OWE status counts for something. If I were looking for perfection, I sure wouldn't be flying US carriers! I am happy with this. UA and DL have driven loyalists to be free agents, and maybe AA sees that? Not all of us are rich, but want to enjoy the perks that come with earned status. Or maybe AA just fired the right person this time. I don't even care what made them not change it up negatively. I'm just glad.

I would like to know that, too. If 2027, it will be indeed a nice improvement.

AA has added some clarifying language to the SWU changes. SWUs earned for the 2024 qualifying year and selected in March 2025 will still only be good through March 31, 2026.

The good news is that all SWUs earned for the 2024 qualifying year will be extended to March 31, 2026 expiration regardless of when you make the selection. So if you have rewards available you could select SWUs today and they will expire March 31, 2026 (instead of Dec. 13, 2025).

It's only SWUs earned via rewards for the 2025 qualifying year that will expire March 31, 2027.

From aa.com:

This is basically a very modest improvement, as most people normally would have waited to choose an SWU benefit until they were able to use it. The only very mild improvement is if you had 2 SWUs picked in the same benefit choice and needed to use them in a longer than 12 months timeframe, such as one today and the second one in 13 months. And having to plan about timing.

so.. having time to actually see what AA has rolled out.. I am happy I enjoyed my years has
a EXP was it was BIS , no spend etc..
upgrades seem to clear 9/10 (now its 2/10) , 8 SWU every 100K..
I just wish they had something for 3MM ..

Not exacly a new thing but last month AA announced that we can apply systemwides to an itin without having to call.

So I did that just now for two one-way NRT itins. I thought it was odd that the portal recommended only to apply it to the long-haul segment vs any domestic connecting flights. OK, did that, and left the connections as is.

What would be the harm in applying a systemwide to all segments of a one-way? I know the domestic segs would u/g immediately even if the DFW/NRT was waitlisted (it is of course).