Originally Posted by
Mama
no, not an user error. IAP never guaranteed lower airfare or even price match. You can see many examples in your quoted threads that people did not find cheaper airfare (business/first class) from IAP. I searched IAP, as well as Skyscanner, ITA, Google flight. The lower airfare I found was not on IAP.
I'll go with user error of sorts.
The VERY first search I ran, NYC-CDG non-stop business class 2-Dec to 9-Dec, cheapest options on GoogleFlights are $4,334 (AA and certain AF flights).
AmexTravel.com IAP fares start at $3,844 (the AA flight marketed by BA), and $3,967 (DL-marketed AF flights), for savings of about 8-11%, or as much as nearly $500 per ticket.
(For a US-issued card, FWIW)
Of course there's no guarantee that a non-IAP airline won't have the cheapest fares vs. the IAP airlines on any given route, but the discounts are available far and wide.