Update: These changes are imminent and expected either 10/26 or 10/27.
According to AA insider @xJonNYC we should expect some negative changes to the American Airlines program in less than three weeks.
I’m expecting these AAdvantage changes mentioned are coming fast and coming hard.
Probably less than 3 weeks away and, personally, I expect they will be very very rough. https://t.co/sIl3NkYQPN
— ˜”*° JonNYC °*”˜ (@xJonNYC) September 29, 2021
It’s currently unclear what exactly these changes will be but they won’t be good. In addition according to VFTW AA will simplify earning elite status and move towards a more revenue based system.
Looks like it hit, flights show as requiring nearly 2x as many points now for me.
—
Nope, same as before for me – the pricing is already somewhat dynamic and the dates are limited but on the available dates I am seeing the same pricing as before.
No. It depends on the flight dates. And relative to a few years ago, it simply shows more miles needed for many flight dates, whereas a few years ago it would show no availability for awards at all on those flight dates.
So that’s the only choice: Do you want to see “no awards available”, or do you want to see higher redemption costs? There’s no way they’re going to make low redemption costs available to every destination on every day of the year, because then nobody ever would buy flights, and everybody would always only redeem miles, and the airline would go broke and out of business.
I can be onboard with the death of EQD.
I’ll be curious to see if miles earning from Bask Banking will count towards the new loyalty points. If so then $30,000 in the bank for 12 months will yield Gold Status without any spending. Sadly Gold doesn’t offer anything that I couldn’t just get from the CITI AAdvantage cards. Seems like platinum is first real tier of useable loyalty status.
Exactly, AA Gold is basically an insult.
Bask Bank confirmed their AA miles are not counted as loyalty points
At least some good news. Although I did book some flights last night, actually found some good routes.
So no expected change in redemption?
No. Only stuff about elite status and elite benefits is changing this year.
Just got the message – status is now based on “Loyalty Points” but few details (other than it is based on 1:1 with miles, as well as fare and cabin, credit card spend, and partner activity, all of that is buried in the fine print). No details on how many points are needed for elite status. Qualification year changing to March – February, with status valid through March of following year.
Found the new goalposts:
Gold at 30,000
Platinum at 75,000
Platinum Pro at 125,000
Executive Platinum at 200,000
Nothing yet on redemption changes
I love reading about rumors of impending doom.
Summary of changes to elite status can be found at https://aadvantagestatus.com/
TL;DR:
-EQDs/EQMs/EQSes are gone and replaced with “Loyalty Points”
-Loyalty Points are one large bucket that you earn with flights (including Basic Economy) AND AA credit card purchases AND the partner programs like SimplyMiles, AA Dining, etc. Presumably this includes American Airlines Shopping as well, though it is not specifically mentioned.
This is probably a net positive for people at mid-country hubs like Chicago and Dallas who mostly fly short-haul domestic and a net negative for international travelers.
deleted
AA needs to partner with Marriott so I can wash my hands of both of them.