GUWonder

While "embargo" would not be the appropriate term, AA has very heavily cracked down on availability of seats so as to blackout traditionally standard (MileSAAver) priced level awards in economy class and/or business class seats during certain holiday periods (and the time before and after the holidays) on some routes in ways that are unprecedented for AA.

The OP is more on the mark about the customer-unfriendly changes than some may wish to acknowledge and which many may not yet recognize. Nothing alarmist about trying to be helpful to those who want to know that AA isn't as customer-friendly in its mileage ticket inventory release and pricing practices as used to be the case.

iahphx

So you like the term "black-out" better than "embargo"?

Personally, I think "embargo" captures the situation better because "black-out days" suggests to me that such dates are PUBLISHED. "Embargo" -- to me at least -- implies that the dates are being withheld, but that the actions are "covert" and not easily traceable.

And, yes, it's obvious to me that there are many Flyertalkers here who don't seem to want to acknowledge the significance of what's going on here. But I don't think the right reaction to that is to be silent. Eliminating almost all domestic standard coach award inventory for Thanksgiving and Christmas is a big deal for AAdvantage, and since AA wants to hide this fact, I want to expose it. At the end of the day, perhaps when the reality sets in, I think MOST flyertalkers will appreciate this.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

What then is the difference between "embargo" and limited availability?

bubb1

I don't know about the whole embargo/lack of availability thing, but I started checking daily for a seat early last year for around the Christmas holiday from SNA (or LAX) to IND (or ORD) and it never became available at the saver level. I finally gave up in April last year and easily booked saver awards on UA/CO (with multiple options), even got a 2nd seat for my wife on same flights. I'm loyal to AA but glad to have other miles as a backup. Just my experience @:-)

sdsearch

AA has definitely used the term "embargo" before, and it was for published unavailability. (There was even one flight number that was emargoed for a whole year at a time!)

So what it "suggests" to you does not match what it "means" to everyone else (who has seen AA use it before)!

I think that "embargo" and "black-out" (without qualification by a word such as "quiet" or "silent") are equivalent, since without qualification they both suggest a published action.

I don't know if there's a single-word term which would be appropriate to describe "silent embargo" or "silent black-out".

miamigrad

My issue with the term "embargo" in the context of what's going on is this:

If an embargo existed, you would not be able to use miles for an award - PERIOD (including AAnytime awards which are not capacity controlled).

Embargo = cannot use miles for this award date

It does appear to me that MileSAAver award levels are different than they have historically been. Call it whatever you want, but what's going on does not match the definition of embargo, IMHO.

iahphx

Well, yeah, moves like this make it impossible to be loyal. Most of us are willing to be flexible: like we don't expect there to be saver availability on the Friday night before X-mas. But the thing about this move is that it crushes the travel plans of even flexible travellers: when you start blocking out weeks of travel without consideration of projected load factors on individual flights, you need to start accumulating miles on another airline.

smilee

Data point:

There is ZERO availability from any US city to Europe in FIRST except full F award availability for the whole month of April.

In past years I have been able to find (and I have even booked) F AA awards to Europe n April.

VickiSoCal

So have I 10 or 11 months out. I have never found that much "saver" at only 3 months out.

I have never been unable to get awards tickets for the date and destination I wanted- but when I want them I am online at 3 am 331 days out. I realize this may seem extreme, but it is what I do and has never failed me.

Random Flyer

+1

This is absolutely correct, except that I would go further and say that for some markets at least, the crackdown has been over all periods not just holiday periods.

We can argue over whether or not it meets the dictionary definition of "embargo" but that completely misses the point. The supposed reasons and justifications for the change are also irrelevant. The only point is that availability in many markets is heavily down on how it was up to early 2011.

Towards the end of last year, I redeemed a bunch of UA (converted to CO) miles for a last minute foreign trip. I found it pretty easy to locate the kind of availability I wanted. In the past I have been able to use AA miles likewise, but at the same time last year I would have struggled, big time. And this year so far is not looking any better.

This is a very very sad state of affairs I'm afraid as I used to think that the ease of redeeming AA miles was one of the best features of the program.

DebBrown

My experience has been that holiday seats which are loaded are snapped up in a matter of minutes. We often travel for the holidays.

Christmas 2011, we flew ORD-MIA-EZE on 12/25. There were seats available on the ORD-MIA route for days before and after 12/26 but, of course, this was at 11 months out. For our return, GRU-MIA-ORD, I couldn't get any economy seats in January until the end of the month. There was plenty of C inventory so we happily took that.

Deb

iahphx

Yeah, there is a time-honored tradition of trying to snag the handful of award seats loaded to, say, Hawaii 330-days out. That tradition is basically dead now for Thanksgiving and Xmas since no seats are ever loaded.

If you doubt this, stay up until midnight 330-days out and watch the load the next couple of weeks.

Austinrunner

No matter how many times you say it or in how many threads you say it, this statement is a complete falsehood.

stupidzbu

Data Point:

I have been searching LAX-MVD and BOS-MVD award flights in December for the last week, constantly checking availability until the dates I can fly in DEC become available (after the 15th)

Up until yesterday, flights leaving Dec 1 - Dec 13 were listed at 30k each way.

Today that Dec 14 has opened up, flights leaving Dec 4 - 14 are all listed at 60k each way. I highly doubt all the 30k tickets were taken in 24 hours, especially since very few of us can plan 330 days in advance.

So, I would say that yes, AA actively limits very low mileage awards for the holidays

stupidzbu

I have been
UA 2002-2006
CO 2006-2011 (before they went *A)
AA mid 2011-2012

UA was pretty decent in finding award flights .. but CO was incredible, easy and I always found reasonable tickets.

AA is a nightmare. I feel they nickel and dime me, especially on having to call to book on partner airlines (which CO offered for free AND online) ... but the real shocker came when I found out AA charges $25 per ticket booked over the phone instead of a single phone fee.

I went to an Admiral's Lounge for the first time and it was also a sad state of affairs, with limited food vs CO lounges, but only budweiser for free? Come on now!

My experience with AA is that they are a posh airline for people who don't mind senselessly paying for things other airlines offer for free. I won't list them since this is about award tickets... but yeah. I'm going back to *A once I cash out my last 120k miles (which I was hoping to get 2 award tickets to MVD or EZE in DEC with, but it is looking like it will be just one!)