This is purely speculation, but as each day goes on and the number of disruptions and delays at American Airlines increases, I have to think another double elite qualifying miles promotion is just around the corner.
AA has already been quite generous this year in terms of awarding elite qualifying miles and AAdvantage elite status. In addition to a generous status match to disgruntled United Airlines flyers, the airline has offered multiple DEQM promotions and reduced re-qualification thresholds for select flyers. But with pilots not playing nice lately (calling in sick or lodging spurious maintenance claims), customers have been left fuming at unreasonable delays and cancellations.
The way to counter this bad publicity in the past has always been to coddle flyers with enough perks to make them endure the storm before the calm. Inflating the elite ranks may be of some concern for frequent and loyal AA customers, but when faced with such grim news, a carrot stick like a DEQM pomotion can be useful in hemorrhaging the bleeding.
Let’s see what AA does in the next couple weeks…
It’d be nice if it were for say… early 2013 (as I’m already requalified for EXP), but I hope management gets an injunction before then.