Take a deep breath, there’s no need to panic!
American got in touch with me to let me know about a minor change they’ll be making to AAdvantage.
The conversation started by referencing the AAdvantage changes last April, whereby American increased the cost of many “standard” awards, which have last seat availability.
Contrary to popular belief, the highest priced standard awards are typically the most costly redemptions for airlines, as those are often seats which they could have otherwise sold. In other words, if you redeem a standard award for the last business class seat on a plane (even if it costs 175,000 miles one-way), and that seat could have otherwise sold for $5,000, that’s a costly redemption for the airline.
Fortunately the change isn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting based on the start of the conversation.
American doesn’t have any blackout dates on AAdvantage awards, though for bookings made starting sometime in August 2015, they’ll be raising the number of miles required to travel on American metal on four of the busiest days of the year, presumably around the holidays. I’m told this should impact both international and domestic awards, booked in economy, business, and first class.
So if you’re looking to book holiday travel using AAdvantage miles, you’ll definitely want to book in the next several weeks if possible.
Personally I often find standard level redemptions around the holidays to not be worthwhile, even if fares are high. While it was sometimes worth it when the “standard” cost was double the cost of a saver award, at a higher cost than that it’s only rarely worth it, assuming you can otherwise efficiently utilize your miles.
Bottom line
All things considered this is a very minor change, and I really do appreciate American’s transparency in communicating this minor change so far in advance. They’re telling us roughly two months in advance that the cost of award travel on less than a handful of days per year will go up, while Delta can’t even tell us how much a SkyMiles award ticket will cost any time of the year. 😉
If you are someone who books peak holiday travel using miles at the non-saver level, you’ll want to book in the coming weeks.
I noticed that AA has over the past 3 days eliminated TONS of domestic saver availability (for US metal flights). Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a glitch now that all Dividend Miles awards now need to be booked at AA.com?
There are a few routes I redeem on all the time without problem, and 4 days ago had saver award seats available on almost EVERY date next month. Fast forward 4 days,...
I noticed that AA has over the past 3 days eliminated TONS of domestic saver availability (for US metal flights). Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a glitch now that all Dividend Miles awards now need to be booked at AA.com?
There are a few routes I redeem on all the time without problem, and 4 days ago had saver award seats available on almost EVERY date next month. Fast forward 4 days, and there are NO saver seats are available on any date next month. How can an entire month with good availability just get wiped out that quick?
It seems like flights departing within the next 10-14 days still have the "normal" level of saver award availability. Of course there are close-in booking fees to contend with, and uncertainty that the award will pop up.
Has something big (quietly) changed?
@ Luke -- I'll see if I can find any patterns, because I can't say I noticed this. Interesting, though.
Well, Maybe Delta is trying to make a positive move. I can foresee an auction based frequent flyer program in future. Where you can book the ticket immediately by paying a fixed amount of miles bid using miles. If there is still empty seat left a few days prior to departure.you are able to pay with less miles.
I am a little confused. Does this mean they're simply adding another tier to the Standard/AAnytime rates, or does it mean they are actually changing costs across the board for certain travel dates (i.e., increasing Saver rates as well as AAnytime ones)? The former makes some sense to me--I don't know why they would go through the trouble and negative publicity of implementing the latter instead of just not making Saver awards available during peak travel periods.
I wonder when all those people who jumped ship from Delta will realize what a horrible mistake they've made. The FF program is the only advantage that AA has over Delta at this point, and even that is chipped away at more and more everyday.
This is confusing, since the linked award chart shows level 1 and level 2 AAnytime awards, but there are more levels than that already (4 I think). AAnytime 2 domestic is 30K for Y and 55K for J, but check the Sunday after Thanksgiving (busier than the Wednesday before), and you can easily find AAnytime pricing of 50K for Y and 75K for J, one way.
So I'm guessing either the level 4 pricing will increase, or they will be adding a new level 5 price tier.
@John +1,000
My thoughts exactly. Minor change, sure. Giving them credit for being transparent? Yeah.... Not if they aren't alerting the masses as a whole because I sure as heck haven't had an email notice.
The last comment was intended for Jackie, who seems to have further qualified her desired dates to summer holiday periods such as July 4th and Labor Day. That just make is more unlikely to find award seats on such short notice!
Again, an easily fixable issue if Jackie had only started earlier in looking for award seats!
Thanks for the heads up. Contrary to what George has indicated, I found availability to SXM from NYC area and since he did not give his location, his point is pretty worthless. By the way, I found availability in both Business/First and Economy.
In addition, don't you think that starting to look for award seats to Europe at the end of May for that summer is a bit late -- I do!!!
Sounds like they're becoming like BA and KE with its off-peak/peak periods.
Either AA is stupid (to trade $5000 for 175000 miles) or you are stupid (to believe them) or you are a write gun.
Well, let's see what DP has up his sleeves when he changes the partner redemption rates.
Definitely a minor change, but I think you're giving them too much credit at this point. It seems like they told you directly since you are a travel blogger, and would probably be lambasted by everyone at boardingarea if they did this without notice, but I still haven't seen an email communicating this change(may have just missed it) so unless you read this blog, you probably wouldn't know. Let's wait until they communicate to the...
Definitely a minor change, but I think you're giving them too much credit at this point. It seems like they told you directly since you are a travel blogger, and would probably be lambasted by everyone at boardingarea if they did this without notice, but I still haven't seen an email communicating this change(may have just missed it) so unless you read this blog, you probably wouldn't know. Let's wait until they communicate to the general masses before praising them.
@ John -- Well fair enough, though I'm also a travel blogger as far as Delta is concerned, and they don't give me or anyone else advance notice of the changes and allow them to post about it.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't necessarily feel like this is a change which they need to communicate by email to everyone in advance. They send me updates on a roughly weekly basis, and a lot...
@ John -- Well fair enough, though I'm also a travel blogger as far as Delta is concerned, and they don't give me or anyone else advance notice of the changes and allow them to post about it.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't necessarily feel like this is a change which they need to communicate by email to everyone in advance. They send me updates on a roughly weekly basis, and a lot of them are very minor. Most of them are so minor that I don't even bother writing about them, and my job revolves around these little details. Should they really clutter inboxes with every tiny change?
I have been trying to book an Off Peak award to SXM on American since April and there is nothing available anytime of year. Even when there are at least 8 seats available for purchase and the seat map shows First to be empty.
Would perhaps the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve be a couple of these "peak days"? That would make sense...
@ hsw25 -- Yeah, I'd guess those are two of them.
That sure is a lot of writing for so very little useful information.
I tried booking off-peak AA award travel to Europe for the holidays 3 weeks ago and found nothing available on American metal at the off-peak level. Had to change plans to February.
Ben - I'm unclear. They're raising rates for four days in August period, or they're raising AAnytime awards only on those four dates (and sAAver remains the same)? Thanks.
@ Daniel -- For tickets booked starting in August, they're raising the costs for travel on four subsequent dates.
On American metal only? So, no changes for redemptions on partner airlines?
@ Shanghai9 -- Correct.
And so it begins.
I'm excited to see your adjective progression as they move to a revenue-based model.
Signed,
A Skymiles prisoner.