American Joins Delta And United In Revenue Based Mileage Earning

AA is fast becoming the worst !
Not only have they gutted their miles program.
But made it much harder to get direct flights jfk to lax even with paying more for Saver awards. I checked for next April and it’s 20-30k one way coach for direct.
And I had another flight booked a while ago in business and jfk to lax and they just changed my time without any reason. I had to fight to get it back.

If i am currently gold for life will this effect it at all?

@Anonymous:
They’ve become vary stingy with saver awards.

@aaron:
Read the post please.

Does that affect eqm earning towards elite status as well?

“For now, the best thing to do is to credit your flights to earn Alaska miles as they still award miles based on flight distance”

You mean, as of August 1,2016?

Im currently an AA gold million miler. Finding saver awards in business of first have been murderous over the past 2 years, with the exception of a few seats within a day or 2 of travel. While flying business is nice, i still value free bags, priority check in and the little things being a million miler comes with.

@Sb:
You still need the same EQM.

@Al:
I’d argue even now, but definitely as of 8/1.

@Sam:
Even a credit card holder gets a free bag and priority checkin.
AA Gold is a really weak status.

The allure of AA used to be its FFP… Now they have completely ruined that. combine that with old planes, bad connections, less then stellar lounge offerings and a devalued reward points and well say good bye.

Who are they trying to kid here? In one year they were able to take one of the best programs and throw it down the trash.

I’m a 1K and Executive Platinum, with United I eliminate the spend requirement by having my address in Israel, will AA do the same?

@Dan: what I mean is do you earn eqm based on revenue or miles flown

Still bitter over your JFK experience?

@Jacob:
It’s a real shame that the feds changed their mind and allowed USAirways to take them over. They’ve destroyed the airline.

What a different industry it was when Airtran, Continental, and Northwest were still around. These mergers are just awful.

@jay:
I haven’t seen AA say that they will have a similar waiver.

@Sb:
EQM will still be based on distance, but you’ll also need to have spent enough to get status.

@Ejb:
Just the facts, ma’am.
But yes, I am. And they still are messing around with the DoT regarding my refund, it’s unreal.

The only good news is eplatinum can now get upgrades on award flights. About time, but I’ll lose my status by the time that happens :(.

Also sucks that upgrade priority goes to people that have more eqd within each status. Used to be time of booking which actually penalized those that booked higher fares.

@Ejb:
United and Delta give upgrades on awards for lower-tier elites, AA is playing poor catch-up there.

@Dan:

Agreed, though AA had been (until this year) much more generous with SWU than both of those airlines. And the transcontinental flat bed routes are complimentary upgradeable with AA (although extremely difficult in practice), in contrast to DL.

@EJB:
Except AA now only gives 4 SWUs.

And United has RPUs and GPUs and a regional upgrade (RPU) is useable on transcontinental lie-flat or even EWR-HNL lie-flat on any fare.

Delta and United now outclass AA in nearly every way. Delta has the operational edge, United has the mileage edge, and either are now far better options than AA. The USAir merger has completely destroyed AA.

” If you want to fly on American you’ll do better by focusing on partners like Alaska and British Airways for mileage accumulation and redemption”

Mileage accrual on BA is even worse only 25% on most flights.
For redemption using AS for AA instead of saving it for CX J/F is criminal. Use etihad or ba to book AA

@High end hobo:
1. AS is better for low fares, BA for premium cabin.
2. Etihad redemption appears to be horrendous.
3. BA is great for most AA domestic nonstop, terrible for AA across an ocean or domestic connecting.

@Dan:

I said until this year. I agree that now UA is better. AA’s loyalty program is still much better than Delta’s, but it seems like Delta is inching in the right direction. I agree with you about UA. Just need to wait for a 1k challenge and some work flights 🙂

I will ditch AA along with my 190k miles and start accumulating United miles

@EJB:
United should be willing to match Executive Platinum to 1K, just call/email them.

@Dan:

EY isn’t all that bad, though I wouldn’t accumulate them over a more all-around good currency

It’s interesting to see how Southwest is doing so well on that chart

@dan

I said in another forum that who ever thinks there is not a monopoly in the USA air industry has no clue what they are talking about. Even though there are three different companies I wouldn’t be surprised if one day it was found out that they have secret meetings behind closed doors to screw the customers they claim they serve.

The lack of real competition has caused checked baggage, fees devalued miles, higher ticket prices, less direct flights, bad conditions for flight attendants and pilots, horrible frequent flier programs and the list goes on.

It’s a sad day to see the entire USA air market be controlled by three giants who copy each other’s way of treating their loyal customers all while smiling and saying it’s an enhancement.

AA redemption is still good for Latin America. I redeemed earlier this year for more than $0.04. @Dan your posts need to differentiate better between earning points and redeeming. Many of your readers are getting the bulk of their points from CC sign-ups rather than taking 100 flights a month across the world. How does the revenue based mileage earning impact redemption rates for someone who is primarily earning their points via the initial CC sign-up?

@Jacob:
Definitely explains how they’ve all copied each other. There’s no creative thought left in airline loyalty.

@Mike:
On what route was it better than Alaska or BA?

What impacts even cc users are the increased mileage requirements, strict routing rules, lack of stopovers, stingy saver award space, etc.

@Dan: Right now I have temporary platinum status and if i get 12500 EQM’s before september i retain platinum until 2018

@sb:
I wouldn’t make yourself too crazy for Platinum.
The real benefits don’t kick in until Platinum Pro or EXP.

With the downgrade in the value of the AAdvantage Program, is it worth to pay the $200 for the Platinum Challenge? I already booked a transatlantic business class ticket and would qualify for Platinum for the one round trip. Is it worth the $ though for what you get?

@Mike,

AA has tightened the screws with respect to availability. It USED to be good. Not anymore.

I checked availability to Bogota for July and August, and there is no saver space in either coach or business.

@dan

i noticed the line about ua 1k elite and no waiver for spend…does having a non us address work for 1k as it does for gold or platinum levels?

@Is the $200 Fee Worth it for Plat Challenge:
That would depends on your flying patterns.

@yudig:
Non-US does waive all spend requirements for all levels for Delta and United.

Booked a 1st class saver on AA from Orlando to SFO at 11:25am so that I don’t have to drag the kids out of bed at 6am. Guest what? AA cancelled my flight, put us on the 10:40am flight and created a new flight at 11:43am. Asking them why they cancelled my flight? Answer was unpredictable weather, aircraft maintenance, etc… Asking them why they put me on the 10:40am instead of 11:43am, they said it would have cost me more miles than the 25K for one way. Basically the more desirable 11:xx am flight has been “freed” for more desirable customers. The smart guys who got the flight by booking early are now flying at a less desirable time.

I’m flying almost free and shouldn’t be complaining. However if I have to pay, I will be mostly looking somewhere else.

@Dan, @yudig, I’m not sure about Delta, but for United the waiver does not apply to 1K

@Maifriend:
AA is terrible with schedule changes on award tickets if there’s no award space on the flight that matches better with your times.
Delta and United are a pleasure in those cases.

@Al:
That’s not correct.
The credit card waiver doesn’t apply for 1K, but the non-USA waiver does apply for 1K.

seems AA is competing with its partner EL-AL as to whom can have the worst frequent flier program

btw el-al has repartnered with AA to allow AA flts on the domestic as well as intl flts when flying ELAL routing of ORD-TLV you can now use AA from ord to london or paris and connect with elal to tlv
but as you say is a waste of miles flown if the rewards are devalued

Another point about DL is that they have now become the innovators… they were the first to bring back snacks (sad that this is considered innovating) and Free IFE for all passengers.

Also Another huge benefit for infrequent travelers or those that like to shop around… DL points never expire.

@ari:
Hopefully they bring back their mileage partnership.

@Jacob:
It’s easy to make miles never expire when you massively devalue them as Delta has.
I’ll still stick with United due to far superior miles. And their service and operations have been on the upswing since they fired Smisek who was a true cancer in the organization.

Ever since AA parted ways with Elal my AA miles are very limited in their use for me. My wife and I each have a nice amount of miles but not much use for them between TLV and NYC.

@Jack out of the box:
Can use them on AirBerlin, need to call to book that.
Iberia.com can search AirBerlin space.

But yes, AA is very tough for TLV.

@Dan: Something new about AB bookings on AA.com? Iberia isn’t searchable on AA.com. AB has been there.

@Jack out of the box:
I’ve seen a lot more AB space on Iberia than on AA.

@Dan: Interesting. If I just open an Avios account with Iberia, can I search for flights even with no Avios balance?

While you are certainly correct in noting that UA has significantly better award availability than AA (especially with UA elite status or their credit card), you are wrong to call AA a “bumbling” airline. I’ve flown about 50,000 miles with them so far this year and have yet to have even a delayed flight. The service in the air and on the ground is about as good as USA airlines do.

That said, unless you live in an AA hub or can otherwise take advantage of Avios redemptions on AA, it’s currently better to earn and burn miles with UA and their myriad partners. Not only is UA award inventory much better than AA, UA has much better PARTNER availability as well.

Just keeping it real — and realistic.

Do United club AU get clib access when the primary card holder isnt present?

@Jack out of the box:
Yes.

@iahphx:
My experiences have been the exact opposite. Endless delays and cancellations. But our tiny data points are meaningless. Look at the Wall Street Journal chart in the post for actual rankings based on hard data.

@Dan: @Dan I am not an expert on the comparison of AA to BA or Alaska so I’ll take your word for it as this is your expertise. I flew in January from BOS-EZE and returned via Rio (GIG) through MIA back to BOS. It worked out good for me and based on what you are saying regarding lack of saver awards ……etc I’m glad I used a good chunk of my miles for a decent redemption. Going off the redemption chart it still seems AA to Latin America has value though if there are no seats available its a moot point.

As an aside the one partnership program I do not have miles in is United (Star Alliance). As luck would have it, I just opened the mail and there is a 50,000 offer ($3K spend) to sign up for a Mileage Plus Explorer card. Is this the best out there or is there a better promotion available? Thanks.

@Mike:
Try
https://www.theexplorercard.com/70k50ICLTO
https://www.theexplorercard.com/70kLTO

@Jacob:
Here is the biggest problem of how the airlines collaborate http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/blog/seat2B/2012/03/airline-contracts-of-carriage-fail-to-protect-passengers.html

Deregulation (which is overall a good thing) led to the current situation, but it seems like the pendulum has swung too far in one direction. At some point something might give, and we might see some consumer protection coming in and swinging the pendulum in the other direction.

Caveat re: 500 mile updates is that continuous ExecPlat members don’t earn them. I’ve Ben CK for 2y and ExecPlat for 4. I am swimming in SWUs but have <40 500MUs (already flown 129K miles this year FYI). The overall program changes are positive for some (i.e., business travelers) but the ExecPlat upgrade benefit seems like smoke and mirrors.

Separately, Delta only allows award ticket upgrades on miles so the two programs aren't really comparable. On the one hand, 500MUs are basically useless to ExecPlat members. On the other, ExecPlats don't earn 500MUs where we still earn Delta miles so can upgrade as much as we like, even if it is quite expensive…

Perhaps I'm missing something? Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

@Dan: I don’t get what you mean by that. Are you saying that if I’m EP on AA (and a million miler), I can just convert that to 1K status on United?

@Dan: The El Al – AA partnership will never come back until the old TWA workers die or are paid off.

Dan.
can you clarify re: United. Can I earn elite status (platinum ,platinum pro, executive platinum) just by spending a lot like 25k+ on The United Explorer Card per year even if I do not earn by flying? or that won’t do it. if yes, what are the elite benefits?