Back on the ground –
As you can see by all the trip reports, I’ve been up in the air a lot lately.
Hopefully you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed the travel experiences.
After all those trips. I re-qualified for American Airlines Executive Platinum level, which means I get another year of comfortable travel experiences on American Airlines.
By re-qualifying, I earned another 8 systemwide upgrades. I hope to use them over the next year for one or two trips with my wife so we can both experience international business class together.
American Airlines recently announced flights from Los Angeles to Auckland as well as the service to Sydney which begins soon. Perhaps one of the trips could be to those destination. AA will be using my favorite aircraft the 77W on the route to Sydney and the 787 Dreamliner on the flight to Auckland.
The 787 is interesting in business on AA because some seats face forward and some seats face backwards. They are also positioned so that some of the seats look directly at the person across from them. I think that is great if you are traveling with someone you know but when its a stranger it feels awkward looking at them the whole flight. But I guess that is a first world problem….
Anyway, I will be on the ground for a while now. It will be great to relax at home.
Next year American Airlines is moving to the revenue model where you only will earn miles based on the price of the ticket and your status. So it will now be difficult to earn miles without putting everyone on the AA credit card. Also they are reducing the number of system wide upgrades that are given to Executive Platinum Members.
The one positive thing is that American is not adding a dollar spend requirement like Delta and United has; however, the fact that miles will be harder to earn, it takes away one of the great reasons to maintain top tier status.
Unfortunately, American is devaluing the award program which means that award trips to Europe and other places will be getting more expensive. They are offering shorter flights that are under 500 miles (MSP – ORD) for 7,500 miles. But overall the program devaluation is unfortunate.
Once again I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my trip reports.