There’s no doubt that a lot has changed in the airline industry over the past several years, especially as it pertains to award availability. With airlines actually making money flying full planes with good yields, we’ve continually seen less and less award space.
This is especially evident with American Airlines. Going back a few years, they were by far the best airline when it comes to releasing award space on their own flights. Whether you were looking for economy, business, or first class, they released space to most of their destinations, including Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
As I wrote about last October, AAdvantage award space has taken a sharp turn for the worse, especially for travel to Europe. At the time, there was a single date in all of 2014 with first or business class award availability at the saver level. I get that airlines are less incentivized than ever before to release award space, but that’s kind of extreme. At the same time, I can’t totally blame them for not releasing much award space in advance, given that those seats could otherwise be sold.
Here’s what I’m less forgiving of, however. I was trying to get from London to New York today, and didn’t find much award space across the board.
Then I looked at the actual flight loads on American:
- AA105 was “F7,” meaning at least seven first class seats were still for sale (that’s the most number of seats they’ll display)
- AA107 was “F7,” meaning at least seven first class seats were still for sale (that’s the most number of seats they’ll display)
This route is operated by 777-300ERs with just eight first class seats.
American 777-300ER first class cabin
Then I had a look at the seatmaps for both flights, and not a single first class seat was taken on either flight:
Despite that, there wasn’t a single saver level first class award seat on either flight. They would sell you a seat for 175,000 miles one-way, though.
To me, this scenario is what I really take issue with. Unlike others, I’m fine with airlines not releasing award space in advance. I mean, of course I’d like them to, but I get from their perspective there’s a massive opportunity cost to making seats available when they could otherwise be sold.
But what I find unjustifiable is not making award seats available 12 hours before departure when the cabin is otherwise completely empty. That’s the biggest slap in the face to frequent flyers, in my opinion.
What has been your experience with American’s award space for travel on their own flights lately?
Really stingy, even when using miles and dollars to upgrade. They base priority for upgrades on elite status but take forever to post miles from previous trips that could bump up your status level, and on check in time, which they will not allow you to do in advance if you are flying the first segment on a partner airline. Ugh.
I'm an EXP with almost 2M active miles and can't get two Business Class seats from anywhere in the US to either MAD or BCN. My dates are for early May and I've been trying to get them since October. I now call AA everyday and still nothing.... The frustration is that some of the flights have 18/20 empty seats!!!!
Truly makes me angry for having put so much time onto this airline!!!!
Amazing...
And the trend worsens... Suddenly they've pulled the (very few) TATL sAAvers that existed for anything after mid-April next year. Zip-zero-nada on AA, but, BA has plenty...assuming you want to pay the exhorbitant surcharge (which I don't).
More amazing... I was able to find the itinerary I wanted (LAX//LHR) using SkyPesos!!! Not only that... we're not talking single ticket in Y... we're talking family of 4 in Business/First on VS on way out and...
Amazing...
And the trend worsens... Suddenly they've pulled the (very few) TATL sAAvers that existed for anything after mid-April next year. Zip-zero-nada on AA, but, BA has plenty...assuming you want to pay the exhorbitant surcharge (which I don't).
More amazing... I was able to find the itinerary I wanted (LAX//LHR) using SkyPesos!!! Not only that... we're not talking single ticket in Y... we're talking family of 4 in Business/First on VS on way out and 2 in J, and 2 in Y on DL on way back -- during the month of July! And, yes, I'm talking DL saver level here.
This is not the first time SkyPesos turned out to be superior that disAAdvantage miles for me. Getting from LAX to GRU and back for WC earlier this year had to happen with SkyPesos (using Korean Airlines). UA also had availability (although not direct). AA... not a single seat with exception of July 7th for some reason, (and only that day for each direction).
Can not reiterate how frustrated I am with the disAAdvantage program...and when the gutted the program back in April without warning I was for a moment actually thinking 'hey, perhaps they'll open a few sAAvers now' -- yeah... silly me for thinking they'd show a courtesy.
Couldn't agree more with this post. I was AA Exec Plat last year and started seeing a huge reduction in award seat avail, so I scaled back my AA flying and am only Plat now. Award seats seem to be getting even more scarce, so I'm increasingly moving to Delta. Never thought I would say that, but here I am.
My problem with AA right now is that they aren't being honest with us. I'm...
Couldn't agree more with this post. I was AA Exec Plat last year and started seeing a huge reduction in award seat avail, so I scaled back my AA flying and am only Plat now. Award seats seem to be getting even more scarce, so I'm increasingly moving to Delta. Never thought I would say that, but here I am.
My problem with AA right now is that they aren't being honest with us. I'm pretty sure they have decided that all flights with new business class (777-300s and refurbished 763s) have "too good" of a product to offer at saver levels. Fine, if that's what they want to do, they have every right -- but they should *publish* that as part of the program. Announce it to the world so we can stop searching for availability and adjust our loyalty accordingly. But to make it seem like you can find saver award inventory, especially if flights aren't full, but never offer it is just wrong.
I have the Citi AA card that costs $450/yr and gets me into the Admirals Club, but I'm thinking of dropping it. Why would I pay $450 again next year and keep earning more AA miles if I can't really use them? I don't think Citi is going to be very happy about AA taking all this money from them and then they are left holding the bad when cardmembers bolt to competitors.
Just booked a trip for my family traveling next Feb. CX has plenty room in J/Y while AA doesn't even has a single seat in Y !! I'm going to file a complaint to their customer relations, seriously.
Summer of 2014 only July 1 was available to Europe 331 days out for 3. For summer of 2015 it was June 23 and June 30 (I booked 3 F LAX-DFW-LHR)- of course more could have opened later. But it does seem AA picks certain days so it can only be saver one way. For summer 2015 Star Alliance was harder for 3 than ever before.
@ffi - what's wrong with the LX / AF model where they reserve the F to high elites ? Why should all these guys who gained their miles with (US only) far too generous start up fees from CC's get access to the best seats without having any link / loyalty to the airline ? I really do not understand why all people keep on calling this loyalty or frequent flyer schemes if the majority...
@ffi - what's wrong with the LX / AF model where they reserve the F to high elites ? Why should all these guys who gained their miles with (US only) far too generous start up fees from CC's get access to the best seats without having any link / loyalty to the airline ? I really do not understand why all people keep on calling this loyalty or frequent flyer schemes if the majority of the miles have been gained with other methods. I think the LX / AF (and to some extent the LH for their own members) model is much closer to what we should call loyalty, all the rest is pure opportunistic. Nothing wrong with opportunism, but please don't complain then that the other party takes an opportunistic approach as well.
Ben, comments are welcome !!
Lucky -- you wrote in a reply to a comment "@ beachfan — Special Executive Platinum inventory is economy only." This is VERY wrong. Think expanded C availability. And have had expanded Z and U a few times -- without rev mgmt intervention. Expanded avail can be across all cabins.
FYI 105 went out with 7 nonrevs and 1 empty seat in 1st. 107 had 2 seats filled by revenue passengers, 6 empty. It was an unusual day.
@ Sofi -- Thanks for the heads up!
No question it's worse. I can book Cathay to Asia no problem but not from DFW. The non-stop DFW HKG they want double the miles for F vs CX out of any US city. Totally insane. I now have to buy a ticket to a Cathay city then fly onward with an award seat. I believe the miles game is up. We had a good run at AA. Just last night I was looking at...
No question it's worse. I can book Cathay to Asia no problem but not from DFW. The non-stop DFW HKG they want double the miles for F vs CX out of any US city. Totally insane. I now have to buy a ticket to a Cathay city then fly onward with an award seat. I believe the miles game is up. We had a good run at AA. Just last night I was looking at a seat from SYD to DFW using Alaska miles. 40K for AA A380 QF code share. Delta wants 120K one-way. No matter where you go now it seems were screwed.
I find this to be the MOST frustrating aspect of AAdvantage. It is nothing more than a bait and switch and the devaluation is far worse than what UA did.
By way of comparison, I just confirmed two F class seats ORD-NRT on Saver Awards using UA miles for a trip later this month. On AA? Not a flipping chance. I can't even get 2 F class seats ORD-LGA for next May! Seriously? Buehler?...
I find this to be the MOST frustrating aspect of AAdvantage. It is nothing more than a bait and switch and the devaluation is far worse than what UA did.
By way of comparison, I just confirmed two F class seats ORD-NRT on Saver Awards using UA miles for a trip later this month. On AA? Not a flipping chance. I can't even get 2 F class seats ORD-LGA for next May! Seriously? Buehler? Nothing? Do you know how many flights a day there are ORD-LGA?
I've completely stopped collecting AA miles and will let my Gold status end with this year. There is zero reason to collect AAdvantage miles. They have gone way to the other end of the scale and made their currency worthless.
Ben
This has nothing to do with US dba AA
GUWonder on Flyertalk pointed this out soon after the BA TATL venture
AA is driving all seats to BA for the fees that get shared.
let us look at 2 scenarios
1
No space open on AA
BA ticket sold - 600$ for TATL = 300$ for AA
2
AA opens up space 2 weeks out like...
Ben
This has nothing to do with US dba AA
GUWonder on Flyertalk pointed this out soon after the BA TATL venture
AA is driving all seats to BA for the fees that get shared.
let us look at 2 scenarios
1
No space open on AA
BA ticket sold - 600$ for TATL = 300$ for AA
2
AA opens up space 2 weeks out like LH
FF pay 150$ each and change to AA from BA
AA gets 150$ but loses 300$ of the 600$ fees that BA gets
3
EXPs are even worse for AA
0$ fee for change; loss of 300$ each ticket
4
I think LH model is best and helps keep Star Alliance together
Keep a few for own elites all the time
Release all except 2 seats to anyone at 2 weeks out
AF / LX is the wrong way to go (only to high elites? - give me a break)
AA is truly a total $--- in this (pretend to be good, but push to BA)
DL is best (at least medium space is always available) and UA is a bit behind
I think all BA bloggers like you who have been kicked out of UA are gushing about EXP benefits and I think this is a lesson for you guys.
You are not as important to AA as you think
5
SQ, EY etc also do not release last minute space
EY tries to sell upgrades at check in both online and gate
What was the C inventory like? I would have bought a cheap O ticket and pay for an upgrade or use the SWU! It's just a 7h day time flight!
@ TheRealBabushka -- A "cheap" one way ticket from London to New York day of? There's no such thing. ;)
It's possible that if there's an empty F cabin, they fly without attendants for that cabin, completely close service for it and save on catering and staff costs.
@ James -- Except the plane is staffed the same way regardless and American still caters the cabin in case of last minute upgrades. Other airlines don't, but American does.
Actually, on off peak days, AA's AAnytime coach awards (45K each way between Europe and US) are a decent enough deal. If I'm traveling on off-peak days, my strategy is to wait a reasonable amount of time for UA Saver or AA PlanAAhead seats to become available, with a fallback position of booking 45K AAnytime seats. (Yes, I'm willing to fly coach... )-: ) (But, overall, I do find it much easier to get reasonable...
Actually, on off peak days, AA's AAnytime coach awards (45K each way between Europe and US) are a decent enough deal. If I'm traveling on off-peak days, my strategy is to wait a reasonable amount of time for UA Saver or AA PlanAAhead seats to become available, with a fallback position of booking 45K AAnytime seats. (Yes, I'm willing to fly coach... )-: ) (But, overall, I do find it much easier to get reasonable value out of UA miles, compared with AA....I currently value my UA miles at 1.5 cents each; AA at 1 cent.)
A last minute redemption (one week out) worked out for me in June: an optional trip I'd been casually tracking for weeks became possible, in Business Class, because saver awards opened up -- on United. AA's stinginess with First Class saver awards is maddening. I'm sticking with them for those last 20K to my first million mile and then I'll see.
Lucky,
I have been experiencing this for over a year. I pointed this out to you on another of your posts, and you replied that Exec Plats have access to more inventory. Well, I guess that isn't true. American is playing the miles game as well as the other carriers. American gets you to fly them, carry their credit cards, etc. and then plays their customers like pawns in a game.
Ben, While i see the point you make, i do think it is based on your personal experience, not too representative for the average frequent flyer. For how many frequent flyers / mile collectors, it is convenient to wait and book a flight 12 h upfront. Actually the main target public would be the business traveller, so why not try and keep this pricey? I think most frequent flyers would benefit much more from some...
Ben, While i see the point you make, i do think it is based on your personal experience, not too representative for the average frequent flyer. For how many frequent flyers / mile collectors, it is convenient to wait and book a flight 12 h upfront. Actually the main target public would be the business traveller, so why not try and keep this pricey? I think most frequent flyers would benefit much more from some availability earlier, and don't care about really short term availability. If most frequent travellers use their miles for holiday, i think freeing up one seat in premium would therefore be great - airlines can hope the other one will be booked with money.
Don’t fly coach.
AA coach at 40k AA miles round trip, 20K one way (offpeak coach to Europe) is actually a pretty good deal if you're in MCE, originating in New York/Boston/Philly, and it's a "daytime" flight for you where you're not going to be getting a lot of sleep anyways.
I hope you took the 30,000 saver economy! AA F is not worth 145,000 more on a westbound 6.5 hour daytime flight.
Didn't see (sorry if I missed it) how you ended up getting across the pond. I am sure you called or tweeted someone at AA to open up saver inventory for you :-)
Very usefull post to know, I never check short term availability.
I assume you also called to see if there were any seats being made available to Ex Plats, right? (they won't show on line).
@ beachfan -- Special Executive Platinum inventory is economy only.
Heh! I started complaining about this in my comments here a couple of years ago. At that time you said that AA just releases availability in clumps every now and then, and I just had to wait for the next release event. That is of course true to a point, but didn't address the fact that the amount being released had been steadily decreasing for several years already. And it has just kept getting worse...
Heh! I started complaining about this in my comments here a couple of years ago. At that time you said that AA just releases availability in clumps every now and then, and I just had to wait for the next release event. That is of course true to a point, but didn't address the fact that the amount being released had been steadily decreasing for several years already. And it has just kept getting worse since then. So at the time I seemed to be a Debbie Downer, when in fact I was the Canary in the Coal Mine. As everyone can see for themselves now.
I totally disagree with the "reasonable" position of: " I can’t totally blame them for not releasing much award space in advance, given that those seats could otherwise be sold." Those miles we can't redeem have already been sold by AA, either earned thru BIS ticket prices, or thru sales to CC issuers and shopping portals. To now say, 'sorry, you've spent years accumulating miles, but we can sell the seats for cash, so your miles are now worthless' reeks of a Ponzi scheme.
There are two weird things about how AA releases space that I haven't seen anyone mention yet. One is that instead of speculating on what seats will go unsold, and releasing those, AA will pick a date almost a year out, and release 100% of the seats on that date from just about everywhere. For next summer, one of those dates was July 7th. You could go from just about anywhere in the US to just about anywhere in Europe that AA goes, but only on July 7th. As of today, every single seat from DFW to FRA is booked on July 7th. That is the only day in July with less than 6 Anytime seats available for that flight. AA just booked the entire FC cabin at Saver for that date.
The other thing is that AA will release space in both directions on the same date, then nothing anywhere near that date. So you can go, or you can come back, but you can't go R/T. So guess what, the only date next July without at least 6 Anytime seats available today from FRA to DFW is, (that's right), July 7th.
I guess they are hoping to force you to fly on an award one way, and then have to either buy a ticket or go Anytime the other way. If you don't want to do either of those, and aren't permanently moving to Europe, you are going to have to find return space on some other airline. Forget about "Loyalty Programs", diversification in FF programs is now totally essential.
Can we please stop with the one obligatory "first-world problems" response to nearly everyone of Lucky's posts. It's played, trite and adds nothing to the discussion. What next, "it is what it is?"
If you are turned off by the discussion of first-world problems, I suggest you follow the Good Morning Haiti blog (no offense meant to Haitians).
Ben, I couldn't agree with you more on this post. Insulting is the correct term in this case.
This has been a sharp trend for at least 12 months, and not just on AA. It's only now that's it's inconvenienced Lucky so there's a post about it. For many people, mileage accounts are growing in large part because the miles are becoming almost useless for many desirable destinations. And if you are not traveling solo, forget about it.
There are two things loyalty programs are useful for now:
1. Some of the elite...
This has been a sharp trend for at least 12 months, and not just on AA. It's only now that's it's inconvenienced Lucky so there's a post about it. For many people, mileage accounts are growing in large part because the miles are becoming almost useless for many desirable destinations. And if you are not traveling solo, forget about it.
There are two things loyalty programs are useful for now:
1. Some of the elite benefits like pre-boarding, fast track security (LHR and others), lounge access.
2. Awards as long as you are willing to pay 2X the saver rate. Take your current balance and cut it in half, that makes the comparison equal to the valuation 8 years ago.
This is why it's so disingenuous to constantly pimp the credit card signups, sure AA is giving you 75,000, and in theory that's almost a business class ticket, but you can't expect to actually get to go where you want to go, when you want to go. Stop thinking Europe in the spring, start thinking Panama City in the summer.
@ Another Steve -- I agree and disagree. At the end of the day you should decide which miles you collect based on where you want to travel. American miles are invaluable for travel to the Middle East and Asia, where you'll have no problem redeeming them. I don't think I've ever claimed American miles are great for travel to Europe, on the other hand.
But you can still redeem American miles easily for Cathay...
@ Another Steve -- I agree and disagree. At the end of the day you should decide which miles you collect based on where you want to travel. American miles are invaluable for travel to the Middle East and Asia, where you'll have no problem redeeming them. I don't think I've ever claimed American miles are great for travel to Europe, on the other hand.
But you can still redeem American miles easily for Cathay Pacific premium cabins along with several other products, so I hardly think they're unusable.
Two points:
1.) I know it's a very small data point, and it's a Saturday in October... but not a single first class seat sold on either flight? Hmmmm... that doesn't seem good for AA.
2.) In general terms, it seems people are always moving from UA to AA, or from AA to UA for better award availability. I know DL has had a bad rap, but it's getting better, isn't it? I will be...
Two points:
1.) I know it's a very small data point, and it's a Saturday in October... but not a single first class seat sold on either flight? Hmmmm... that doesn't seem good for AA.
2.) In general terms, it seems people are always moving from UA to AA, or from AA to UA for better award availability. I know DL has had a bad rap, but it's getting better, isn't it? I will be curious to see if they follow through on their promise for better award availability next year when the 2015 program launches.
3.) Ok, three points. Don't fly coach.
@ DiscoPapa -- Hey, I've been praising SkyMiles lately, they're looking better and better in terms of the value of their miles!
Soooooooooooooooo….fly coach.You won’t die. It’ll be fine.
What makes you think they are releasing coach award seats to Europe? I spent some time looking for seats in May 2015. Nothing except BA (which is a bad joke since 90% of the cost of the coach seats is tied up in YQ and taxes).
This smells to me. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of back room deal where BA and AA share some of the "fuel surcharge" revenue in exchange for pushing all award availability to BA.
@ Andy -- Except BA isn't very good with last minute award space lately anymore either.
Coach saver availability from and to DFW has been really poor too almost a year out to Europe. Only BA nonstops.
Does less award ticket passengers mean more cargo capacity?
@ Alex -- Nah, a London to New York flight wouldn't be weight restricted to begin with.
I've seen this all too often on short-haul economy awards as well. Award space never showed up, even with several seats available for sale (in low fare buckets, no less).
I can't bring myself to pay an absurd number of miles for an AAnytime tier 2/3 award for a seat that's otherwise going to go empty (and I'd like to pick up with 4.5k Avios, frankly).
Out of ORD it doesn't look that bad, especially to Europe, and the further out the better. Hawaii has great availability as well.
And even an Aanytime award costs half (or less than half) of United's awards on UA metal.
Thanks for writing this, definitely need to let them know! keep us posted on your solution as well :D
I have stopped flying them. in the past i would fly TO London every other week on a paid biz class ticket and some times on first class -- wanted to take family on a trip to Europe and found the same,as you I switched to United my loyalty
Agree. Searching for Saver J availability SAN/LAX - LHR/CDG either six or eleven months from now is an absolute sh*tshow: goofy transfers (EWR-JFK), overnight connections in PHX, and all on US or BA metal.
availability out of dfw is awful. I ended up snagging two tickets in J about 9 months out, but it is crappy routings.
UA is much better for Europe and I'm stocking up on chase ur to use for those purposes.
The horror... You make your money pumping cards and flooding the markets with points and now claim ignorance that this might have a price.
The availability is there, you just have to pay more.
@ GH -- I beg to differ. Take a look at my trip report index. I find plenty of good uses with my miles and think I have a pretty good sense of how things "should" be when it comes to availability.
I was speaking with an Executive Liaison for AA yesterday and she asked what my single frustration with AA is and I said exactly this. She said it has been an ongoing issue and she would forward my comments along. I'm not hopeful but at least I mentioned it. Keep talking about this!!
The way I see it, AA does utilize those seats. When flying business, you are offered the possibility of paying $500 to get upgraded to first class and, by the same token, when flying coach, one is offered the possibility of upgrading to business by paying something. In my experience, I have seen plenty of 777s with almost 2/3 of the F cabin empty 6 hours before departure and then the cabin was full. Moreover,...
The way I see it, AA does utilize those seats. When flying business, you are offered the possibility of paying $500 to get upgraded to first class and, by the same token, when flying coach, one is offered the possibility of upgrading to business by paying something. In my experience, I have seen plenty of 777s with almost 2/3 of the F cabin empty 6 hours before departure and then the cabin was full. Moreover, I rarely find a premium cabin with empty seats when flying long-haul American Airlines. All in all, AA's ability to monetize those theoretically empty seats by selling upgrades represents a better value than releasing them at the Saver Award Level. However, how this might be affecting their loyal customers, who are not able to use their miles to fly either in business or first at a reasonable redemption rate while someone else is able to get an upgrade from coach to business for $500 on a $800 paid ticket, might be missing for the business decision that AA is taking.
Funny, I was just looking at availability to PEK next summer in business and the number of days with 2 seats available I can count on one hand. Seems like its not just an issue with going to Europe but also to asia. Of course traveling on BA was wide open but the fuel surcharges are extortionist. I was looking ord and JFK.
I've noticed. It started before US management was running the place. And it's gotten worse since then.
but you are the master of trip booking, couldnt you call in and ask for long sale ?
I have access to the actual loads for a large airline. There are many times that a flight is half empty and there is no low level availability for either first/business or cattle class. I guess they'd rather have the seats go empty.
@AS-
How do you come up with revenue of $200-$500 for an airline on 70,000 miles redeemed? At the very least those miles are worth $700, as that is what you can redeem on most programs for direct expenses (amazon, etc).
If you think award travel isn't profitable for the airlines, you aren't paying attention.
A lot of frequent flyer programs are pushing their luck, they really won't like the results on their financials if...
@AS-
How do you come up with revenue of $200-$500 for an airline on 70,000 miles redeemed? At the very least those miles are worth $700, as that is what you can redeem on most programs for direct expenses (amazon, etc).
If you think award travel isn't profitable for the airlines, you aren't paying attention.
A lot of frequent flyer programs are pushing their luck, they really won't like the results on their financials if continue to alienate the credit card companies and frequent flyers.
Soooooooooooooooo....fly coach.You won't die. It'll be fine.
@ FlyBack --
a) There was no saver economy space either.
b) That was never on the table. I had a backup option in US Airways business class.
Thank you. I posted about this over a year ago on Flyertalk and the thread got buried/merged into the mega thread on award availability. This is a trend that AA has started ever since the merger with US Airways. It was a huge reason why I had to rethink my loyalty to AA and decided not to requalify as an Executive Platinum.
You will often find availability with BA on the JFK-LHR route so...
Thank you. I posted about this over a year ago on Flyertalk and the thread got buried/merged into the mega thread on award availability. This is a trend that AA has started ever since the merger with US Airways. It was a huge reason why I had to rethink my loyalty to AA and decided not to requalify as an Executive Platinum.
You will often find availability with BA on the JFK-LHR route so that is what I have been booking. I travel to Europe often, almost as often as you, so I use the fuel surcharge as a gauge in how I value my AA points which also made me rethink my loyalty to flying AA frequently. Try looking out of Dallas, it is pathetic for availability.
Slightly OT, I fully agree with your views of Delta's frequent flyer program but I have been using Delta points to Europe more then AA this year. Imagine that.
#FirstWorldProblems lol but I feel you lucky. I have been complaining about this for months. The AAdvantage is gone!
F award space is getting tight on all airlines because there are fewer such seats as routes are down gauged to J front cabins. DFW/JFK-LHR have gone from 16 seat cabins to 8 seats, while the 772 fleet is being reconfigured through 2014/5 eliminated F completely. Under such circumstances it is easy to see why AA has limited F awards on overseas flights. Remember, there are revenue J ExecPlats who will feel cheated if they...
F award space is getting tight on all airlines because there are fewer such seats as routes are down gauged to J front cabins. DFW/JFK-LHR have gone from 16 seat cabins to 8 seats, while the 772 fleet is being reconfigured through 2014/5 eliminated F completely. Under such circumstances it is easy to see why AA has limited F awards on overseas flights. Remember, there are revenue J ExecPlats who will feel cheated if they don't have the opportunity to upgrade on those remaining flights with F cabins...and when they upgrade, it opens up a J seat either to be resold, or used to upgrade someone in coach (who will be equally pleased). Given so many miles are generated from credit cards and not from flying, I have no problem with AA taking this approach, ensuring its best customers get the benefit of front cabin seats, and not those who spend their way into premium awards.
@ DavidB -- There was confirmable upgrade space on the flight, so no one was waitlisted for an upgrade.
This is called "protecting the integrity of your premium class cabin". If an award ticket costs 60 or 70K points for this one-way route, and the accounting reimbursement is around $200-500, then how can you be surprised or disappointed that AA doesn't want to give you a F seat for such a pittance? It's a $5-10K seat on the market, and you want it as distressed inventory for $200-500 on a predictable, regular basis?
If...
This is called "protecting the integrity of your premium class cabin". If an award ticket costs 60 or 70K points for this one-way route, and the accounting reimbursement is around $200-500, then how can you be surprised or disappointed that AA doesn't want to give you a F seat for such a pittance? It's a $5-10K seat on the market, and you want it as distressed inventory for $200-500 on a predictable, regular basis?
If these seats are flying empty on a regular basis, AA should suspend or reduce F service on this route. That may make them slightly less attractive to premium passengers, but your analysis suggests there aren't that many to begin with.
@ AS -- Yes and no, I think that approach is short sighted. If it weren't for AAdvantage (and specifically Citi) American wouldn't be in business today. There's a fine line between protecting the integrity of your premium cabins (which I can appreciate) and leaving them *completely* empty day of departure. For example, I think Lufthansa does a great job of balancing "protecting premium cabins" and releasing award space.
Greetings,
You most definitely have a valid point how award space availability is falling.
I own a Travel Agency and the availability that shows in the GDS does not accurately reflect the amount of seats available on the aircraft and the seat map is the least accurate.
As I'm sure you know, Airlines overbook their cabins as well as leaving cabin space for airport control. I have had flights that showed 20-30 seats left...
Greetings,
You most definitely have a valid point how award space availability is falling.
I own a Travel Agency and the availability that shows in the GDS does not accurately reflect the amount of seats available on the aircraft and the seat map is the least accurate.
As I'm sure you know, Airlines overbook their cabins as well as leaving cabin space for airport control. I have had flights that showed 20-30 seats left available for sale hours before the flight and while checking in customers they were being offered vouchers to take a different flight.
GDS availabilty is a sale tool whose availability is determined by inventory and revenue management of the airline and can not be used accurately to determine how many seats are actually available on the aircraft.
All the best!!!
@ Mordy Siegel -- In this case I had access to the actual flight loads. Economy and business weren't oversold, and all seats were unsold in first class.
Horrible. Makes me relieved that Asia's our destination next summer - found four first class seats DFW-ICN. It may convert to new business class but that's fine with me. Flying JAL back in business.
This does make me wonder about all the AA miles I've been collecting for future travel. We love going to Europe, and no way we're flying BA.
Tried to get First or Business on AA to Europe in mid-Sep and there was nothing, even up to the day of the flight so I ended up going with Aeroplan for 45K miles (ORD-MAD, AMS-ORD). Aeroplan/MileagePlus had a number of seats. No wonder AA gave the great 100K offer for the Admiral's Club bc they won't let us use them! So is this Parker/US influence or AA?
@ 100K -- I wouldn't blame US Airways for this. It's something that has been gradually happening for years now.
Quite similar was my experience with recent attempts to get a flight from JFK to GRU (actually it's VCP).
Our family of 3 plus a newborn will most likely fly in December using UA miles on Copa which we do not really like as there's a connection in PTY plus they only operate on B737. Not to mention UA charges 55K miles per passenger one way.
I waited way to long and the...
Quite similar was my experience with recent attempts to get a flight from JFK to GRU (actually it's VCP).
Our family of 3 plus a newborn will most likely fly in December using UA miles on Copa which we do not really like as there's a connection in PTY plus they only operate on B737. Not to mention UA charges 55K miles per passenger one way.
I waited way to long and the AA919's savers seats in business class became unavailable all of a sudden for December 11 and 13 (actually these were the only days available) even though there's only one seat booked out of 28 in the cabin! Now they want 150K miles instead.
So why do you think they do this?
@ carlos -- Frankly I don't think they really put much thought into inventory management when it comes to awards sometimes. They seem to have an almost binary approach to inventory management. For example, on routes to Asia they often seem to have at least seven first class award seats or no first class award seats, but rarely inbetween. I just think it's not a very well managed department.
Welcome to HP dba AA.
Also, internally it's possible they are trying to maintain some non rev happiness for the front line.
And what US airline consistently makes the cabins wide open for awards just because it's empty 12 hours before departure? Neither Delta nor United do this with any consistency.
AAdvantage played the bloggers like a fiddle.
@ Greg -- Actually I find both United and Delta are GREAT about opening up last minute award space in premium cabins on transatlantic flights.
This peevs me off about American all the time. I've got over 300k miles and can NEVER use them for travel on AA. Pushing all their European award flights to BA or US metal is shameful. I never thought I would say this, but I should have stuck with United.
Did you call the EXP Desk and would they not even open anything up with the expanded EXP inventory? If that's the case, that's beyond absurd, it's insulting.
@ CanesLawMarty -- Yes, do have a follow up on that, so stay tuned for another post. :)
It just goes to show you the reduced level is a scam. Even when the loads are low, they aren't willing to
offer it. It's just another type of devaluation. I'm EXP and it makes me want to rethink my loyalty.
Great time for you to try Kuwait back across to the US. Go for it!
However, if you check British Airways's award availability for the same route, it most likely has a good number of award seats available, no? It just sucks the fuel surcharges out of LHR on BA premium cabins are $$$.
@ Joey -- Nope, there was no award space on BA. Would have been happy to pay the fuel surcharges if there were.
Thank you! I agree entirely. Holding back seats which could plausibly be sold? I get it. But having entire cabins go out empty without making them available to loyalty program members makes me crazy.
Hopefully American will note this and do better. I'm sure there could be something automated with inventory management, or even if you could send a message over and ask, "come on... really?"
Curious to see how you make it back
@ CLP -- Ended up booking US Airways via Charlotte.
Weird... Did you end up getting to NY? If so, what did you end up doing?
Great post