CMK10

I'm thinking about doing Spring Break next year in Buenos Aires so I looked at Saver Business Tickets for March. The week I need them it seems there are no Saver Business tickets from RDU-EZE or EZE-RDU or RDU-ASU or ASU-RDU. That's disconcerting and I hope things improve as we get closer to next March.

FWIW, UA has Saver C as long as I'm willing to fly Copa.

wobbly wings

And this is what I am missing. We're all being pushed onto OW partners. I'd have thought financial this makes no sense to AA (other than BA I guess, but few will be redeeming their miles on BA metal irrespective of how hard they push).

bmchris

I think the logical sense is to bring the charges for all carriers to be in line. Unfortunately that would likely be to the BA level. But it would also potentially lead to more award availability, since less uptake due to the higher charges.

As an example, I believe Emirates increased their surcharges, since Qantas FF's were booking code share flights as a loophole around Qantas surcharges. http://www.smh.com.au/business/qanta...614-2o887.html

arlflyer

Yes. Finding AA metal going through any AA hub is almost impossible.

No, it's not stealth. It's out there in plain sight for anyone who could connect the dots. They jacked up the AAnytime levels pretty publicly a couple weeks ago. But they left the SAAver levels alone. It was pretty clear what they're doing. The increase in AAnytime costs weren't just to hurt people who needed to book last-minute tickets or whatever (the traditional users of AAnytime awards). It was aimed at cannibalizing the existing SAAver market. Turn off the supply of SAAver awards and make AAnytime the new de facto standard level. But retain the SAAver on paper so no one can state outright that they've devalued. They have their revenue cake (more points) but eat their PR one (no overt devaluation) too. And since none of us see the supply side (AA's actually inventory management system), any mention of supply reduction can always be dismissed as anecdotal.

bmchris

I don't think that is the case for a lot of economy flights. For example, there's a boatload of availability for T seats on DFW-LHR in February.

They could also argue that Economy SAAver redemption amounts are the same as before. So there is no devaluation there. But their business and first offerings are considerably better than before, hence warranting an increase in mileage redemptions.

Devaluation is generally across the board, rather than focussed. Perhaps "realignment" would be a more accurate term?

george 3

Or buy Y and upgrade to J. J really isn't that horrible flying over water.

wobbly wings

I think point to point between hubs is still possible in many cases. But getting a legal milesaaver connection is very difficult now. This is why it's terrible they removed the free stopovers. Or maybe this indeed is precisely what was intended.

bmchris

Can you give some examples of non-hubs with difficulties? It could also be that schedules haven't been fully loaded. For example, flights from LAX-DFW for the end of schedule clearly haven't been loaded, unless they are cutting capacity in half.

wobbly wings

Try getting a few SAAvers to HNL/CUN or many other non-hub destinations to/from somewhere in Europe (say MXP, CDG, etc). Even 330 days out you will struggle to get some good dates that make a valid connection in the required connecting airport. There is often availability a few days out of the heavy days which forces pax onto two awards under the new rules.

bmchris

I looked at CUN-MUC in March, for example, and there seems to be a lot of availability. Can you give me a day in March, +- 2 days for example, that there is no award availability and I'll zero in on those days?

nalismom

Looking for OW FC DFW-LHR 4/13/2015....... Routing goes mostly DFW-IAH-LHR or DFW-IAD-LHR....... No FC/BC TATL MileSaver avail on AA metal. If I look at AUS-LHR......I can get routed through DFW- JFK-LHR which I'd prefer but still no AA metal. Can't understand why the DFW-JFK-LHR option is not available without having to go to Austin which is 6 hours west.

I've been up at midnight looking for decent routing but it seems as soon as flights are opened......the better routings are grayed out.

MileSaver economy seems to be wide open on direct AA metal but not MS BC/FC.

bmchris

4/10/15. DFW-LHR. AA80 First Class SAAver. 4 seats. Get them while you can.

sosamo

Thanks. Booked last night. Took bad my gf and I are a seat apart. A2 and A4.
I am going to check again for 4/17 and 4/24. I prefer 4/24.

I need some help with the flight coming back to LAX. from Italy.

Do I search on AA.com for FCO (or what other airports?) to LAX?
Do I search on AA's partners' website?

thanks.

KennyBSAT

MXP tends to have the most available seats. Also AA has had a lot of MAD-DFW seats, which you could connect to with IB. Search Qantas or BA for IB seats. Italy-DUS-CUN is also (an odd) possibility that sometimes has better availability. I expect continuing CUN-LAX would be a separate award.

bmchris

AB also flies MUC-CUN once a week on Wednesdays.