koctail

nope. one way on 10/16 from AUS-SFO showing 50K Economy AAnytime?

JIMCHI

You're absolutely right. And the AA award chart shows AAnytime Level 2 as being 30,000. Why don't you tweet AA and ask for an explanation, unless someone else on this board can explain it.
And they want 75,000 miles for a one-way business class on that date !!

iadisgreat

I didn't consult the chart, but I think there are unpublished AAnytime levels higher...ah screw it, I checked the chart. There is this disclaimer - "There are select dates that require a higher number of miles (in addition to Level 1 and 2 awards). When you search for awards while booking, you’ll see the applicable award level."

Basically - "We really, really want to be Delta and not publish a chart at all, but we don't have the gumption to go all-in."

millionmiler

Check the nonstop AS flight from SJC or a connection via AS.

Also, the WN nonstop from OAK can often be pretty cheap. I just bought a ticket on that WN route last week for $79. Hard to justify a redemption plus a connection at that price.

rrgg

You might want to check the AAnytime discussion. The chart used to contain a Level 3 column which could be anything. Someone tried to breakdown how level 3 works at this link. I don't know why AA deleted the old chart. I would guess that Parker did this so he could keep the equivalent of the old US Airways blackout dates, and yet still claim blackouts don't exist.

Paulchili

Exactly! Not me.

craz

Well DL has worked out in my favor recently. I booked a JFK-SAV & JFK-FLL for 12K round-trip, both Mon morning outbound to boot. Had there been a chart still that wouldnt have even gotten me a 1way. But Im sure theres more pain then gain with DL

Happy

JFK-FLL 12K round trip? That is 1/2 price of anybody's chart.

To be fair to DL, since 18 or more months ago it has has a lot more domestic saver availability than in the past. At least the routes I looked at, all had saver seats.
Even international business class DL own metals have seats out from MIA to many European cities it serves. A friend routinely is able to find saver business class from SEA. He just booked a business open jaw outbound to VIE, inbound from VCE - for travel in Oct, less than 4 months out. Try this on AA - much less destinations in Europe and virtually hardly any saver in near term departure.

Those who still look down on DL may need to change their perception so they will not miss out the opportunities on the DL metal.

ukinny2000

This is not an AA-bashing post (though Lrd knows I have enough to say about them that isn't pretty), but more of a genuine expression of puzzlement.

For the life of me I can't figure out the rhyme or reason for how AA is pricing awards these days. I am going to give a concrete example of me going to Costa Rica for a long weekend next year.

Flights: AA1568 JFK-MIA, AA1378 MIA-LIR, AA1322 LIR-MIA AA1316 MIA-JFK

For Jan12-15 : 75K miles r/t in Y. Paid cost in Y: $1,180, Paid cost in J: $847 (!! yep, cheaper in J than in Y!)

For Feb16-19 : 55K miles r/t in Y. Paid cost in Y: $1,812, Paid cost in J: $2899

So for the Feb long-weekend, the flights are 20K fewer miles, even though the paid cost is >50% higher.

I realise that miles are not fixed-value yet at AA, but wouldn't they want to charge more miles for those seats that are going to be more expensive?

JonNYC

No, doesn't work that way and certainly not something I'd wish for.

dp4m

It's based on "buckets" though, right? So if the SAAver award bucket isn't filled, it'll be lower?

This is similar to my experience traveling NYC/MCO for Easter week; I was going unrelated to the holiday (honestly, who schedules a convention during Passover and Easter!) and booked in December and I paid 100K miles for two Business/First SAAver awards, whereas the Economy awards were 140K for two (because they were used up). Minimum coach fare was $489 RT.

I generally assume the RM algorithms know what they're doing, so it's simply a matter of likely families booking the earlier buckets of Economy awards and First not being nearly sold out that early.

rjw242

Someone looking to get a bargain on a convention venue

I've found this to be a common feature of both paid and award travel on holidays -- e.g. the difference between Y and F around Thanksgiving will often be minimal (under 10%). Guessing this is because the overwhelming majority of holiday travelers are price sensitive, and/or most people don't even think to search for F fares.

JIMCHI

Yes, PLEASE, let's not give them any more ideas as to how they can abolish the AAdvantage program.

rrgg

The 75k/55k miles price is for an AAnytime award, and those prices are preset by date of travel not by a dynamic market.

This is the MileSAAver thread. If saver awards were available on those dates, they would be the same. Your January dates would not cost more than February.

I'll let someone else comment on the cash prices, but sometimes demand can cause J to cost less than Y. Some companies don't allow business travel in J for example, and it can lead to this.

cheaptom

A question please. Trying to get two J sAAver tickets LAX-FCO next spring (57.5 each way). Our dates are very flexible, so I can be picky and avoid BA metal.
I see a perfect flight in April, LAX-PHL-FCO. But then when I log in and set the number of tickets to "2," of course that flight is unavailable. So obviously I can't get two tickets in the same transaction.
But what are my chances of booking the one ticket, and then my wife logging into her own account and having the same flight available? In other words, will AA possibly have 2 separate sAAver seats available, but only allow two separate people to buy them?