WyattEarp

Is it my imagination or has redeeming miles for flight awards become increasingly difficult or costly (in miles) on American? We have always had success booking trips to Europe and LatAm with Economy MileSAAver and Off Peak awards. Recently, it seems almost impossible even if we look past the summer into late autumn and even next year.

I am trying to understand what is at work. I am guessing many people are using their awards for fear that American will be forced into a merger with US Airways. Changes in the program would then be a wild card. The other explanation maybe that American is getting stingy during the bankruptcy proceedings. Given the absurdity of being able to book a MileSAAver or Off Peak on the outbound, but only EconomyAAnytime on the inbound, I would think AA is jamming award usage. This anomaly makes no sense to me other than AA is trying to grab more miles back.

Is it possible that since we now base ourselves out of DFW as opposed to ORD that awards get snapped up faster? Does anyone have a sense that this will alleviate as a seasonal adjustment later in the year? We left United many years ago for the simple fact that during and after the bankruptcy there seemed to be dozens of ways to earn miles and less ways to redeem them for flights.