Last November we learned about the changes American is making to the AAdvantage program in 2016. This includes a pretty substantial award chart devaluation, which kicks in for bookings as of March 22, 2016. Some of my favorite awards are going up in price significantly.
Continue reading: American Increasing Standard Award Rates To Australia
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It makes me happy that I booked my flight in January!
I'm flying first class AA DFW> LAX > SYD for 72.5k miles and return via Qantas business SYD > DFW for 62.5k miles in September.
This might be my one and only chance to fly first class to Australia.
Never will fly DL to Australia in D1 on miles. Let's hope Virgin DL redemption stay low when VA gets their new Biz.
Remember way back, my favorite award was TWA's 75% off any business or first ticket. And you'd still get miles for it.
Will soon be that unless you're doing mfg spending to boost points, can seldom afford it.
You were likely in diapers back then Ben.
@Adam: They do, but availability is hard to come by! The LAX-BNE route has the best availability.
Perhaps QF put pressure on AA to increase their rates as they were so embarrassed at many miles are needed for their own FF program to fly the same leg (plus they add fuel surcharges). Spare a thought for us Aussies.
So my wife has been thinking about a trip down under. We have lots of AA miles & some Chase UR & Citi TY points. What routes should I be focusing on for next winter to find 2 biz class seats? I know I could connect through Hong Kong or Tokyo, but I'd love to fly direct if I can find it. Thoughts anyone?
@Adam: I think the opposite. If I have Delta miles to burn I would probably fly them to Australia. Not that is a good redemption but that is the only way I would fly them. I would never pay to fly Delta to Australia since unless their fare is half of the competition which I doubt there are much better ways to fly to Australia in business class than on Delta One.
I have never seen a saver award in First out of LAX to SYD for any month on AA
Searched numerous times for up to 8 months
210k will obviously be the new going rate
Have seen business class seats at saver levels more recently
Was able to book Virgin Australia easily in Business and they did a great job
Ill be banking in other programs
Will ad
Qantas is just as bad as AA typically though out of LHR to SYD /MEL seats can be found in First
Regarding AA Anytime awards in general, I think the biggest impact item with the recent 'segmentation' of the AnyTime awards bucket(s) has been to those that need to position from a smaller market to a hub city for an international and/or partner redemption.
On the last two attempted bookings I've tried to make, I could actually find Saver award capacity (say on BA, or CX), but AA has gone to a much more Delta-like domestic (coach or first, doesn't really seem to be too different IME) mileage award rate policy, whereas Saver has become virtually non-existent, but the Anytime award is actually a fairly reasonable premium over Saver. My example was AA was asking 20K miles for coach vs. 12,500 miles. Obviously, not ideal for those of us looking to maximize our redemption values, but not necessarily unreasonable for secondary markets to be asking 40K miles for a domestic round trip with high seat availability.
Like I said above, though, this model crushes our aspirations of taking a 'free' trip using our miles when booking a partner ticket, since you cannot combine Saver & Anytime awards to piece together a viable itinerary!
Thus, I was forced to choose whether to come out of pocket to position to the hub, or look for *A alternatives. In the last case, luckily *A could accommodate me. The other time, it was $ out of pocket.
Unfortunate, potentially unforeseen (should I give them the benefit of the doubt?), consequence of their new AAdvantage policy decision...
theBOAT
Wife and I had lots of AA miles to burn before the (3/21) devaulation, and after reading articles here and elsewhere on boardingarea.com, were able to score first class on Qantas A380. The catch is we're flying eastbound from D.C. to Heathrow (British Airways economy) for a one-day visit/layover, and then Qantas First to Dubai and onto Sydney. On the return, we continue eastbound and are aboard separate QF A380 flights because Qantas released only one First seat on our respective flights (wife has SYD-DFW while I have SYD-LAX before connecting on AA back to D.C.). So a round-the-world trip is coming up... I'm calling it the "sun never sets on the British Empire" tour.
Does anyone find it ironic that AA's award chart (and lack of saver award seats) pretty much guarantee fliers are better off using their AAdvantage miles on a foreign carrier (rather than on AA's own flights)? That, coupled with U.S. airlines' reputation for mediocre flight service (versus most Asian airlines and Qantas) and lack of A380s made it a no-brainer decision to seek Qantas for me.
@Mike -- Try ExpertFlyer (and their free 7-day trial) to search your options for award travel. You'll probably have to do a lot of searches (for different airlines and routes), but you can bookmark searches to save time. I saw Qantas had lots of economy award seats available to SYD, but obviously you are aiming higher and will probably have to go on a fox hunt to find the business or first class seats you want. Good luck.
As an Australian generally making 4 trips to the US annually (out of my own pocket) the award costs, and availability, are now laughable! Buy a AAnytime award? ROFL !! Never in a million years! Much better to fly via AKL, HKG, NRT/HND or ICN. Hell, why not SYD-DXB-JFK ?? The variations are endless. Oh, none of this involves using AA miles. So f*** you, A(dis)Advantage! You will have to do a Avianca-like 125% bonus miles to get back your Australian customers! Memo to Doug Parker: don't listen to Alan Joyce of Qantas~ his 'good ideas' only work in boom times, where world aviation is right now.
@Glenn T: SYD-AUH-JFK involved AA miles and should still come cheaper than using Qantas miles on EK on that route.
@Daniel~ Don't even think of QF miles for that route unless you have bucketloads to burn! Use Alaska MileagePlan!
@dwonderment:
"I have never seen a saver award in First out of LAX to SYD for any month on AA"
I got an award when I booked in January, for a flight in September. It took me 5 minutes to find 🙂
2 years ago I flew QF F A380 on a saver award out of LAX.
I booked it 24 hours out!
Honestly QF F is not worth the miles at all.
Would disagree with your assessment of QF First! It is streets ahead of the current AA offering, where the elderly crews have been specially trained to try to match QF (and fail badly). Can't teach an old dog new tricks I suppose. A request to make up the bed for sleep is met with "Do it yourself!" WTF?? Qantas are pro-active and happily do it while you change into your PJs in the restroom.