AAdvantage halves it's miles expiry rules

It's about week old news now but AA is now cutting in half its inactive mileage. So it used to be your miles expired, if there was no useage, in 3 years. Now it's 18 months.


Now. Smarter Travel. com is railing about it and people are complaining.
Other airlines are expected to follow suit.

Now, back to the basics. It's a frequent flyer, loyalty program. The new change implies, at the very least, that a frequent flyer flies at least once every 18 months.

So I think the change is justified.

Opinions?

I do believe that if you use an AAdvantage Credit card or similar that will add to your miles. So in theory all you have to do is spend one dollar on the credit card every 18 months. Not a lot to ask of someone if they otherwise would not be travelling....

Correct me if I'm wrong...
-Matt

18 months is still a reasonable time and IMHO I still think its one of the best FFP out there (for what they are worth).

Last reward claimed: Nov 2006 JFK-NRT-SIN RT for $38! :D

And I tend to use it once a year for my spotting trips so it will still works out.

RT for 38 smackers and it is not a skybus flight, I would say the program is rewarding. What about upgrades on AA? How is there program with rgds to that?

Given the superiority of AA's program, even 6 months would be fine by me since earning miles is ridiculously easy.

I can't speak for mileage upgrades (elite upgrades are pretty good to my understanding), but in terms of using miles, AA is the best hands-down.