Originally Posted by MarkOK

I must be missing something -- I don't know what you look for in award searches, but for domestic coach awards, it is by all means full dynamic pricing, with award prices ranging far in excess of cash prices.

Pull up mid November SWO-SEA for Wed November 17th. AA3881 and 2394 (12 hours travel time, late night 12:57 AM arrival) is the cheapest points fare at 6K points. Cash price is $123. There is an option using AA3881 and 1241 that trims 3 hours from the travel time and has a more reasonable arrive time. Cash price is $118 -- obviously the better choice on cash. Awards price is 10.5K miles though, because obviously when it comes to points we should pay 66% MORE for a slightly more convenient flightpath, nevermind that the revenue department priced it about exactly the same.

Let's say, I would rather travel that Friday. Cash prices for that day range from $173 and up, the afternoon flights are $454 largely because that afternoon SWO-DFW flight is quite full due to it being right before the Fall/Thanksgiving university holiday. The cheapest awards flight that day though is 29K points (ONE WAY) for one of the early flight. (All afternoon flights are 50K points). So, the value per mile is less than a cent per mile no matter what you do that day -- even if you take a cheap morning flight that doesn't cost a lot in cash they want 29K points + for it.

And I spent zero time 'searching' for this data, it was just the first random flight/date I came up with. Aadvantage miles are just as (or more) worthless as skypesos on domestic coach flights unless you find that one day and odd flight that you are willing to take. 1 cent per mile redemptions and following the same demand/supply dynamics that governs cash prices is at least honest about the value of the miles and allows you to use them for the flights you actually are wanting to take.

I work in a unversity town. I wonder how many parents have a million miles saved over years thinking they will use them to fly their kid home on Thanksgiving break, only to find that the value of the miles to fly them at those specific times are devalued to 0.6 cents per mile (or worse).