Are American AAdvantage Miles Slowly & Steadily Losing Value?

AA isn’t alone. Name one miles program that hasn’t been devalued over the past few years.

I am UK based, so it's probably unsurprising that I have a decent stash of Avios. Some of these have come through BA's "Avios Boost", which is effectively buying them at 0.92p each (about 1.25 cents).

I've often looked at AA's redemption costs (both points and fees) and thought they were worth a lot more than Avios, although this is, of course, very route-dependent and carrier-dependent. I even gave brief consideration to buying 500k at 1.88 cents each a couple of years back.

In short, I would suggest that your valuation of 1.5 cents used to be overly conservative; given the changes you describe, perhaps 1.5 cents is now a fair valuation?

I still find plenty of value in AA miles. AA does release some premium cabin awards on its own metal. I grabbed 4 TPAC awards tickets (on the same flight) fairly recently. Unfortunately, with proliferation of award search tools, these opportunities disappear very quickly. Partner awards in premium cabins are certainly far fewer than they used to be, not surprisingly. However, JL still seems to favor its AA partnership over its other partner airlines, so JL awards are still available from time to time, albeit often at somewhat elevated prices recently.

I don't know why everyone keeps saying that JAL doesn't open first and business awards to partners anymore. They don't appear on Alaska and American because their award window is 330 days. However, for Qantas, Cathay and the Avios programs, you can usually find tons of availability a 330-360 days out.

Can’t argue with anything said here.

I do enjoy that I can consistently get more value out of AAdvantage for than the other big guys when it comes for redemptions to fly coach on their own metal. Keeps me around.

I'm still finding usefulness w/ AA miles, but mostly on domestic flights and the occasional long-haul J flights on AA metal. I'm not necessarily getting them at saver level, but it's still a relatively reasonable price, so I'm happy enough with it.

With regard to close-in saver fares not being available on partners, that's only for domestic itineraries? Because last week I was able to book a long-haul J fare on AA for my brother and sister-in-law using Atmos points.

For domestic AA flights dynamic pricing has been a godsend. Remember when 25k was the *saver* (well SAAver. RIP) option for first?? On the routes I frequent, I can easily get first for <15k miles one way. Same with economy. Saver used to be 7.5k for flights less than 500 miles. And 12.5k for 500+. You can get nonstop flights for 7k miles very frequently when booked in advance (including longer routes). And the cherry on top is it’s booked into Main and is completely flexible. Sadly the 6k one way economy flights are much less common now… but still!!

AA DFW-LHR today for 55k AS miles. BCN is 70k. Not sure that six day cutoff is still real.

From my perspective, AA has been relatively consistent (and a boost in supply has mostly come from the exclusivity of Citi transfers); unlike Delta which has devalued comedically (if searching for J long-haul; 500K? Psh.), and United which, seemingly, has improved, recently. Where things get interesting is using Alaska points on AA metal (if there's availability, there can be outsized value.)

Domestically, not at all. Just used 15,000 miles for a trip in two months that continues to be over $1,000.

My experience has been different here. I feel like Ben’s opinion is a year old now, at least my in markets. I was accruing more AA miles to use for domestic flights which have generally been quite a good value, but i’ve noticed that in the last 6-9 months or so AA redemption rates for their domestic tickets have been absolutely abysmal… in my markets.
I feel like there was a screw tightened across all AA first class pricing and mileage redemption earlier this year… it was like they finally realized what they were leaving on the table… and how much below their competitors their pricing and mileage redemptions were.
When you combine this new change, and their awful recovery in spec ops situations it’s lead to me not flying them much at all anymore.

You are absolutely correct in your assessment. Cathay Pacific's First Class and Business Class award tickets from the U.S. to Hong Kong are non-existent, as are flights on Japan Airlines from the U.S. to Tokyo. Who wants to use miles to fly around in first class domestically?

You start handing out obscene amounts of miles to OPM flyers per trip based on "spend" and inflation happens..... who would've thought!

The problem isnt overall availability.
its international flights to and from the US like you eluded to. ONce ur out of the US, you can easily find flight between europe, asia, africa easily among one world partners.