frambusch

I think AA would pick up some great customers if they offered DL Diamonds a status match to Exec Platinum.

I hope they make such an offer after June 30 as that would give me all of 2013 to earn the 100M miles to re-qualify.

Here is why I would consider switching:

1. DL SWUs are worthless as they require M fare or higher to be used internationally. I can often find an I fare for a few dollars more than an M fare and get the extra miles. On AA you can upgrade from any fare.

2. FCM has rendered upgrades to be less of a benefit. As a Diamond, I find that about 50% clear at the window and most come through at the gate but with lots of stress than I didn't have years ago. I'm told that EXPs at AA have better luck.

3. "Low" priced award tickets are scarcer than hen's teeth. My Skymiles are probably worth half of their value when I earned most of them.

I'm hoping that with their success in poaching UAs 1K & GS flyers, AA might come hunting for us Diamonds soon.

Anyone else thinking about moving?

flyzabit

1. AA now has a program to over status to UA 1K and GS, all the way up to EXP. See UA forum. Several threads. Here is one: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ltd-1k-gs.html

2. That being said, UA has a program, highly targeted, to lure DL elites to UA: http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...omoCode=TB8230

Personally, I'd like to see the DL "tit for tat" on the latter.

scnzzz

It would be great for DMs, wouldn't it?

What is in it for AA to bring on another group of MR-driven EXPs? I get why they are poaching GS, at least - that group explicitly drives revenue and margin. But DMs and 1k? Aside from ticking off their own top tier and starting a poaching war, which can't do AA any good, what's in it for AA?

Drile

I would have to really seriously consider switching if they matched DM, but it is a tough call out of SEA with so many more Delta flights.

SamuelS

So if I understand you correctly, you believe all DM flyers at DL are pretty much just mileage-run chasers - none have any actual serious spend on DL?

And that there is no advantage to AA in the business produced for moving over some of Delta's most frequent flyers?

I mean, you bring in a couple of hundred PMs or DMs, which, let's say brings in a couple of million in additional revenue to AA (at the direct loss for a competitor), and the program "costs" all but how much to run? What if that were a couple of thousand of the DL and UA very frequent flyers?

Now whether there's actually enough disenfranchised folks at DL that really want to move over to AA in it's current bankrupt labour-issue beset state is another question.

AA_EXP09

I hope they don't. Yet another dilution of EXP benefits through increased competition

scnzzz

Sorry, didn't mean to be incendiary. No offense intended. That said...

I'm not saying all DMs are low value, MR-driven members (present company, of course, meaning the FT community, excluded ). Just a large fraction. Just like the current crop of EXPs. And 1ks. And that's enough to make me question the strategy of a management team (AArpey or no AArpey) who have already run this company in a manner that others wiser and better informed than me have already critiqued at length.

Sure, there are some high revenue EXPs and 1ks too (as there are, as you so rightly point out, DMs), but also a ton of commuting top-tier consultants or whatever who routinely achieve 100, 125, 150k BIS miles spending $0.10 - $0.20/mile (or less). Without MRs. (Take me in my prior life. Weekly roundtrip on AA for 8 months SJC-CLE at about 400-500 bucks a pop (for just under 5k EQMs each trip), week in, week out, sat in F (and usually T-100 F, not battleground F, and never paid F) on all but 2 segments thanks to being EXP. I wouldn't count myself a valuable customer. Loyal, yes, but not a revenue generator. And I'm betting far more top tier flyers follow this pattern than being last-minute >=Y/B fare purchasers)

I'll guarantee you that whatever airline is flying the average air commuter back and forth on a weekly 4k roundtrip, isn't making a whole lot of money on that potential EXP/1k/DM. Why would AA want to saddle itself with a bunch of these of these for every true revenue generator (a la GS)?

And oh, BTW, I will bet the small minority of true revenue generators are largely less interested in SWUs and more interested in network and convenience. A status match won't change that. What AA will spectacularly succeed in doing is pulling over the high BIS mileage, low margin flyers drooling over TPAC and TATL SWUs on O fares, the famed EXP line, etc. etc. Of course, that's just my $0.02.

randidliyo

Does AA have anything comparable to the SWU?

I just started a Plat challenge on AA and I'm not expecting things to be much better, I just want to get some miles that my parents (in DFW) could use.

3Cforme

AA calls it a Systemwide Upgrade. They are earned by 100K mile/100K EQP EXPs, not lesser-level AA elites. As scnzzz points out, aa SWUs are not fare-restricted.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/el...s/upgrades.jsp

I'm going to endorse a lot of scnzzz's follow-up: airline FF programs are surely moving to recognize high-value, not just high mileage customers. AA would slow its own progress in that transformation by taking in a bunch of flyers en masse who haven't necessarily been vetted for value by Delta.

bubbashow

AA calls it a Systemwide Upgrade. They are earned by 100K mile/100K EQP EXPs, not lesser-level AA elites. As scnzzz points out, aa SWUs are not fare-restricted.

.....yet.

scnzzz

Indeed. The one thing AA has had in the last decade or so to engender loyalty is AAdvantage - of which one of the most attractive elements has been the non-fare-restricted SWU program. OTOH, inferior hard product, older airframes, limited own-metal international network, cutbacks on the west coast, ridiculous fees on BA metal, etc. have all worked against AA in favor of COdbaUA and DL.

Without fixing all (or at least most) of the above, AA will have a very hard time retaining loyalty if it reduces EXP benefits materially. The 1k status match (leaving out GS for now) is a step in that direction, as it substantially inflates elite tiers without adding capacity for SWU redemption.

The only saving grace for AA is the CS and IT debacle over at COdbaUA. Once (if) that is fixed, AA will need to step up their game. If AA does nothing to remedy the issues above AND devalues its elite benefits to line up better with DL and COdbaUA etc, expect an elite exodus (with the possible exceptions of DFW and MIA).

OT. A (potential) US merger will add some network in the EU, but not a tremendous amount. No significant help in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East etc (or on the west coast for that matter). So there is still a long way for AA to go.

BusTrav8yrs

M fares earn 150% MQM's just the same as J does.

Sez_Who

+1.

There are many reasons AA is sitting in BK right now. It is pretty hard to believe that after the pilots/FA's/GA's/TA's/etc make all their comp concessions along with all the other cost cutting, AA will somehow be generous and bestow 8 SWU's on their EXP's to use on any fare.

Personally wishing AA the very best here but their thought of emerging from BK within a year is a dream, not to mention the US thorn they still have to deal with. Just my IMHO, EXP can't offer me enough to dump DL but if they wanted to offer me CK..... hmmm.