In an effort to draw attention to this recent change in international sAAver availability on AA metal, I'm creating this thread. There's been some discussion of this in side threads, but it is important that we pool our collective knowledge and resources to better understand the cause of the changes in award availability and whether such changes will remain for the long term.
Many surmise that these changes are short term, and I hope those folks are right, but regardless, they continue with no sign of abating. Thanks in advance for your contributions. Here are some excerpts from past posts on this point:
Originally Posted by
JonNYC
That's self-evident.
But to those of us who have a different perspective-- and a highly informed one in my case-- I say that if this is not a temporary situation, it's tantamount to the death of the AAdvantage program.
And unlike some, I don't say that every time we hit a bump in the road or an award chart is tweaked, award type eliminated, etc. I'm more sane and pragmatic than that and have a history to prove it.
Again, if this were to turn out to be the new normal, AAdv instantly becomes the worst FF program-- by far-- of the US FF programs and would instantly become worthless to some/many members.
And, therefore, personally speaking, I'd rather we actually get to the bottom of what's going on using knowledge and thoughtfulness rather then anger, resentment and a few personal anecdotes/bad experiences in making such an important determination.
Therefore, I suggest we urgently need a new thread that is high-profile and laser-focused.
Originally Posted by
jamesb2147
Can you give us more specifics? What routes were you checking, whether you checked the entire calendar, the latest date that you're seeing C space, etc.
For saver award space, we've pretty well established that the buckets for international saver space on AA metal are empty for everything 11+ days out.
Originally Posted by
JonNYC
Too soon for such conspiratorial theories to be established. Not to say, of course, that anyone isn't entitled to draw any conclusion they see fit-- nor that something "might have changed" but knowledgeable and thoughtful folks will want to wait for some real data. YMMV, needless to say.
Absolutely agree-- it's important to distinguish between what just happened this weekend and the overall trend over the last 3 years or so.
At least if anything useful and informative is to come out of the conversation/examination.
Originally Posted by
OccasionalUser
Just checked: According to AA.com, there are NO sAAver award tickets on AA metal for January JFK- LHR, in any class; ditto DFW to LHR in February; ditto MIA-LHR in September. Tried using the AA map which allows checking from a US city to ANY city in Europe. I used LAX and JFK as the originating cities, I could find NO sAAver award tickets to ANY city in Europe served by AA for a series of days picked randomly in June through September. It looks more and more like this is not a glitch and AA has cancelled ALL sAAver award tickets. Of course, AAnytime award tickets are available.
Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
So, you think AA's revenue department is convinced they're going to fill their planes in Y during January going to Europe?
Because nobody's going to be daft enough to spend 120k AA miles on Y round trip to Europe when the cash fare's below $1000... and the reason the cash fares are cheap is demand is low.
Also... your theory doesn't really explain why US has low availability.
Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
They haven't cancelled anyone's tickets; they've withdrawn open award space. People noted a lot of schedule changes got loaded over the weekend, and the award space getting messed up and needing to be fixed can be part of that (I've seen schedule changes do all kinds of wacky things over the years).
I think it really unlikely that AA is doing a stealth devaluation here; they could easily do a non-stealth devaluation if they wanted to (it's called "publish changes to your award chart", and they just did it a few months ago), and if AA Revenue Management thinks they can sell a bunch of DFW-LHR Y in the middle of winter (or getting people to drop 120K for it) instead having saver inventory readily available like they do every year, I want what they're smoking, because that's obviously the good stuff.
FWIW, United? Has a metric ton of saver USA-Europe in winter, just like they do every year. Their last devaluation? Didn't touch how much it costs to redeem Y to Europe (still 30K o/w, 60K r/t). And they really took a whack at things, but UA isn't dumb; they'll let you redeem Y TATL all winter long, because save for the obvious peak dates like Thanksgiving/Christmas, there's very little harm in letting someone redeem miles for a Y seat that is likely to be empty otherwise.
Originally Posted by
jamesb2147
Certainly hoping so.
I can't find any international space more than 10 days (two days ago, it was showing Dec. 2; yesterday, it was showing through Dec. 3; today, it's showing through Dec. 4) out on AA metal in either direction. Partners show up, including US. Just not AA, unless it's domestic.
Searches used:
MIA - GRU
MIA - MGA
MIA - TGU
MIA - EZE
MIA - SCL
DFW - TYO
ORD - PAR
Checked entire calendars for those without partner flights available (TYO and PAR both offer partner space).
I suspect something is afoot. Tie my data into what others are reporting and we have a strong indication that all international AA saver space 11+ days out has been pulled from inventory. We have confirmed this over the phone with AA, and someone's checked inventory buckets on EF as well to confirm it. Even if this is a glitch, AA is clearly trying to make some kind of change, and they're doing it the week before Thanksgiving.
I have yet to see a theory that explains what that change might be... unless AA decided to massively change saver award space policies.