Basic American Airlines flyer? No more miles for you.

[hardcorestitch]

AA basic economy passengers will no longer be able to earn frequent flyer miles or points towards status. Elite status passengers are still able to earn domestic seat upgrades.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Interesting. Just booked a couple weeks ago flight on AA. Need to figure out a way to use these FF points we have and be done with them. They are almost worthless to us.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

I've been in the points and miles game for along time and at this point i find AA miles yield the most value of any of the major airline miles. A lot depends on your location, but I routinely redeem for $0.03 to $0.05 per mile (domestically). Worst case if you have a small stash can use them towards upgrading to extra leg room or first class. But it never hurts to have a small stash of all airline miles just in case.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Just realized it’s basic only so much like Delta. I guess we will still keep earning on these flights for work with no real way to use our miles earned. AA is terrible for flying in and out of my international airport.

 

[hardcorestitch]

I've been in the points and miles game for along time and at this point i find AA miles yield the most value of any of the major airline miles. A lot depends on your location, but I routinely redeem for $0.03 to $0.05 per mile (domestically). Worst case if you have a small stash can use them towards upgrading to extra leg room or first class. But it never hurts to have a small stash of all airline miles just in case.

More airline miles = better chance of Disney

 

[EACarlson]

Just realized it’s basic only so much like Delta. I guess we will still keep earning on these flights for work with no real way to use our miles earned. AA is terrible for flying in and out of my international airport.

I'm curious as to what your home airport is that's horrible for AA and where a 15k free flight to MCO isn't worth using miles you didn't pay for rather than 40k on Delta or 30k on United?

 

[VGCgroupie]

I'm curious as to what your home airport is that's horrible for AA and where a 15k free flight to MCO isn't worth using miles you didn't pay for rather than 40k on Delta or 30k on United?

AA never has non stop to any of the places we fly except Dallas. And Dallas is for work so we don’t redeem miles for work trips.

 

[EACarlson]

So it's not that AA is terrible, it's that you aren't willing to have a connection. As someone that has to connect to just about everywhere, and on my way home from my last trip had to double connect, I'll still take AA at half the price with a connection than pay double for a non-stop.

 

[RedHead0186]

AA never has non stop to any of the places we fly except Dallas. And Dallas is for work so we don’t redeem miles for work trips.

That makes sense, because DFW is an AA hub.

Having been a Southwest flyer for many years, I got a bit of a rude awakening to the true hub model earlier this year. I'm in Chicago so I've always been able to fly AA direct. But, I was trying to get from Orlando to Atlanta on AA, and I couldn't go direct-I would have to connect in Charlotte or Dallas. So if you're near a hub (for any airline) it's great, but if you're not, it can be a pain.

 

[VGCgroupie]

So it's not that AA is terrible, it's that you aren't willing to have a connection. As someone that has to connect to just about everywhere, and on my way home from my last trip had to double connect, I'll still take AA at half the price with a connection than pay double for a non-stop.

Yeah I cant justify a connection on a 4 hour flight or often they want me to have a connection on a 2 hour flight as well. Connections adds a large level of risk while traveling so yeah I guess Id rather pay more to not have flight delays ruin my vacation.

 

[VGCgroupie]

That makes sense, because DFW is an AA hub.

Having been a Southwest flyer for many years, I got a bit of a rude awakening to the true hub model earlier this year. I'm in Chicago so I've always been able to fly AA direct. But, I was trying to get from Orlando to Atlanta on AA, and I couldn't go direct-I would have to connect in Charlotte or Dallas. So if you're near a hub (for any airline) it's great, but if you're not, it can be a pain.

Southwest was amazing from where we used to live in Phoenix where I live now I cant get a direct flight with them really anywhere we want to go.

 

[georgina]

I have been transitioning away from SW since they implemented their boarding changes, still have some points and non-expiring credits to use up. Have been flying American more, they are very big at DCA, but I don't fly basic economy on them. I have had 3 AA credit cards in the past few years so quite a few miles built up.

 

[_19disnA]

Unless you fly a lot, it never seemed like you could ever accumulate enough points with any airline to be worth very much. Over time, it seems most airlines have made reductions in their various frequent flier programs to reduce the actual value associated with these.

As others have mentioned, having an airline credit card probably makes sense if you spend enough, travel a lot and live near a hub city for that airline.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Southwest was amazing from where we used to live in Phoenix where I live now I cant get a direct flight with them really anywhere we want to go.

This is the same for us in Philadelphia. We flew to Phoenix non stop twice to visit Sedona in 2008 and 2018 and last few times I checked, there were no non-stops to PHX. Same with LAS.
There used to be 6-8 nonstops from Philly to MCO and now we're lucky if there are 1 or 2. Philly is a hub for AA so that's convenient but sometimes they are just crazy expensive.
I am looking for a quickie weekend to WDW, Friday night to Sunday evening. Well, a Sunday return is around $400-600. I could take Frontier for about $150 but don't know if that's worth the savings. We'd have to pay through the nose for a carry on or worry that our personal tote will fit in there test bin. Or deal with the risk of flights being cancelled with not a lot of options for a later flight. Ugh. I hear so many bad stories about Frontier, I'm afraid to try them.

 

[VGCgroupie]

This is the same for us in Philadelphia. We flew to Phoenix non stop twice to visit Sedona in 2008 and 2018 and last few times I checked, there were no non-stops to PHX. Same with LAS.
There used to be 6-8 nonstops from Philly to MCO and now we're lucky if there are 1 or 2. Philly is a hub for AA so that's convenient but sometimes they are just crazy expensive.
I am looking for a quickie weekend to WDW, Friday night to Sunday evening. Well, a Sunday return is around $400-600. I could take Frontier for about $150 but don't know if that's worth the savings. We'd have to pay through the nose for a carry on or worry that our personal tote will fit in there test bin. Or deal with the risk of flights being cancelled with not a lot of options for a later flight. Ugh. I hear so many bad stories about Frontier, I'm afraid to try them.

I’ve never flown Frontier but my daughter has once we and yep she had delays. I have flown other budget airlines like Breeze and Allegient without a problem.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Yeah I cant justify a connection on a 4 hour flight or often they want me to have a connection on a 2 hour flight as well. Connections adds a large level of risk while traveling so yeah I guess Id rather pay more to not have flight delays ruin my vacation.

They add risk and even if things go smoothly they make the travel day much longer. My experience has been that a 2 hour flight is going to be two 1.5 hour flights plus a layover. It quickly turns a morning of travel into an all day thing.

 

[Genie+]

Unless you fly a lot, it never seemed like you could ever accumulate enough points with any airline to be worth very much. Over time, it seems most airlines have made reductions in their various frequent flier programs to reduce the actual value associated with these.

As others have mentioned, having an airline credit card probably makes sense if you spend enough, travel a lot and live near a hub city for that airline.

Yes. JetBlue card made sense for us since we live by NYC and JB almost always had the best pricing on non-stop to/from MCO along with a good selection of flight times. It was the free checked luggage that first enticed us to get the JB card. In our case we’d be flying JB to WDW most of time regardless so the card is like a bonus.

It probably does help with loyalty though. Once in a while United will have a decently priced nonstop flight but since we are now so familiar with JB policies and churning perks it’s not worth the switch.