# AA May Merge After All



## x3 skier (Jul 11, 2012)

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...to-evaluate-potential-mergers-ceo-horton-says

You have to go to the Biz Week Site to read the article by clicking on the button when the link takes you to the page. 

Any major except Useless Air would be OK by me.

Cheers


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## Carolinian (Jul 11, 2012)

There is a lot of discussion on FlyerTalk on this, and many see it as posturing and gamesmanship, with the idea of AA being the acquiring party in any such deal.

Since AA has the only decent ff program left, an acquisition of it by any other legacy would be a disaster for AA ff'ers.  DL and UA pretty much destroyed their programs in merger.  No thinking AAdvantage member would want to go slumming in SkyPiles or MilageMinus.  Even AA acquiring US under AA management would risk a destruction of AAdvantage in the merger, but that is the best outcome of any combination with another legacy airline as at least AA management would be there to hopefully keep the program intact.  The other outcome being mooted is AA taking over JetBlue or Alaska.  I am keeping my fingers crossed they remain a stand alone.


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## cissy (Jul 12, 2012)

I'm hoping for a USAir/AA merger.  I fly USAir all the time, and don't understand why it has such a bad reputation.  On the other hand, whenever I'm researching fares, AA is _always_ twice as much as other airlines.  I was able to secure a recent trip to Hawaii using AA ff miles, but ff programs, in my opinion, are all fairly useless unless one has total flexibility.


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## Rent_Share (Jul 12, 2012)

cissy said:


> in my opinion, are all fairly *useless* unless one has total flexibility.


 


Times 10


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## tashamen (Jul 12, 2012)

cissy said:


> I'm hoping for a USAir/AA merger.  I fly USAir all the time, and don't understand why it has such a bad reputation.  On the other hand, whenever I'm researching fares, AA is _always_ twice as much as other airlines.  I was able to secure a recent trip to Hawaii using AA ff miles, but ff programs, in my opinion, are all fairly useless unless one has total flexibility.



My experience is just the opposite.  I have given up ever using USAir, even forfeiting my FF miles with them because I could never use them.  Instead I've had great success with AA, both with regular fares and using their FF miles.  I typically use FF miles for first class seats on flights across the country and have found them on AA even within a few months of travel.

As long as I don't lose my AA FF miles in any merger I don't really care what happens, though.


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## x3 skier (Jul 12, 2012)

cissy said:


> but ff programs, in my opinion, are all fairly useless unless one has total flexibility.



And I do, except for my week in London for which I have been able to snag low miles Biz Class every year. 

Cheers


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## x3 skier (Jul 12, 2012)

cissy said:


> I fly USAir all the time, and don't understand why it has such a bad reputation.



Ever since they lost a spoiler panel in flight on a BAC-111 back in the day when I was on a flight to DCA, I avoided them like the plague. 

Even when I was forced by the travel office to use them, 50% of the time something bad happened, a few serious like engine shutdowns, some just annoying like lost bags.

I suppose my main concern is that two of the airlines with the worst labor relations, AA and US, merge, it does not bode well for happy ground and flight crews.

Cheers


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## Ken555 (Jul 12, 2012)

Every time I see posts about US Air, all I can think is that it's really not just Useless Air, but also America Worst. Such a combination! 

I use US Air miles with great success by redeeming for flights on United. I've also had many positive experiences with AA flights. Delta, to me, is still the worst but I have been able to make it work on occasion. 

I do not like the idea of AA merging with any other carrier.


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## post-it (Jul 12, 2012)

I'm not happy about this at all.  We have booked many successful family trips with AA miles.

Does anyone know with previous merging airlines if current flyer miles roll over to the new carrier?

If not I think booking something soon with our miles might need to happen so we don't loose these.


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## Ken555 (Jul 13, 2012)

post-it said:


> I'm not happy about this at all.  We have booked many successful family trips with AA miles.
> 
> Does anyone know with previous merging airlines if current flyer miles roll over to the new carrier?
> 
> If not I think booking something soon with our miles might need to happen so we don't loose these.



Don't worry about losing your miles. Worry about how much value you'll get from them post-merger.


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## Carolinian (Jul 13, 2012)

cissy said:


> I'm hoping for a USAir/AA merger.  I fly USAir all the time, and don't understand why it has such a bad reputation.  On the other hand, whenever I'm researching fares, AA is _always_ twice as much as other airlines.  I was able to secure a recent trip to Hawaii using AA ff miles, but ff programs, in my opinion, are all fairly useless unless one has total flexibility.



Mergers seem to always screw up ff programs. There were major downgrades with every significant one so far:
- Air France and KLM
- Delta and NWA
- UA and CO
What was downgraded varied, but each one saw major losses for customers.

I used to fly Piedmont Airlines, and the quality of its product went downhill substantially when it was absorbed into US Air.

From numerous examples in many threads on FlyerTalk, DL miles are the most useless, and AA and UA the best on being able to book trips.  UA has gone downhill since their merger.

As an elite, I did very well with comp FC upgrades at NW, which was far better on that than DL.  CO was okay.  I am now doing very well with upgrades at AA, even a World Traveller Plus upgrade on a partner TATL flight on BA.

The US Airways ff'ers call themselves the cockroaches and have a website that can explain more about US' downgrades in its program.


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## Carolinian (Jul 13, 2012)

Ken555 said:


> Don't worry about losing your miles. Worry about how much value you'll get from them post-merger.



Spot on.  Do they roll over miles? Yes.  Are they going to be worth the same as your old miles?  Probably not.  NW flyers saw that when their Worldperks miles were milejacked by DL.  CO flyers saw it when their OnePass miles were converted to MilageMinus at UA.  In both cases, pre-merger DL and UA flyers also took a postmerger hit on the value of miles.  Both Air France Frequence Plus and KLM Flying Dutchman flyers saw it when both were milejacked into Flying Blue.  BMI Diamond Club members are seeing it in conversion to BA Avios.  One FlyerTalker referred to his BMI miles being converted to Avios inches.


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## x3 skier (Jul 13, 2012)

Ken555 said:


> Don't worry about losing your miles. Worry about how much value you'll get from them post-merger.



How true.  

One minor tidbit about FF merger implementation History. When AA took over TWA, my combined miles were listed under my TWA number rather than my AA number. That was nice in that I always remember the good old days of TWA when flying was glamorous whenever I use my AA account. 

When UA and CO joined, I think my CO number vanished but since I never fly either, I really don't recall. I think it is UA and this thread reminds me to look it up. 

If US and AA combine, I will hope I still retain my TWA/AA number and not my Useless Air one. 

I agree Piedmont was a great airline that was not so gradually ruined by Useless Air. 

Cheers


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## Pat H (Jul 13, 2012)

x3 skier said:


> How true.
> 
> One minor tidbit about FF merger implementation History. When AA took over TWA, my combined miles were listed under my TWA number rather than my AA number. That was nice in that I always remember the good old days of TWA when flying was glamorous whenever I use my AA account.
> 
> ...



Actually, it's your CO # that survived along with CO website.


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## x3 skier (Jul 13, 2012)

Pat H said:


> Actually, it's your CO # that survived along with CO website.



You are right, I think, since I have no idea what my CO number was since the last time I flew them was back in the 70's. I had not signed in since way before the merger and when I just now checked, it told me my Mileage Plus number was changed.

I tried to order a new card and it offered to let me print a paper one. When I tired that, it says that feature was disabled. 

Another fine example of what happens to FF programs in airline mergers.:hysterical:

Cheers


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## JeffW (Jul 13, 2012)

Competition tends to be beneficial for consumers.  The DL/NW and UA/CO mergers I think benefited the airlines more the the flyers.  If/when AA merges with someone, it's likely to be similar.

From what I've read, DL and UA are too big to acquire AA (wouldn't get DOJ approval).  Alaska, Virgin America, etc appear to be too small.  That tends to leave US as the right size to combine with them.  I almost wonder if the gov't wouldn't mind that merger, since now you'd have 3 airlines that are back to being similarily sized.  

Jeff


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## SuzanneSLO (Jul 13, 2012)

On 7/11, Gary Leff had a nice piece on the possible merger:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewf...-of-american-is-getting-less-and-less-likely/

-- Suzanne


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## bogey21 (Jul 13, 2012)

More than likely AA will not merge unless their attempts to break their Union Contracts fail.  Personally, I think they will be successful and thus won't merge with anyone unless they are the acquiror post bankruptcy.

George


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## x3 skier (Jul 13, 2012)

bogey21 said:


> More than likely AA will not merge unless their attempts to break their Union Contracts fail.  Personally, I think they will be successful and thus won't merge with anyone unless they are the acquiror post bankruptcy.
> 
> George



That's my vote as well.

I also agree with Leff's analysis of Useless Air's CEO having a "minor" ego problem that might not be satisfied until he is the CEO of every airline in the known universe.  

Cheers


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## x3 skier (Jul 13, 2012)

*AA Mileage Conversion*

Just got an email that my "never expire / Lifetime" miles are not going to be lifetime anymore. They will be converted to regular miles with a 25% adder.

From the email:

"Starting November 1, 2012, these miles will automatically be converted to Miles Subject to Expiration, and because of your tenured loyalty, you will earn a 25% mileage bonus on every unredeemed mile earned prior to July 1, 1989. To have your Miles With No Expiration converted and to earn the mileage bonus, you do not need to take any action. For more information about this change, please visit AA.com/MileConversion."

Out of my 500K+ miles, about 10000 are "lifetime" so its not really a big deal to me and I have an AA Citi Card I use once in a while to keep them from expiring anyway.

I guess it doesn't take a merger to devalue Miles. 

Cheers


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## JeffW (Jul 13, 2012)

Years ago, almost all miles had an expiration period.  Then, they changed to no expiration.  Then, they changed back to having an expiration.  Who knows what we'll get tomorrow.

I don't have a problem with some expiration.  After all, it is a 'frequent' flyer program.  There should be some recent activity.  I was happy when for most airlines, it was 3 years.  The 18 months that many have now a days is a hassle.   It's manageable with all the other non-flying offers that are considered activity, though at times it's sort of a pain.

Jeff


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## Ken555 (Jul 13, 2012)

JeffW said:


> Years ago, almost all miles had an expiration period.  Then, they changed to no expiration.  Then, they changed back to having an expiration.  Who knows what we'll get tomorrow.
> 
> I don't have a problem with some expiration.  After all, it is a 'frequent' flyer program.  There should be some recent activity.  I was happy when for most airlines, it was 3 years.  The 18 months that many have now a days is a hassle.   It's manageable with all the other non-flying offers that are considered activity, though at times it's sort of a pain.
> 
> Jeff



I recall the programs starting without expiration, then went to them in the 80s...


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## Ken555 (Jul 13, 2012)

x3 skier said:


> Just got an email that my "never expire / Lifetime" miles are not going to be lifetime anymore. They will be converted to regular miles with a 25% adder.
> 
> From the email:
> 
> ...



I just got this email as well. I was waiting for this to happen. I've had ~8k miles in that "no expiration" line for a long, long time. I don't think it's a bad decision, and the bonus 25% they're offering is a nice touch for the change. After all, it's their program - they can do whatever they like...


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## sfwilshire (Jul 14, 2012)

American most often has the best price out of my home airport. US Airways invariably has the most expensive. I like Delta better than American, but go with the price. 

Sheila


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