Airline mileage programs reduced, loyalty eroded?

Our credit card is from Citibank & we accrue miles with American Airlines & there has not been any changes.

American Airlines has merged with US Airways, so now we have more available flight options to Europe.

Sorry that your airline mileage program has changed...

What changes are you talking about?

We have been able to get every domestic flight we want with our Alaska Airlines miles, and by booking well in advance we have also been able to book business class to Europe several times.

We leave tomorrow for Australia, traveling in first class on Qantas courtesy of our Alaska miles, most of them earned with our credit card.

So I think we will stick with the program.

A bigger issue for me is how expensive the fees have become. In 2012 we paid twenty dollars in fees for 2 one way tickets from Paris on American air miles. In 2014 it cost us 380 dollars in fees for 2 one way tickets from London on American air miles. At first I thought it was unique to Heathrow, but when I put in flying home from Paris it was still over 300 dollars. In the future we will be switching to a different rewards program and flying round trip on Icelandair. They can get us home in about 12 hours. Whenever we use air miles we get horrible flights and usually takes 20 to 24 hours.

Delta is altering its points award system to be based on ticket price rather than miles travelled. The scheme looks complicated and I can't guess what it will mean to a leisure traveler such as me. Points awards have always been secondary to ticket price in my shopping. My credit card is branded by a supermarket chain which gives me free groceries at once, a lot simpler and certainly faster than the lottery of finding available seats for points stored up over years.

I am satisfied with the American Airlines frequent flyer program (AAdvantage). I used my American Airlines frequent flyer miles for acquiring American Airlines tickets, for free, for flights from my local airport in Missouri to the London Heathrow Airport, and returning. I got the flights that I wanted, for the dates and flight departure times that I wanted. The amount of money that I paid for tax and airport fees was not a high amount. I accumulated many flight miles by travelling with American Airlines from Missouri to Florida for visiting my father and mother (when they were living). And I have a MasterCard credit card that is connected to American Airlines. American airlines gave me credit for flight miles every time I charged any expense to that credit card account. I charged a total of $ 4000. to that credit card account for paying Dentists (including an endodontist, and prosthodontist and periodontist) for working on my teeth. American Airlines gave me credit for 4000 flight miles for that. I now have "frequent flier miles" that I could use for acquiring airline tickets from American Airlines, for free, for flying to any country in Europe. I could fly from the state Missouri in the U.S.A. to St. Petersburg in Russia, for free, if I choose to do that. I have sympathy for persons who have not been getting satisfactory results from using the frequent flyer program of an airline.

I love my Alaska Air credit card. I used my miles this October/November to travel to Rome and home again from Milan on their partner American Airlines for about $90. Already I have accrued half the miles I would need to do it again!

I am in the United program. So far, I've been satisfied with the deal. Over the fifteen or so years I've in in their mileage program United has increased from 50,000 to 60,000 the number of miles needed for a flight to Europe from the USA. Taxes are added on and have to be paid in cash. Some destinations (such as nonstop flights SFO-CDG) never seem available. I have linked flights using United with other airlines. Checked bags are free when using their credit card. I have some special deal so I get early (priority?) seating. At least, I'm seated ahead of about 200 other people even flying coach.

@Swan
I guess you missed the news Swan. Starting March 2015 United is radically changing their frequent flyer program. It will be completely based on how much the ticket price is not on how many miles you fly. For leisure travelers who take just a few flights a year earning points will be useless endeavor. While they haven't announced any changes to redemption of points yet, I didn't take any chances and cashed in all my miles flew to Sydney last month. I'm done with the frequent flyer racquet. In some ways it's a relief. More details via this blind hot link:

http://tinyurl.com/q4t3mux

I was thoroughly annoyed to find out the cost of finally using my carefully saved american airlines miles for two roundtrip flights to france would be several hundred dollars, and on top of that, I would not be able to purchase upgraded seats on those tickets. So, I ended up buying tickets through another airline and am done with frequent flier programs. I still sign up to get the miles when i fly any airline (it will at least get a magazine subscription or some cheap trinket). No point in being loyal to any particular airline company when all they do is reduce seat comfort and increase extra fees.

One way to use those miles, that no one has mentioned yet, is for hotel stays. We generally get at least one free night sometime during each trip. The catch with Delta is that you need to have their Amex card, otherwise you can't access your points for that purpose. A couple of years ago, we got 3 nights in a posh Dubrovnik hotel with our points. It cost about twice as much as we normally pay for hotels, so I was very happy to get it for free. Delta has a very extensive catalog of hotels to choose from, at a wide range of point costs. United seems to have less restriction on the use of points for flights, but we'll see what happens after their new policies go into effect.

I shop the best deal each time I fly. I have a bunch of frequesnt flyer numbers but never seem to do better than sending an occasional plane ticket to a grandma to come visit us.

I'm not loyal enough to choose a flight that costs more or has longer duration to get miles (although I know some people are really good and gathering miles and using them).