Originally Posted by
runningonfumes
I personally think it was CX making sure there was no run on J on LH and then once they have devalued the miles, I HOPE they will put back the other J seats back into the inventory although it sounds to me like you might be suggesting that they have two levels of access and that the devaluation might screw partners on redemptions?
Standard hasn't really devalued much. An East Coast R/T J goes from 145k to 175k AM, and First from 220 to 250k. I've seen worse devaluations.
It's the introduction of Choice and Tailored that's the kicker for us. We've been told this is CX's way to introduce dynamic pricing - not by Delta "this is the price" approach but by releasing differentiated availability into each bucket.
If current practices are extrapolated then Tailored and Choice will be avaiable from very early onwards and Standard only very last minute (or earlier during very low load periods).
Where does partners fit into all this? Well, partners currently rank below AM own standard, and anything available to partner is available to AM. Unless AM can negotiate differentiated reimbursement rates with partners, they're going to see even lower availability than before not-close-in as CX tries to flog them as Choice or Tailored. Maybe partners will still get a look-in, but it will be as close as if not closer than current close-in availability.