Free Flight, Free Speech

To earn enough miles for a flight in Business all the way from Caracas to Dublin (CCS-IAH-FRA-DUB) (80000 miles) would cost $16,000 - if I signed up tomorrow, I would be a General member, and would earn 5 miles per USD spent. Same flight on the same dates costs $6,912 on united.com which earns 31,655 award miles and 4.5 segments / 16,338 premier miles. That isn't enough to reach Silver;


If I were Silver, I would earn about 44,317 miles; I am not sure about premier miles, but I am sure I would be able to mantain Silver...
As a 1K, I would earn 11 miles per dollar; 69,641 miles.

Which am I booking? Neither, unless I become a millionaire

You did the math

Now think on business travellers adding large amount of miles...

Unfortunately, AAdvantage is going revenue -- not distance -- based, with practically the same earning rates as the other carriers which are also revenue. Seems like Avios also did the same thing some time ago -- if you liked to book cheap flights over long distances, to earn lage numbers of miles, goodbye!


I suppose it makes sense for the airline issuing the miles, but it isn't exactly the greatest thing ever for the customer.