SeeBuyFly

Since AA does not have to release any awards at all, it is hard to complain about them releasing an award at a high price. Well, those of us who joined AAdvantage when awards were not capacity-controlled might be wistful for those days; but an award at any price is better than no award inventory (or at least, they are the same if you're not going to take the offer, i.e. it's not any worse).

As I understand it, flights go out rather full these days. If the economy slows down, hopefully there will be more availability at lower prices. This assumes, of course, that awards are released and priced rationally. Some airlines, such as QR, prefer to fly out with empty seats rather than release awards. AA might also put a low priority on releasing award inventory, or vastly overprice awards, just to be mean to its customers. That would be bad, but not surprising. But dynamic award pricing, in and of itself, is not necessarily something bad.