American AAdvantage Eliminating Award Change & Redeposit Fees

@ Ben - Do you see this potentially being an issue as you mentioned that people might speculatively book award flights and thus lowering the available award space?

@ Ben -- Let's see, SWU's are never confirmable, I don't ever buy an economy ticket that I cannot upgrade immediately, award redeposits are free, and I am already LT Platinum. Why would I bother to pursue higher AA status? Oh right, I wouldn't. Ditto for United. Ditto for Delta. Ditto for all of them. It's all one big joke now. It feels good to a) be a free agent and b) stay at home more (although it would be nice to travel right now).

I actually would prefer a small fee, to help with the speculative booking. Will be interesting to see what happens.

I get the feeling that they're setting things up for a devaluation, especially after DL's a couple weeks ago.

devaluation coming soon

It was my favorite perk as an Exec Plat (along with upgrades) ... makes me reconsider getting status every year....

Ben-Do you know if the new no fees policy applies to future bookings only, or is applicable award tix already booked?

Yea so for better or worse, better grab any award you might use the first moment you see it, before someone else does. I guess as an upside more seats may re-open closer to travel as people's plans change and they need to cancel speculative bookings.

As if finding award availability wasn’t already hard enough.

Any idea whether this applies to Web Special awards as well?

@Ben L. - I canceled a web special ticket (intercontinental) and the miles were back in my account within an hour. I have no AA status.

Excited to see if DL or UA match the change.

@GoAmtrak

Wow, that's great to hear. Thanks for the information.

@GoAmtrak - Did your $5.60 in taxes also get refunded?

Does this include AA Web special awards? The flight I’m Looking at shows 20K miles for web special first but still says a fee will be charged for reinstating miles.

@GoAmtrak You may have not been charged a fee due to the current COVID waiver. I also would like to know if web-special awards can be redeposited without a fee, post-COVID.

I agree devaluation coming - it may already be here. International rewards will be so high that not many people will have enough miles to book. Domestic flights is not an issue.

I debated whether to make it from PP to EXP this year - just 2K miles short and $2.7K low, but now no reason to.

Whatever AA is doing is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.

Are we sure the elimination of award redeposit fees applies to partner awards as well?