P_M

I have a trip to Barcelona planned in March and I'm wondering if I should just use my remaining miles for an upgrade and start over with another FF club. This is a paid ticket.

Another question--we have a award tickets booked in Sept to Hawaii, should I have any concerns about that?

I guess my main question is what do you think will happen to AA? I'm hoping they will merge with another airline like CO did, then the mileage points were transferred to the new owner.

Thank in advance for your input.

RoamsAround

You are asking for people to predict a future event/outcome which is, of course, impossible to do with 100% accuracy.

That said AA should emerge from Bankruptcy in much better shape financially than it is now. The chances of losing your accumulated FF miles is small indeed so I wouldn't worry about that. Plan on using your miles as you deem best FOR YOU.

While there may be time schedule or equipment changes between now and your September flight to Hawaii AA will still be flying.

P_M

Thank you RoamsAround. I know it's impossible to predict with certainty what will happen, but the Fodorites usually have a good sense for all things travel and I do appreciate your thoughts.

Gardyloo

None of the airlines that have filed bankruptcy previously have canceled or eliminated their FF programs; the FFPs are way too profitable to them to do so. Airlines sell the miles to the credit card companies for cash, the credit card companies "give" the miles away (ha ha) and many millions/billions of miles never get redeemed. Then when they expire (18 months if no activity) the airline writes off the liability, bingo. It's a cash cow for the airline.

Use them judiciously of course. Upgrades or business/first class outright redemptions are always the best use of miles IMO.

But I wouldn't be concerned about Aadvantage going away; on the contrary it's likely to be around longer than the current management team.

P_M

Thanks Gardy. The fact that they have brought back free wine/beer in coach is a good sign.

qwovadis

I am in your boat with FF TA tickets on AA.com no worries
Have been in the same with Delta Continental have never not flown these are chapter 11s not 7s odds are overwhelming
we both will fly.Still I do burn up all miles as quickly as I get them.I did expire 18K miles one time with AA they offered to "sell them back" to me.Truly obscene.So use them or lose them for me quick as I get them hotels cars flights whatever.

qwovadis

Rumor mill in the markets has US Air the most likely suitor currently with Delta a close second if they can
overcome anti-trust issues.

rkkwan

Gardyloo was talking about US airlines. FF members of airlines elsewhere had lost their miles. Anyways, nothing to worry about AA, but it was never a good idea to hoard miles anyways. But why would you start over with another airline? If AA is best for you now, it will likely be in the foreseeable future unless you move. If AA isn't best for you now, then you should have switched, chapter 11 or not.

P_M

If AA isn't going anywhere then I will not start over with another airline. I was a member of CO's One Pass for a year or so but I came back to AA as it seems to work better for me. I agree that hoarding miles is never a good thing, I have just enough for an upgrade on my next trip so I will decide later if I will upgrade or sit on them for awhile.

Thanks again to all.

mrwunrfl

I had TWA miles. TWA went bankrupt (3? times) and was struggling. Cheap fares, empty flights, bonus miles, and free upgrades. Eventually, my miles became AAdvantage miles - a much better program.

When UAir was in bad shape several years ago, I used up my miles on a first class trip to Thailand.

United went bankrupt. Between that and competition with Independence Air, there were great deals from IAD. United had lots of bonuses, special offers, double EQM. Made 1K for several years flying 65,000 miles per year.

Bankruptcy by AA has me thinking about switching TO AA. Lower fares. AA had/has a double-EQM offer for LAX-ORD on any fare while UA offered DEQM on W or higher fares. If AA continues having good offers (and UA cuts its program further) then I might switch.

Either way, whether I switch or not, I will probably get out of the FF earning game on United - they are healthy and dont need me anymore.

laurieco

>>P_M on Jan 26, 12 at 9:13am
Thanks Gardy. The fact that they have brought back free wine/beer in coach is a good sign.<<

Where did you see that? I haven't seen it on their website.

I also have a lot of AA miles but using them has become difficult.

P_M

It's on another thread but here it is on the web site.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/intl_beer-wine.jsp

laurieco

Well, that's an improvement. Maybe they are finally getting the message that most of us think they suck. AA went from being one of the better airlines to rock bottom. I can only hope that this new offer of wine/beer is the beginning of a trend.

mrwunrfl

And wally just did all that flying on UA/CO to make 1K for the free booze he'll get with the free upgrades to F.

trafaelwyr

I don't think you'll have to use up your miles quickly. I'd heard on the radio last week (or the week before) that even though AA is going through this restructuring phase, all FF miles are still good - so just because they're going through this bankruptcy stage doesn't mean you'll lose what you have. As a matter of fact, they just extended this buy miles and get bonus miles promotion.

While we're on the subject of AA FF miles, I read this bit of information on their website a couple of Sundays ago about recativating miles that had expired. I seem to recall that I had quite a bit that had expired and I thought were gone forever (about 13k). Well, they can reactivate those for me, but it'll cost $200 to do so - which kinda sucks, but then when I look at how much it would cost to buy 13k miles, it seems like I'm getting a better deal.

I do have a question though about AA's FF miles. My sister had said something to me that AA would place a fee (well, tax) on the FF miles you redeem instead of the usual $5 fee. Has anyone else heard this? I looked at the AA site and I see no mention of a taxable value on FF miles.