After a couple of years in which both United and Delta have switched to frequent flier systems based on dollars spent on fares rather than miles flown, American could be joining the parade…but we’ll have to wait and see. American is planning changes for next year, but won’t say yet what they are.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, merican Airlines president Scott Kirby told a financial analyst that changes could come in the next year. “We have a huge backlog of projects,” Kirby said. “Two big areas are the frequent flier program and doing more innovation within the frequent flier program and secondly to do more to further disaggregate the product and really move to a world where we can offer fares that compete with low cost carriers….It’s all about giving our customers choice.”
A friend who works in marketing once told me that whenever you hear words such as “in order to serve you better”, you’re about to lose something. This sounds like it might be one of those times. I’ve been very happy with my AAdvantage experience for years and, as you say, earn most of my miles with credit card use. If lower fares with adjusted mileage credit are part of their plan I wouldn’t mind and, in fact, might even fly American more, resulting in more, rather than fewer, miles in the long run. I’ll be interested in “the rest of the story.”