Changes to AA FF program stating in Oct

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

And it is not for the better

AAdvantage Award Changes

[ptprism Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptprism]

FF Changes

When are they ever for better? It seems every year the value of the miles we struggle so hard for decreases. And have you seen the latest from USAirways Dividend Miles? The following is from today's Frequent Traveler newsletter:

"In less than one week, US Airways will no longer be awarding bonus miles to its elite members. While this is disturbing news for Dividend Miles members, it could be equally disturbing to members of other programs if the rule change is implemented with minimal resistance and is consequently followed by other airlines.

And that, in a nutshell, is why it behooves all FTers to join the cause at Save DividendMiles!.

Do it for frequent flyers - do it for yourself!"

The frequent flyer--particularly elite--is the backbone of any airlines business. Do they really think that casual vacationers will make up for the loss of the everyday business traveller??? Especially when fares continue to spiral up. You can see why the marketing geniuses at USAiways are greasing the skids for that ailines failure.

[odaddy Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close odaddy]

Alaska sent notices today to mileage members, also going up 5K miles in Novem,ber, more fees etc...

[StressCadet Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close StressCadet]

I just can't even keep up anymore. I was a die hard Delta fan and have always had their FF program and affliated Skymiles card. Just when I decided that AA could probably serve us better-I added an AA card. I am racking up the miles and still have a good amount of Delta miles-but will any of them be worth anything in a year? I have no idea. I thought I would try a blow out trip and use everything I have-but now we are looking at drive to...I don't even know if that is smart...every day it is something new.

I used to think I was pretty saavy about when to buy and when sales would happen-but it's all a crap shoot now.

BLAH!

[x3skier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close x3skier]

After being in the FF program of many airlines from the beginning and collecting a few million miles along the way, I certainly have gotten my share of free first and business class tickets to Mexico, Caribbean and Europe. Sooner or later, the Merry Go Round had to stop since one can seemingly collect miles just for breathing these days.

That said, we are leaving today for London and Venice on Biz class for a total of 180000 miles and under $200 for the both of us. This is probably the last of our good deals covering the past 25 years.

BTW, if you want to compare most of the AA changes on one page, click here American Airlines - American Eagle - AmericanConnection

Cheers

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

I just can't even keep up anymore. I was a die hard Delta fan and have always had their FF program and affliated Skymiles card. Just when I decided that AA could probably serve us better-I added an AA card. I am racking up the miles and still have a good amount of Delta miles-but will any of them be worth anything in a year? I have no idea. I thought I would try a blow out trip and use everything I have-but now we are looking at drive to...I don't even know if that is smart...every day it is something new.

I used to think I was pretty saavy about when to buy and when sales would happen-but it's all a crap shoot now.

BLAH!

I just used my Delta miles to book my New Mexico tickets. It gave me a choice as to how many points I wanted to use. For example, if I wanted to just pay $300.00 towards the price of my tickets, it would cost me xx points.
It may not be reward travel, but it gave me some flexibility in the use of my points as opposed to not using my points at all, which is what I normally would do

[x3skier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close x3skier]

I just used my Delta miles to book my New Mexico tickets. It gave me a choice as to how many points I wanted to use. For example, if I wanted to just pay $300.00 towards the price of my tickets, it would cost me xx points.
It may not be reward travel, but it gave me some flexibility in the use of my points as opposed to not using my points at all, which is what I normally would do

Sounds a lot like Starwood's Cash plus Points which is a really good deal for us.

Cheers

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I just used my Delta miles to book my New Mexico tickets. It gave me a choice as to how many points I wanted to use. For example, if I wanted to just pay $300.00 towards the price of my tickets, it would cost me xx points.
It may not be reward travel, but it gave me some flexibility in the use of my points as opposed to not using my points at all, which is what I normally would do

Using them in that fashion seriously devalues your miles.

I suspect that where DL will eventually go is havng ''pay with miles'' as the only way to use them. I have way too many DL SkyPiles left over from my years as a DL Gold Medallion, but I am even more concerned about them hijacking my NW Worldperks miles as well.

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

Using them in that fashion seriously devalues your miles.

I suspect that where DL will eventually go is havng ''pay with miles'' as the only way to use them. I have way too many DL SkyPiles left over from my years as a DL Gold Medallion, but I am even more concerned about them hijacking my NW Worldperks miles as well.

It may devaluate my miles, but without the "pay by miles" I would not have been able to use any points.
If I used the travel awards, I would have used at least 50k miles/ per ticket. This way I used only 70k for the 2 tickets for 650.00 worth of tickets.