AA to award points according to $ spent not miles
 

At least that's what I read. As of August this year.

We all got the email. I tried to figure out all the permutations and gave up. But I accrue most of mine from credit card use anyway so confusing me will have little effect.

I didn't get the email just read it on the web somewhere.

If you have an AAdvantage account I'm sure you will.

Basically, you take the dollars you spend on a flight (excluding government taxes), and factor in a multiplier depending on your status with AA:

5 x – regular member
7 x – Gold
8 x – Platinum
9 x – Platinum Pro (new status level next year)
11 x – Executive Platinum

It'll have nothing to do with the actual distance you fly any longer. It's an incentive to buy higher fares if you want more miles.

United did the same thing.

It definitely will lower my points!

Also starting next year, to achieve one the elite status levels on AA, you’ll have a minimum dollar amount you have to spend in addition to flying the required number of miles.

It's too early to say how this will work out; one thing yet unsaid is whether this will also result in further changes to AA's mileage redemption tables.

Right now, say you wanted to accrue enough miles for an award round trip to Europe from the US in the summer, 60,000 miles for "SAAver" tickets (actually 2 x 30,000 one-way tickets.)

By "butt in seat" flying, on a paid round trip in economy from, say, Los Angeles to London, you'd earn roughly 11,000 miles under the current system. So you'd need roughly five round trips to earn one "free" round trip. If each of those round trips cost, say, $1200, you'd need to spend roughly $6000 for the "free" trip.

Under the new scheme, the $1200 round trip would earn 6000 redeemable miles for a basic non-status user at 5 miles per dollar spent, so you'd need <i>ten</i> round trips, or $12,000, to get those same 60K miles.

However, in the course of doing that much flying, you'd obtain elite status, which would increase the multiplier (7 miles/dollar for Gold, up to 11 mi/$ for Executive Platinum) so at some point you'd reach the award level without actually flying ten round trips. Elite qualifying miles are awarded based on the actual distance flown, with a multiplier (1 to 3) based on the fare class, so for example a cheap discount fare for LAX-LHR-LAX would earn roughly 11,000 elite qualifying miles, but double that in business class. 25,000 EQM gets you Gold Status, 50K Platinum Status, 75K a new "Platinum Pro" class, and 100K Executive Platinum.

I know this sounds complicated, and the reality is that it's probably intentionally so. But it does address one common complaint about pure mileage-based programs - discrimination against short-route/high-cost flyers. There are thousands of AA flyers who travel constantly between, say, Chicago and New York, but who pay big bucks on these trips because they often can't plan far ahead. Under the old system, with mileage being the metric, they were at a disadvantage to some casual flyer who flew to Asia on a cheap discount ticket, and who got way more miles per dollar than a road warrior traveling constantly on business. This addresses that. Good for some, not for others.

Thanks for your explanation, Gardyloo. I've crunched the numbers. Based on my current flying patterns, I think this new system will be mostly a wash for me. It may even slightly benefit me.

It will benefit me too I <i>think</i>.

The system is designed to help international (and) business travelers at the expense of casual domestic vacationers.

Now, a cheapo RT ticket from LAX to LGA at a $300 cost is not worth 5700 miles or so, it's worth less than 1500 to an AAdvantage member - this is because <b>the taxes and carrier fees are NOT counted in the fare that is subject to the 5x multiplier</b>. Fly that same route first class for $2000 plus fees and taxes = 10000 miles for the base AA member. Fly that same route on a refundable ticket that costs $1100 plus fees and taxes = basically break even.

For international travelers, it's either better or way worse. Cop a cheapo $1100 fare (not including taxes) on AA's longest direct shot (DFW-Hong Kong) and the base AA member gets 5500 miles, not 16,238 (8,119 for each leg). The business class AAdvantage traveler who drops $6,000 (not including taxes) for the same ticket gets 30,000. Or consider it from the more popular routes, like JFK to LHR: what was 7700 miles round trip is now 3000 miles or less if you get a low fare.

The next trick AA may use is to separate the "fuel charge" from the ticket price and make that a carrier-imposed fee. This is the BS trick that British Airways uses and which makes redeeming frequent flyer awards on BA really crappy.

Not quite correct. Any carrier-imposed fee is counted in the multiplier. Only government-imposed taxes don't count toward your earning of miles.

<<You earn miles on the base fare plus carrier-imposed fees minus government-imposed taxes and fees.>>

Mea culpa.

Delta started it first a couple of years ago and then other airlines jumped in. More cuts of benefits will come after you halfway adjust to this one.