I read the same information that many of you read though I don’t get lost in the dark world of forums. While I like tips and tricks, I can’t be bothered to learn how to stack three different gift cards after finding a portal in Poland in order to save $4. At the same time, I messed up my MS on a card and now I’m wishing that TopCashBack still had a rebate for GiftCard Mall.
To that end, the following is only my conjecture on the state of points affairs. I’ve been nervous for some time that American Airlines is going to devalue making it imperative that the spoils from our RedBird days should be burned now. The precursor for TPOL crying deval comes after reading TPG’s post that Cathay may restrict first class access to its partners. That includes American Airlines.
I’m sure the airline is getting sick of dubious characters sleeping in their lie flats, being pampered by their excellent first class service from Hong Kong to Chicago, all for the cost of taxes and 60,750 points (if you have an AA MasterCard). With Citi handing out ThankYou points like candy, the last thing the market needs is more churners with even more available AAdvantage points. Recall all those United MileagePlus points we had during the 5x Ink glory days.
The reason ThankYou may add American as a partner is obvious. It already has many OneWorld partners including Cathay and it is the issuing card company for the Airline. Many bloggers have written that they’d like to see AA on that list as well but, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
