Ritz VISA Infinite $100 flight discount downgrade?

Okay I have booked already several flights using the $100 visa infinite website. Pretty easy process. However I have noticed that since about 7 days ago all the fares that were bellow $100 are gone. Previously if you found a fare of for example: $70 on google or an airline you would find it on the visa website and do $70 + $70 - $100 = $40. I did it twice.

However now ANY flight under $100 is actually booked in a higher fare automatically and when you find a $70 deep discount fare on AA, the visa infinite website will show you a $130 discount fare. So at the end the price is even more than booking directly with no discount. This has killed the main reason I got this card. To get very cheap flights.

Anyone has noticed this too recently?

I think you are right. I just did a few quick checks and it seems like they added about $30 to $40 per ticket on the sub-$100 tickets. It is still cheaper but only about $20 to $40 cheaper instead of $100.

It wasn't like that when I checked a month or so ago.

Seeing the same results.

I don't see them pricing flights higher - they seem to be blocking availability on the cheap flights. I couldn't book the flights I wanted - I wasn't given the option to select them at a higher cost

I saw the exact same flights (on JetBlue) but exactly $30 higher per ticket. Long Beach to Oakland. $87 at JetBlue but $117 at Ritz Discount site.

Its a combination of what you say and what I say. It is the same flight but it is a different fare. A higher inventory fare. Its a shame. Several days ago it was working fine.

That's a shame. I thought this was one of the great qualities of this card. I'm actually flying in a couple days on a father-son trip where I only paid $54 for our two roundtrip flights SMF-LGB. I guess it was just too good to last.

I guess I'm not keeping RC card when my AF hits. This would have made it worth otherwise. under $100 flights for 2 would have been great

Any updates on the higher fare pricing? Is this still going on? I'm waiting for my card to arrive and knocking 60/70% off of my trips to MSP was the primary motivation to get this card :-(

Yeah it still raises the price to over $100 for a ticket. Did a random date in January ORD to MSP, AA shows $81. Same flight is $104 on Ritz. It's still not bad.. saving $60 on the 2 tickets.. just not $100 saving any more on sub $100 tickets.

Yes Still adding about $60 more this credit card was a scam for me... I got it for this only reason since the rest of the "perks" suck. Now after using it a couple of times they totally killed it adding more to the real price of the ticket to make you not save any money...

Are all your flights under $100? If so, I'd be amazed.

LOL no! I mean I got it to go to Orlando (I have a Disney annual pass) with my wife very often. I used it several times but now the flights would cost almost the same because on AA.com its $70 per person and on visa is $120 per person. $70 x 2 =$140 = $240-$100.

So yes going to orlando for $40 was my reason to get this card and then about 4 domestic trips to other places that I get reimbursed by the company (so I keep the $100 discount x4) but most of my travel is international and this perk is only on national flights.

Are the lower fares also available on Expedia or Priceline, or only when buying directly from AA?

Thats a good question. I just checked and they are also available at $70 on priceline. So its not something AA website exclusive.