Last edit by: JDiver
Angry about AAdvantage devaluation / vent / what can I do? (April 2014, consolidated)
Thread referred to: Devaluation, new tiers, oneworld Explorer award gone, etc. 8 April 2014
Without any prior notification, American Airlines announced on 8 April 2014 some significant AAdvantage program rescissions and devaluations, effective immediately:
- oneworld Explorer awards can no longer be claimed; (pre-existing awards will be honored)
- Stopovers at North American gateways for international partner award tickets were eliminated
- AAnytime awards now reflect variable, demand-based pricing
- US Dividend Miles North Asia premium awards have repriced
Important Information
AAnytime Awards: Effective April 8, 2014, for tickets issued for travel starting June 1, 2014, we have updated award levels. We will continue to honor any award tickets issued on / before April 7, 2014. For award bookings after April 8 for travel between April 8 and June 1, 2014, these award mileage levels will apply.
oneworld Explorer Awards are no longer available for award booking. We will continue to honor any award tickets issued on / before April 7, 2014.
AAnytime Awards: Effective April 8, 2014, for tickets issued for travel starting June 1, 2014, we have updated award levels. We will continue to honor any award tickets issued on / before April 7, 2014. For award bookings after April 8 for travel between April 8 and June 1, 2014, these award mileage levels will apply.
oneworld Explorer Awards are no longer available for award booking. We will continue to honor any award tickets issued on / before April 7, 2014.
Possibilities for action / communication:
Here's what you can do, as stated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its recent case (Source: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions...2-462_p8k0.pdf page 13)
It is your duty to enter a complaint with the DOT at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/CP_AirlineService.htm. You can even quote this passage from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Congress has given the Department of Transportation (DOT) the general authority to prohibit and punish unfair and deceptive practices in air transportation and in the sale of air transportation, 49 U.S.C. 41712(a) , and Congress has specifically authorized the DOT to investigate complaints relating to frequent flyer programs. See FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, 408(6), 126 Stat. 87. Pursuant to these provisions, the DOT regularly entertains and acts on such complaints.
Originally Posted by ooshawn
Just wrote an unhappy letter to AA/USAir execs (all email addresses I could find), if you want to feel free to use/build off of the following:
douglas.parker<at>usairways.com,
sean.bentel<at>aa.com,
tom.horton<at>aa.com ?
Customer.Relations<at>aa.com,
ken.fischer<at>usairways.com,
robert.isom<at>usairways.com,
suzanne.rubin<at>aa.com
douglas.parker<at>usairways.com,
sean.bentel<at>aa.com,
tom.horton<at>aa.com ?
Customer.Relations<at>aa.com,
ken.fischer<at>usairways.com,
robert.isom<at>usairways.com,
suzanne.rubin<at>aa.com
Originally Posted by MyTravels
USPS:
<Executive Name>
P.O. Box 619616
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9616
<Executive Name>
P.O. Box 619616
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9616
Angry about AAdvantage devaluation / vent / what can I do? (April 2014, consolidated)
#61
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: LAX
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 933
I think you're fooling yourself if you think (insert random corporate C-level suit here) would have done much differently than the current CEO.
Again, look at that list of airlines I posted. Can you think of an example of an airline in the past 5 years serving a significant portion of North America that has NOT in some way devalued their frequent flyer program- changing award levels for the worse, eliminating elite benefits, slapping on fees, and the like?
Again, look at that list of airlines I posted. Can you think of an example of an airline in the past 5 years serving a significant portion of North America that has NOT in some way devalued their frequent flyer program- changing award levels for the worse, eliminating elite benefits, slapping on fees, and the like?
AA has done well as of late by not making the mistake that everyone else has been making.
#62
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: SFO
Programs: WFBF
Posts: 963
Well, y'all kept showing up in the consolidated and pmUS fora going on about how you had a "premium" airline. Turns out Parker looked that up in the dictionary and found out it means "the customer gets charged more".
As the man who found the genie in the bottle says, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
As the man who found the genie in the bottle says, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
#63
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: SFO
Programs: WFBF
Posts: 963
I buy my share of tickets in F, on US. Response to all this is "meh". Everybody knew mileage devaluation was coming. Don't know enough about Explorer to have an opinion, but what I read of it makes me lean towards believing the people who've been posting that it was just a bunch of loopholes getting abused.
#65
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Lifetime Plat, SPG Plat, AMEX Plat, Hertz PC, Travels too Much Platinum
Posts: 3,290
I buy my share of tickets in F, on US. Response to all this is "meh". Everybody knew mileage devaluation was coming. Don't know enough about Explorer to have an opinion, but what I read of it makes me lean towards believing the people who've been posting that it was just a bunch of loopholes getting abused.
As to loopholes, as an example I suspect widespread blogger attention to "Two Award Tickets for the Price of One" on awards involving international gateways is probably unhelpful for the long term availability of such benefits as we're seeing.
#66
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,086
To me, this is the big issue. DL and UA have done some major devaluations, and DL has done some of them with virtually no notice. But none of them were done day of like this. They at least gave a couple days notice and usually a couple weeks-months. I'm honestly not sure why AA felt so compelled to make these changes so quickly. Is the revenue from a couple weeks-months more of bookings at higher rates so great? It certainly isn't a customer-friendly move.
#67
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 382
I buy my share of tickets in F, on US. Response to all this is "meh". Everybody knew mileage devaluation was coming. Don't know enough about Explorer to have an opinion, but what I read of it makes me lean towards believing the people who've been posting that it was just a bunch of loopholes getting abused.
I think people are more concerned with the stealth of the announcement (not one nanosecond of advance warning) rather than the actual cancellation of the award itself.
UA posted their redemption/fee changes months in advance of them going into effect.
#69
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SEA
Programs: AS MVP, Hhonors Gold, National Executive, Identity Gold, MLife Gold
Posts: 2,687
Agreed. That's the thing that's leaving a horrible taste in my mouth about this whole deal. And then the email they sent out announcing changes doesn't bother to even mention that there were other changes besides the ones they mentioned in mail. To call it deceptive would be too kind.
#70
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,337
That being said, DAL gives stockholders dividends, so they are returning profits directly to stockholders, as do ALK and LUV. AAL, not so much at the moment.
#71
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Why do I expect Parker wants AS to be eaten up by one of the Big 3 cartel brethren or run into the ground by the Big 3 cartel brethren? I suspect he and his industry kin want an even more concentrated market because they know industry commoditization has made their financial fortunes dependent upon the ability of a cartel to exercise market discipline and collude against consumers.
#72
Moderator: American AAdvantage, Signatures
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: London, England
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond Ambassador, National Exec, AA EXP Emeritus
Posts: 9,747
Moderator Note
OK, we get that some members are angry. Fair enough. This consolidated thread has been merged together from a couple of venting threads, and we can all vent here. Others that may pop up will end up here too. Having one place for this will avoid the front page being overrun by "Parker is the next Lorenzo" and "Get on social media and complain" type threads. There are still a lot of people actually flying, and we want the forum to remain relevant to them.
Members are expected to leave politics out of this discussion. Tangential references to the popularity of controversial politicians have been removed.
Keep things civil please. If further redactions or deletions are needed, they will be done.
~Moderator
OK, we get that some members are angry. Fair enough. This consolidated thread has been merged together from a couple of venting threads, and we can all vent here. Others that may pop up will end up here too. Having one place for this will avoid the front page being overrun by "Parker is the next Lorenzo" and "Get on social media and complain" type threads. There are still a lot of people actually flying, and we want the forum to remain relevant to them.
Members are expected to leave politics out of this discussion. Tangential references to the popularity of controversial politicians have been removed.
Keep things civil please. If further redactions or deletions are needed, they will be done.
~Moderator
#73
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
This is a reduced competition environment, so the impact of doing anything individually is probably marginal at best. I'll just shop around more and be less likely to make purchase decisions based on the "loyalty" program -- actually that's sort of hard for me to do, as I've never been an airline or alliance captive and fly enough and play the game ok enough to level the playing field for myself. It will be harder going forward, but I expected that to happen following the government favors and waivers granted the industry's big players -- which is why I was critical of various DOJ ATD actions/inactions related to the industry in the last several years. At this point too, shopping around and being promiscuous in the approach to business relationships in the market makes sense for me. YMMV.
Last edited by GUWonder; Apr 9, 2014 at 3:24 am
#74
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: MI
Programs: NW/DL Plat->Gold->Silver, AA EXP 1MM
Posts: 855
As was to be expected
Quite a few years ago I had accumulated a fair number of miles on US Airways.
Didn't fly them for some time but was assured the miles never expired. Went to use them and found they had expired, WITHOUT NOTICE ("Our policy changed")
Thanks Doug
So nothing new here.
But this simply reinforces my view that it is time to burn miles, and not accumulate more: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l-out-ffp.html
Didn't fly them for some time but was assured the miles never expired. Went to use them and found they had expired, WITHOUT NOTICE ("Our policy changed")
Thanks Doug
So nothing new here.
But this simply reinforces my view that it is time to burn miles, and not accumulate more: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l-out-ffp.html
#75
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 1999
Posts: 12,097
Here's what you can do, as stated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its recent case (Source: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions...2-462_p8k0.pdf page 13)
It is your duty to enter a complaint with the DOT at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/CP_AirlineService.htm. You can even quote this passage from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Congress has given the Department of Transportation (DOT) the general authority to prohibit and punish unfair and deceptive practices in air transportation and in the sale of air transportation, 49 U.S.C. 41712(a) , and Congress has specifically authorized the DOT to investigate complaints relating to frequent flyer programs. See FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, 408(6), 126 Stat. 87. Pursuant to these provisions, the DOT regularly entertains and acts on such complaints.