A reader asked if I’m going to do a story on the American AAdvantage devaluation, and how American has seemingly raised saver level long haul business class award costs. Indeed, there hasn’t been much direct talk of this online, but I think that’s because this is a bit nuanced. Let me explain…
In this post:
The slow & quiet devaluation of AAdvantage awards
OMAAT reader Sel, D., asked the following:
No article on AA deval? You mentioned TATL is now 75k. Japan looks like 92k and South America maybe 95k? I don’t think any bloggers have written about this. Looks like the days of 57.5k are gone. This is pretty massive.
So, has AAdvantage increased the cost of business class awards? Kind of, very gradually, so let me explain. Over two years ago, in April 2023, American AAdvantage announced that it would adopt dynamic award pricing for its own flights.
So while American still has a published award chart for travel on partner airlines with consistent pricing (unlike Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus), the program now simply lists “starting at” costs for its own flights. Below is the AAdvantage award chart for travel on American.
What made this interesting is that when the chart was published, the “starting at” award costs didn’t actually reflect the lowest costs. Quite to the contrary, American still consistently had much lower award pricing than what was listed. Underpromising and overdelivering is a rare thing to see from a US airline, so it was hard to know what to make of that.
Part of the reason for this trend is that American increasingly uses married segment logic for award pricing, meaning that a Tampa to Miami to London award may cost less than just a Miami to London award (much like on revenue tickets, nonstop flights often cost more than itineraries with connections).
However, as time has gone on, the published pricing has increasingly reflected the actual pricing that American is charging. For example, as is pointed out above, 75,000 miles is increasingly the regular saver level one-way saver business class award cost between the United States and Europe, compared to the old cost of 57,500 miles.
The thing is, that’s still not consistently the case. For example, when adding an itinerary that includes multiple flights on American, I still see awards costing 70,000 miles.
And if you’re able to add a connecting flight on a partner airline, then the partner award chart applies. So that same American business class award from Chicago to London that costs 75,000 miles, would instead cost 57,500 miles if you just add a segment from London to Munich.
Yeah, we are definitely seeing a slight creep in award costs, closer to what American promised back in 2023. However, adding a segment on a partner airline gets you the lower saver level award cost, and there are still opportunities to get slightly lower pricing by adding connections.
Obviously when airlines introduce dynamic award pricing, it can be much harder to establish pricing trends, since the pricing creep can be very slow.
Broadly speaking, when there’s saver level business class award availability on American from the United States to South America, it’s now typically starting at 75,000 miles, compared to the old 62,500 miles.
When there’s saver level business class award availability on American from the United States to Asia, it’s now typically starting at 95,000 miles, compared to the old 62,500 miles.
Let me emphasize that this applies to awards that are exclusively on American metal, and when booking through AAdvantage. There are still much better deals to be had through other programs.
I still find AAdvantage miles to be hugely valuable
Admittedly AAdvantage miles aren’t as useful as they were a decade ago, but then again, which mileage currency is? Ugh, I do miss the days of readily available Cathay Pacific first class awards between the United States and Asia for 67,500 AAdvantage miles… I digress. As miles & points have become more mainstream, it has also become much more difficult to get outsized value.
Anyway, despite the business class pricing creep we’ve seen with AAdvantage for American flights, I still find the program to be hugely valuable, and I redeem a lot of AAdvantage miles:
- American AAdvantage actually has some industry leading partner award cost pricing, unlike Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus
- American still opens up a fair amount of saver level premium cabin award space, on both short haul and long haul flights, at least compared to competitors (I often book these with Alaska Mileage Plan miles)
- While partner airlines have increasingly restricted award space to AAdvantage, availability continues to be excellent outside the United States, including on Etihad and Qatar
Anyway, at least up until this point, I’ve genuinely felt that AAdvantage leadership puts effort into making the program lucrative, including for those who seek outsized value for premium cabin travel. I can’t the same for MileagePlus or SkyMiles, which seem to take their members for granted a bit more, at least on the redemption front.
Bottom line
In 2023, AAdvantage introduced dynamic award pricing for travel on American, with new “starting at” rates for award costs. Increasingly, those minimum costs reflect what’s being charged, at least more than they did initially.
Yes, typically one-way American business class awards from the US to Europe now start at 75,000 miles, while one-way business class awards from the US to Asia now start at 95,000 miles. That pricing isn’t consistent, though, and you can get lower award costs with connections, especially on partner airlines.
What’s your take on the evolution of AAdvantage award pricing?
I've put over 2 million actual miles on American over the last two decades and watched the value of being loyal continue to drop (good luck finding biz class tickets using miles anywhere other than London or domestic) and the service get grumpier. Have tried United the last few flights and while I hate the idea of starting over from scratch, at least their planes are in better shape and the flight attendants less crabby.
Ben, would really benefit from some info on how people are doing with phone agents in this space. Last year I could easily add an AA domestic leg to a 57.5K itinerary as long as it was available at the right rate, hence I could book to most US cities and add the flight to DCA once available. Yesterday an agent told me they’re not doing that anymore but allowed me to go ahead with...
Ben, would really benefit from some info on how people are doing with phone agents in this space. Last year I could easily add an AA domestic leg to a 57.5K itinerary as long as it was available at the right rate, hence I could book to most US cities and add the flight to DCA once available. Yesterday an agent told me they’re not doing that anymore but allowed me to go ahead with the addition anyway but I had to cancel and rebook the itinerary so they could add (thankfully it was still available). For the partner awards in Europe, are you having luck piecing itineraries together with phone agents to keep a 57.5K redemption rate or only when these are available point to point?
To assist AA in rooting out and shut down sweet spot redemptions, I think we need to get them all out in the open in this public forum that AA most certainly reads. The same for capturing AA Loyalty Points for free. The same for Amex card tricks, like the 99 employee cards all under the primary cardholder's name and Social Security number.
Jack, I have worked with a major airline specifically in marketing their co-branded credit cards and highlighting the redemption opportunities. While they never, ever overtly announced sweet spots, rest assured not a single line of copy went past legal or marketing without intense scrutiny.
As I mentioned in a comment a few days ago, these airlines and card issuers know what the hobbyists are capable of. They have built out timelines and strategies for...
Jack, I have worked with a major airline specifically in marketing their co-branded credit cards and highlighting the redemption opportunities. While they never, ever overtly announced sweet spots, rest assured not a single line of copy went past legal or marketing without intense scrutiny.
As I mentioned in a comment a few days ago, these airlines and card issuers know what the hobbyists are capable of. They have built out timelines and strategies for evolving their loyalty programs. They are not being bamboozled by AvGeeks on the internet. Not anymore. Maybe 20 years ago. But even then, they knew and negotiated what redemption opportunities would be possible. This is a huge cash cow for them. No one is outsmarting anyone. These are major corporations with major shareholder responsibilities.
This is part of the reason why I'm not too excited about Citi adding AA as a partner or the launch of the Strata Elite. This is giving early days of Delta launching CC's where you can spend your way to Diamond status. Everyone rushes in thinking they can take full advantage of the program like in the good ol days, only to find out that the slow devaluation of points added to suddenly everyone...
This is part of the reason why I'm not too excited about Citi adding AA as a partner or the launch of the Strata Elite. This is giving early days of Delta launching CC's where you can spend your way to Diamond status. Everyone rushes in thinking they can take full advantage of the program like in the good ol days, only to find out that the slow devaluation of points added to suddenly everyone having hoards of AA points, the ability to actually get value goes to basically zero.
The only exceptions are if you get in absolutely immediately with a targeted redemption, or have extreme flexibility/patience in getting your desired awards in the future. I think the vast majority of people getting into the Citi and AA ecosystem expecting to get outsized value are in for a rude awakening over the next year.
Counterpoint: if Citi makes a boatload of cash on signups for these cards and the savvy miles/points junkies have to pay an incremental (because, come on, that's what 58k to ~90k is for those in the know) cost increase for premium redemptions, then good, this is measured evolution. People, nothing lasts forever. Save yourselves the grief.
Points and miles have become incredibly easy to obtain so the value is often closer to 1cpp at best on a lot of redemptions. TYP to AA will likely kill most of the good redemptions.
I strongly welcome this belief. I have never wavered from my minimum threshold of 7 cpp for premium cabin redemptions throughout all the devaluations. If people think the standard is a 1 cpp parity, good for them. They won't do the legwork for the sweet spots. More availability for us.
Awesome 7cpp! I use 5cpp as my minimum for premium cabins. 2cpp for economy. Happy if I get higher. I'm always stunned when I see bloggers, Ben included, talking about 1.54cpp with Platinum Business being an acceptable deal.
@Daniel A it all depends on a personal situation, I suppose. I will pay cash and stack my purchases for the vast majority of my purchases, airfare included. 1.54 cpp is easier to swallow on average if your net income is high, tax burden consequently low and stock/frequency of points/redemptions is well above average.
I tell friends/family that I teach about this game that 4cpp should be your red line. None of them listen....
@Daniel A it all depends on a personal situation, I suppose. I will pay cash and stack my purchases for the vast majority of my purchases, airfare included. 1.54 cpp is easier to swallow on average if your net income is high, tax burden consequently low and stock/frequency of points/redemptions is well above average.
I tell friends/family that I teach about this game that 4cpp should be your red line. None of them listen. Reports of value being dead in this game are premature.
I will say they still have non saver awards below the 75k threshold. I was able to book direct DFW to FCO in business for 59k. It wasn't saver, but it was a better price and partners didn't have access to it. That an a 63k were all that were available the entire year so don't know what to make of it.
What I don't really get is the points difference flying to Japan or Korea on AA vs. continuing to other SE countries. Going to MNL from DCA cost me 70K in Business class with a stop to NRT or HND while DCA to NRT{HND will be 166K or as high as 204k.
Solid. Thanks.
The days of readily available CX F for 67.5k were my biggest period of leisure travel. I'm so glad that was the case.
Great read. For spring break next year, we got BNA>CLT>MUC for 66k, flying on a Thursday. I bought it one way, 330 days out. Just bought our return Basel>LHR>JFK>BNA for 57.5 plus $123 in taxes, traveling on a Sunday. I’d been playing with the return for a while and it just opened up. Coach from ZRH was in the 60s, so the extra stop and changing at JFK (ugh) seemed worth it.
I think where we’re taking the real hit is the end of AAnytime awards. Remember when those were just 2x the level of Saver awards? I now see one way transatlantic J awards pricing as high as 300-400k- in Delta territory
Great article Ben. I think you make a good point about AA management historically trying to offer good redemption options for their frequent travelers.
While there are many many ways that AA has trailed the other big domestic airlines in customer experience, tech, service, the commitment to delivering value has really positively differentiated AA. You can also see this in Isom’s commitment not to use AI for dynamic pricing. Regardless of financial impact it’s...
Great article Ben. I think you make a good point about AA management historically trying to offer good redemption options for their frequent travelers.
While there are many many ways that AA has trailed the other big domestic airlines in customer experience, tech, service, the commitment to delivering value has really positively differentiated AA. You can also see this in Isom’s commitment not to use AI for dynamic pricing. Regardless of financial impact it’s something I have a lot of respect for.
I hope that in their turnaround plan they don’t go straight for the SkyMileagePlus playbook and nuke their award chart.
If you look at PE pricing, they still price JFK-LHR in the 39k range when the chart indicates 50k up. I think this is more of a demand issue for business class space. I definitely saw leisure route pricing (JFK-ATH) at 54k in J not that long ago.
@ Brent -- I wouldn't assume it's demand related, because this is for flights where "U" space is available in business class, which means American has elected to make saver award space available. I do get the sense that there has been a bump in recent times in terms of how saver awards are priced.
Thanks for the post and putting all in perspective!
The cheapest I’ve seen JFK to LHR is 65k next year (and I’ve speculatively booked tickets). This year virtually all is 100k plus. Also of note is return flights from LHR now all seem to have much more of a surcharge than $5.60. Even 19k economy tickets have a $150+ surcharge. Not at BA levels yet… but something to keep an eye on.
Yes...
Thanks for the post and putting all in perspective!
The cheapest I’ve seen JFK to LHR is 65k next year (and I’ve speculatively booked tickets). This year virtually all is 100k plus. Also of note is return flights from LHR now all seem to have much more of a surcharge than $5.60. Even 19k economy tickets have a $150+ surcharge. Not at BA levels yet… but something to keep an eye on.
Yes if you are going to mainland Europe there are still some 57.5k deals. Just did JFK-LHR/LCY-LIN for that and ~$70 surcharge. Not bad! But not helpful if you want to go to London and don’t do skiplagging.
No question they have been laying the groundwork over the past number of months for the Citi TY point transfers. Getting harder and harder to find saver awards though versus something “dynamic”.
I don’t think this is turning into SkyMiles but possibly heading towards MileagePlus where saver awards are more like 88k if I remember correctly. Interesting AA doesn’t have a points discount if you hold a high level AA card like DL and UA. Less need before but now…
Real question is whether to still independently accumulate AA miles versus transferable points. Seemingly less of a reason to do so now which is why I will reevaluate having the AA Exec card. Much prefer MR and UR points that can transfer to Aeroplan versus TY but still get value out of FlyingBlhe, Virgin etc with TY.
Won’t tickets from LHR always have a higher cash component due to the UK APD?
@ Peter -- The higher pricing ex-LHR just reflects the UK APD, which has always been there if not connecting from elsewhere (as noted by James. K.). But yeah, otherwise I agree with you. :-)
Thanks so much Ben and James K. Makes sense. I think I was noticing it trending higher but was also looking at next April. Apparently APD increases in April 2026, so think I got tripped up there. For economy goes from 90 to 102 pounds. And with the weaker dollar that’s $136, so seeing a $150 surcharge actually “makes sense”. “Standard rate” going from 216 to 244 pounds or $326.
You may also wish to note that France will now charge you a cool €120 in solidarity tax if you're in business class on a long haul flight (>5500km distance between capitals). I think you can avoid it if you fly to one of the DOM routes.