AA Miles Earned Before July 1, 1989 Being Converted to Standard Miles

As seen posted on TravelingBetter.com: LINK.

AA.com link: LINK.

Dear *******,

For more than 30 years the American Airlines AAdvantage® program has been making travel special. Thank you for your loyalty for so many years as an AAdvantage member.

In order to streamline our program, we are announcing a change to AAdvantage miles earned before July 1, 1989, also called Miles With No Expiration.

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.

Once your miles have been converted, as long as you earn or redeem AAdvantage miles at least once every 18 months, your miles will not expire. This is our normal mileage policy and more information about this policy can be found at AA.com/AAdvantageTerms.

It is easy to keep your account active! In addition to earning AAdvantage miles for travel, you can earn miles for making everyday purchases such as dining out, shopping and paying your electricity bill. Plus, you can redeem miles for hotel stays, rental cars, flight awards, and more! Find out more ways to earn and redeem miles by visiting AA.com/AAdvantage.

If you are planning to travel soon, please note that until November 1, 2012, you may redeem your Miles With No Expiration for "Regular" Awards from the original AAdvantage award structure by calling AAdvantage Reservations at 800-882-8880. On November 1, the original AAdvantage award structure will be discontinued; however, you can still redeem miles for awards from our current structure at AA.com/Redeem.

Finally, to receive special offers and exclusive promotions, be sure to update your account at AA.com/MyAccount and sign up for email notifications.

Thank you for your continued loyalty!

For the small group of people this might effect, it looks like AA is "streamlining" their program and eliminating the old AA miles that did not expire on 11/1/2012. You can still redeem awards off the old AA award chart until that date as well.

At least they're converting them with a 25% mileage bonus, I suppose....

A close friend died in 2009 and I was executor of her estate, which long since has been closed out in probate court. As I was winding things up, I guess I must have put my e-mail address on her AA account, though I didn't recall doing that. I vaguely remember finding her password in her desk drawer, checking her balance, saw it was piddly (like less than 2,000), toyed with getting myself or another of our friends a magazine subscription with the miles, but gave up when the system balked at me. Then I forgot about it, until the email below came today.

Long and short of it is they are taking the "Miles With No Expiration" (earned before 7/1/89) and converting them this November to Miles Subject to 18-Month Expiration, but inflating the miles with a 25% bonus when they do so. I wonder if some lawyer somewhere is going to scream about AA reneging on its promise, etc., etc. I wouldn't be surprised, particularly for someone who had a lot more than 1,500 miles. But in my friend's case, she doesn't give a hoot. I doubt she has to worry about seat availabiliity and upgrades any more.

Dear [Kansaskeith's Deceased Friend],

For more than 30 years the American Airlines AAdvantage® program has been making travel special. Thank you for your loyalty for so many years as an AAdvantage member.

In order to streamline our program, we are announcing a change to AAdvantage miles earned before July 1, 1989, also called Miles With No Expiration.

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.

Once your miles have been converted, as long as you earn or redeem AAdvantage miles at least once every 18 months, your miles will not expire. This is our normal mileage policy and more information can be found at AA.com/AAdvantageTerms.

It is easy to keep your account active! In addition to earning AAdvantage miles for travel, you can earn miles for making everyday purchases such as dining out, shopping and paying your electricity bill. Plus, you can redeem miles for hotel stays, rental cars, flight awards, and more! Find out more ways to earn and redeem miles by visiting AA.com/AAdvantage.

Finally, to receive special offers and exclusive promotions, be sure to update your account at AA.com/MyAccount and sign up for email notifications.

Thank you for your continued loyalty!

Sincerely,


Suzanne L. Rubin
President
AAdvantage® Loyalty Program


As of July 8, 2012

Mileage

Miles With No Expiration

1547

Saw this site posted on FT that has the old AA miles award chart for those who want to use their miles before 11/1: LINK.

On-topic -- I can't imagine that this AA policy change is going to annoy (or even impact) that many people. Not sure how much it is, but I am sure there is a cost associated with tracking two types of miles, and that money could probably be spent more wisely.

I read the AA e mail with great interest. With the bonus, I’ll have a little over 1000 old miles. In the early days, I earned and burned. If you remember the triple miles bonus in the late 80′s, you’ll agree that AA was good back then.

Yes, funny you should mention the triple-miles. Diane (my now-deceased friend) and I went to California for a matter in my family in early 1988 and I remember how happy she was when AA announced the triple miles after we had already booked it but before we flew. Since ICT-DFW-SNA-DFW-ICT x 3 would have been greater than the 1,547 miles they wrote "her" about today, I am gathering she dipped into the non-expire pile to top off some later redemptions from the expiring-pool, and that there were 1,547 remaining non-expire ones that she never touched. Ah, memories. . . .

Im sorry about your friend. Given frequent flyer policies tend to be written in a way that gives airlines a lot of wiggle room, I tend to thin there's not much of a case when FF rules change. I agree though! This won't stop an attorney from arguing otherwise.

Issues like this should be fought in the public relations domain. With enough public pressure! Airlines may reverse/alter their position. Of course effectiveness depends on a number of factors, e.g. Number of people affected, the amount of money airlies would gain/lose based on alternatives.

KK,

I just started flying back then. I was upstate NY one cold January night when I heard the triple mile promo on the radio. I immediately called AA on their 800 toll free number. Remember, there was no internet back then to search.

I had 2 transcons lined up. I didn't have status yet. Those 5000 mile trips yielded 30,000 miles. Add that to my 20k in my account, and you had 2 very happy adults + one 5 year old headed to MCO and Disney. I remember telling my wife that we'd be able to fly somewhere in 2 years. Turned out to be a few months later.

Wow. Miles that was earned before 1989 that are still unused (obviously orhan miles) I was In high school in 1989!

I wonder how many miles we're talking about here

I have 14,840 non-expiring miles, and I no longer fly AA (if I have to pay, that is). I do, however, keep them alive by using Aadvantage eShopping to buy a lot of stuff that eventually add up to a free trip every now and then. The frequency of these purchases insures that my miles still won't expire, so I'm happy about the 25% bonus.

The reason I still have them is that AA has always drawn on expiring miles first, and only draws the "non-expiring" miles after all expiring miles have been used. IME that's the only generous thing I've ever seen them do.

My current balance is rapidly approaching the 60,000 mile mark, and that will get a first class ticket between San Jose, Costa Rica (my current home) and DFW (my home town). Although I'm no longer a miserable AA customer and now a miserable UA customer, I'll probably continue to use Aadvantage eShopping after I hit the 60,000 mark, as AA's shopping service gives more miles per dollar in many cases than UA's shopping site.

The airlines all seem to now be run by short-term thinkers, so my buying habits are focused on looking out for numero uno. A free ticket is a free ticket. I can tolerate the worn out leather sets on AA when I'm sitting in one for the price of taxes alone.

The value of those miles may be over-rated, however, when one starts to look at available routing for "free" award tickets on AA. I may have to spend a night in Saskatchewan when using my AA miles to get to Dallas from Latin America.

I have 3,000. They redeem miles on a LIFO basis, so my non-expiring miles just sit there and sit there. I guess I look forward to my upcoming 750 mile bonus!

Delta had a similar issue when they re-branded what they called "Feequent Flyer Miles" into SkyMiles back in [1995]. Special rules and award options remained for those lingering FFMs...then in [2005] they finally merged any remaining FFMs into SMs.

(I too was in high school in 1989!)

I am too young to have ever accumulated these pre-89 non-expiring miles, however, I was always under the impression that they were grandfathered in as a result of a lawsuit. Is this true? If so, how are they able to unilaterally exchange them for new/expiring miles?

Maybe ch.11 gives them the ability?

I'm trying to figure out -- but it is moot, especially after AA's move today -- why I have no non-expiring miles at all.

I have been an AAdvantage member since 1985 and definitely flew them before 1989, including but certainly not only the 1988 trip with my now-deceased friend who got the notice today on her non-expiring miles. Yes, I agree, AA's style is pretty-much LIFO on redeeming miles. I have redeemed more than 2 million of them since 1989, so the fact that I have no non-expiring ones means I got down to EXACTLY ZERO, or even an overdraft, on one of those redemptions someplace? You'd think I'd remember that, and I don't. Maybe they offered a bonus at some point if one converted them to expiring and I knew I would have activity a lot more frequent than every 18 months, so I took it? Does anybody remember such a bonus?

Oh well, since they now are going to convert them to expiring anyway -- and since I wouldn't have enough for the 25% bonus on conversion to be material -- I am not gonna worry about it. I just can't figure out if I was definitely flying AA before 7/89 I somehow wiped out that balance all the way to zero.

And all you kids who are bragging about being in high school in 1989, pssshaw, pssshaw, pssshaw! Let's just say that if I had fathered my first child on graduation from high school, he would have been old enough to legally drink alcohol in July 1989

I haven't looked at my AA profile in quite some time. I don't fly AA very often and not in the past 5 years, since I have status on UA, but I keep the account active. I have enough miles there to send the bride and me to OGG three times at the current coach rate, so they are worth keeping. I must have used all those old miles, since I don't see a mention of then in my AA profile.

Kids, yeah, I have a couple of them. Both drinking age in 1989.

There use to be a thread, (I thought) on MP that was about when we joined the AA FF program. Soooo, since the boys were of age in 1989, and me long long long out of high school, I've been an FF member on AA since February 1982.

I'm still puzzled by the two different mileage totals I have on my AA account. One is what I have and the other (a few thousand miles more) is what is redeemable. Never figured out the difference since I have regularly drawn awards since joining in the mid-80s, so should not have any miles affected by the new policy or the previous older one.

I was 8.

And probably already schmoozing your way with AAngels into being allowed to enter Admirals Clubs, lol.

I've clicked on the Report button to ask that this be retitled as the "How old are you?" thread.

Sent from my Commodore64 using Milepoint

You havent taken a peek at the corresponding thread over FT have you? You would be shocked.. shocked I tell you

That's exactly what I was thinking too-- are these people with huge mile caches, or are they more like Keith's late friend, with her 1500 miles that have just been sitting there for a long time? I'm guessing far more of the latter.

My first trip with American was to Orlando (Disney World) when I was 9 in 1994, so no Bonus for me!

I read the first page just now. It starts out with "seems reasonable" and goes downhill from there. I take a look at some of the later pages when I am done reading more pleasant threads here

Yet another reason I prefer the civility of MP.

Almost 7K miles of this variety for me. I can't see how you could ever run down to zero, assuming you had some in the first place.

I was four. And I'm pretty sure my first flight was on a charter. But 25% bonus seems very fair to me for miles that are 23 years old.