Originally Posted by
ijgordon
I don't think AA would really have the capability to do dynamic pricing on partner flights, as the partners either do or do not make award inventory available on a given flight.
That certainly wouldn't rule out a devaluation of the partner award chart though, and I suppose they could have more peak/off-peak options, including maybe even different prices by day of week, but that's just speculating.
DL has different levels for a number of partners based on how far in advance the award is redeemed. For example, an award on VS in UpperClass is 86K with 60-day advance purchase (CSMH860 award), 135K with 21-day advance purchase (CSMG1350 award), and 160K miles with no advance (CSM1600). This resembles their own levels which have various advance purchase requirements for the cheaper award levels. The main exception at this point seems to be VA where you can often find close-in awards in J on LAX-SYD for 100K miles. It seems to me that the term "dynamic awards" is largely meaningless as it appears to mean different things to different people. Some seem to think it means awards vary based on revenue pricing with a fixed algorithm. Others seem to think they are generated on the fly based on various parameters (demand, status level, mileage balance, etc.). Neither of these is the case with DL's program.