Originally Posted by
JonNYC
To amplify-- members on travelingbetter and my AA Facebook group have also, similarly, reported a sudden, unmistakable and kind of shocking withdrawal of milesAAver inventory during/after the past weekend schedule change load.
They've both posted and PMd-- dozens and dozens of credible (to me) reports that there has been a dramatic and unprecedented elimination of milesAAver award space-- no one can (or should) be confusing this with the standard ebb and flow and mysterious workings of revenue management, etc.
As well, major bloggers have all noticed, covered and received reports from readers all reporting same.
This is NOT your standard Tuesday afternoon "the AAdvantage sky is falling" thread-- not in any way. This would represent the biggest change to AAdvantage's competitive position since I first attained AA elite status in 2001.
Hopefully AA will answer very shortly, and maybe this thread will help.
What I just noticed today however is that a route that I'm particularly interested in (JFK-GRU) has quite a bit of near term inventory of 20k/30k economy including the direct flight. When you hit the 17th, you have some drips and drabs of availability including J and Y for saver with the lower miles - however to VCP, not GRU. On the return after say the 30th, the saver is available, but at the elevated "we don't have blackout periods" de-facto blackout period - 75k one way economy.
So perhaps on some routes they are easing into higher award requirements.