Originally Posted by
aradisc
I doubt AA loses any money on an award redemption unless they or a partner airline have massively screwed up their revenue management model and made seats available that they shouldn't have.
Anytime awards in premium cabin international business class are always available albeit for twice the normal mileage of a Saver award. If you’re getting large quantities of miles for free through CC Signup bonuses every month, then it’s not a big deal “paying” for Anytime awards, thus depleting inventory that may otherwise have sold or been made available for upgrades. If AA wasn’t losing money on these schemes, I doubt they’d be closing these accounts.