American Airlines is changing the way it apportions miles and awards tickets. As predicted, they're moving to a dollars-per-mile system that rewards travelers for spending more money on the airline. Instead of just needing 50,000 miles to get to Platinum, you also need 6,000 elite qualifying dollars.
They're also adding a new level, Platinum Pro, at 75,000 elite-qualifying miles, which would have helped me more than once.
In all, the system seems fair, and pretty much everyone new it was coming. I'll be interested to see how it works in practice.