AA Dropping 500 Mile Minimum

[tadjr]

Article

Hadnt seen it here and since it doesnt affect the "metals" I'm sure we wont. Not too many Regular Joes here that it would affect.

 

[eolesen]

Glad to see it. AA still has the segment threshold for the guy flying DFW-AUS four times a week, so they might not rack up as many miles to cash in, but they can still get their status based on segments (30/60/100 for GLD/PLT/EXP).

Now all that's left is for AA to follow some other oneworld carriers' lead and cut the actual mileage awarded for the deepest of discount fares. That's already done by AA for elite qualifying points for G, Q, N, O, & S inventories.

QF, IB, JL, and LA only gives between 25% and 50% mileage on the deepest discounted inventories. Likewise on EQPs for a different subset of carriers.

 

[FWAAA]

Glad to see it. AA still has the segment threshold for the guy flying DFW-AUS four times a week, so they might not rack up as many miles to cash in, but they can still get their status based on segments (30/60/100 for GLD/PLT/EXP).

Since elites still earn the 500 mile minimum, it's only gonna affect the hypothetical DFW-AUS flyer before they gain status. Will make it more "challenging" for status challenges, since the former 500 qualifying point minimum (undocumented as it was) is now expressly history, and the gold/plat challenges are based solely on q-points.

Now all that's left is for AA to follow some other oneworld carriers' lead and cut the actual mileage awarded for the deepest of discount fares. That's already done by AA for elite qualifying points for G, Q, N, O, & S inventories.

QF, IB, JL, and LA only gives between 25% and 50% mileage on the deepest discounted inventories. Likewise on EQPs for a different subset of carriers.

I'm curious (genuinely curious) whether such a move

a. improves revenue*;

b. reduces expenses*;

c. both; or

d. just pisses off us mile whores?

*by any significant (nontrivial) amount

I'm more concerned about the 100% plat/exp elite bonus, given the refusal by some OneWorld airlines (notably JAL and BA, but there may be others) to award the 100% bonus. On my last trip to SIN, I earned 25k elite qualifying miles (and q-points) plus the 25k elite bonus. If AA is concerned about a couple hundred bonus miles to nobodies on most Eagle (or very short mainline) segments, they gotta hate it when I earn an extra milesaaver coach award on that trip to SIN.

 

[eolesen]

There might be some revenue for it. More than once, I've considered booking a higher fare ticketor or booking the AA marketing flight vs. the operating flight. On a trip to SYD last March, I deliberately booked the AA flight and got full credit for about the same price. I also wound up with a lower penalty/change fee on the AA fare.

Doubt it does much for efficiency, and yes, it does piss people off when the program isn't uniform, but that's just because it's not always easy to remember the rules and use them to your aadvantage....


Why I'd like to see it happen is for Gold and Platinum to regain it's elusivity.

It used to be impossible to automatically get Gold status, and isn't exactly hard to get Platinum with minimal flying. Today, there's a program in Chicago which automatically gives Gold status to Kellogg (NWU) business school graduates simply for graduating... There are also deals which give Gold status to employees of a company just for signing a corporate travel agreement...

I'm not saying it's a bad business decision to try and rope in young MBA grads or give some incentives to corporate customers, but give 'em an Admirals Club membership, and leave the upgrades and other program features for the people who really are bringing in the revenue.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

Article

Hadnt seen it here and since it doesnt affect the "metals" I'm sure we wont. Not too many Regular Joes here that it would affect.

IMHO you won't hear too many complaints from those flying AA since 1) the "metals" won't be affected by the policy change and 2) AAdvantage is still a good FF program (relatively easy to accumulate miles and more importantly very easy to obtain/redeem award tickets). Myself I routinely use AA 1-stop to Europe from DCA/BWI mostly because of reason #2 above, although the AF/KL options out of IAD is quite attractive.

I think that once (if?) AA-BA are granted ATI for trans-atlantic codesharing one should expect a standardization of FF programs among AA/BA/IB (i.e 25-50% mileage on discount fares), etc.

 

[FrequentFlierCA]

Now all that's left is for AA to follow some other oneworld carriers' lead and cut the actual mileage awarded for the deepest of discount fares. That's already done by AA for elite qualifying points for G, Q, N, O, & S inventories.

I don't see this happening, at least not just yet, due to competitive pressure. IIRC, no US-based carrier has done this (LCC will "lead" if it happens, I'm sure). As long as UA is giving full mileage for cheap fares, AA has to as well, so in the end you have a chicken-and-egg problem: who goes first?

 

[eolesen]

Maybe that's because UA's product is crap, and they can't risk alienating anyone?...

For all the pissing and moaning by the employees, AA's onboard product is still the best I've flown from the US carriers, and I've got a better assortment of connect points. CO's is good as well, if it weren't for having only IAH and EWR as connect points to Europe....