MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I'm assuming most people plan an swards International trip months in advance (likely vacation). Since AA no longer wants to give those seats away in advance hoping they will ultimately be sold they end up going out empty. Yes its frustrating. I remember being able to find J saver awards quite easily in years back.

rjw242

I remember when people in this forum would post admiringly about Asian carriers letting their J cabins go out half empty because it demonstrated "exclusivity."

Can't please everyone I guess.

Colin

yes, a saver seat for a flight tomorrow might cause AA to lose a last minute full J fare from a small business owner or smart corporate travel manager. but, reframe the original post to mean why is AA not using its inventory management software, in the months leading up to the flight, to release more saver seats so that the flight doesn't depart with a half empty J cabin?

aCavalierInCoach

that would be a fair comparison if AA delivered a product consistent with that of those carriers....

AlreadyThere

They seem to have decided to shut down the program.

I have never complained about program changes to date, but this is extreme. The decision is laid bare in the quote above. It's perfectly fine that they would rather sell seats than give them away, but now it's clear that they would obviously prefer the seats to go out empty. It doesn't take advanced inventory software to know that they're not going to sell 23 seats by tomorrow.

This is betrayal.

C17PSGR

Curious, were there upgrades available?

Wondering whether buying an economy ticket and then upgrading with miles is a viable strategy.

dgcpaphd

I don't know about the previous flight. There were no upgrades available for tonight's flight when I checked this afternoon.

However, at the airport, check in agents were offering passengers, ticketed in coach, the chance to purchase a cash upgrade without redeeming miles.

Speaking of upgrades, I have had a System Wide Upgrade request waitlisted for several months without the upgrade clearing although AA's site shows that the J cabin has filled less than twelve seats.

A similar thing happened last February with a SWU request. That upgrade did not clear until the day of the flight although there were more than twenty empty seats in J.

Considering that AA cut our SWUs in half during the current year, together with not clearing SWUs until the last day, together with blocking saver awards, one has to wonder why AA is giving its loyalty customer base such shabby treatment.

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AlreadyThere

Cutting available seats by a third, for example, would be shabby treatment. In the example above, saying that not one seat has been made available for the entire rest of the year, goes beyond "shabby treatment."

dgcpaphd

Yes, it goes beyond shabby treatment. I was being kind.

Many other posters have reported this same problem. Check aa.com and it is possible to see the lack of available saver seats for the rest of this year (plus a little into year 2018). You will find virtually ZERO saver award tickets available.

The loyalty program is currently working with a flawed business plan. AA most likely had good intentions when they decided on the devaluations. However, it does not take a genius to see what will happen to AA's customer base over the long term.

A major fallout to AA blocking the saver awards and raising the mileage required for a one-way "anytime" business ticket ranging from 110,000 miles to as much as 195,000 is a situation that adversely affects the relationship AA has with Citibank and Barclay Bank.

Those two banks paid AA millions of dollars to buy miles from AA to give to credit card customers. Because of the devaluation of the loyalty program, bank credit card customers have markedly stopped using the AA sponsored credit cards, are canceling their existing credit cards and/or are not signing up for new credit cards despite the fact the new cards are heavily (and falsely) advertised. AA's financial statement for the first quarter of this year already shows a loss related to the over zealous number of "new" credit card holders AA would stimulate for those two banks.

If you look at the ads for those credit cards or if you hear the card being advertised on an AA flight, you will assume that the miles from the credit card can reasonably be redeemed for a flight ticket.

Remember that AA has intentionally blocked most of its saver award tickets. Considering that fact, often a customer needs up to 195,000 miles for a one-way business class ticket in AA. How much money would a customer need to spend on those credit cards to get a flight ticket? Gads, $195,000.00 for a one-way ticket in business class.

My calling the devaluation - Shabby treatment - really was being kind.

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tytherby

Thanks all. I can look for JL seats through the Qantas or BA sites, correct? It appears AA's site will only show AA and AS nowadays?

tytherby

Nevermind.. I see the 8 airlines that you can search through the AA site. JL and CX are not included however.

I apologize for my newbieness!

enviroian

Sing up for BA avios account and you can view JL inventory and CX.

Use EF for IB inventory.

All three have availability. AA has sunk to low levels I've never seen in a loyalty program.

Hey AA: I hope your cheapness and lack of appreciation of your elite flyers comes to kick you in the butt some day.

Radiant Flyer

I do agree I do feel betrayed by American Airlines... reducing System Wide Upgrades from 8 to 4 and now this! I have already made it a point... this is the last year I will buy a ticket on American Airlines, I simply just do not identify with this company any more. It has really become anti-consumer, profit at any cost. I will drain my points in 2018 and forward if I ever get a chance to use them.

The changes have been too extreme.

What I'll miss most is access to the LaTam VIP Lounge at GRU and SCL.

susiesan

The best place to look for JL seats is on JL web site. The availability is always accurate.

thatguy47

I have already switched to primarily using United and Southwest. I have 300k+ AA miles that cannot be used out of my airport because no awards are available at saver level through 2018 except the occasional Tuesday/Wednesday flight. I do however have great availability for booking award flights with United at the moment.