3Cforme

I see your point but it gets to the heart of why Southwest's and JetBlue's FF plans are so (relatively) well-regarded: fare-based redemptions are transparent and market-price-based.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-fre...018-1526463003

SeeBuyFly

"You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights!"

enviroian

I'd give anything to see a passenger press their flight attendant call button after a flight attendant does their credit card offer 45 minutes from landing.

FA: "yes sir, here you go--here is the application"
PAX: "Hi, no sorry just want to see while I'm on AA.com now where these magical miles can take me".
PAX "uh there i nothing available except anytime awards. Why are you selling "enough miles for two to Hawaii (or whatever their spiel is)".
FA: stutter....ah, well sir sometimes they will be available...stutter...

next...

tkelvin69

It should be easier to book saver awards but sometimes they are there and you need to be crafty about segments and searching. If I don't find saver comes up with city pairs I use the OW site to see what flight options are. For example, I wanted to go CPT-SEA and aa.com would only bring up CPT-LHR-SEA on BA with high fees. OW map would reveal I could go CPT-JNB-MAD-(multiple cities)-SEA. I eventually found saver awards in business CPT-JNB-MAD(IB)-DFW-SEA(AA).

It would be nice to go non stop ORD-VCE but sometimes other routing with a connection or alternative arrival city will work.

shoelessj

Appreciate the comments. I knew I would be lectured on 'what to expect' regarding award miles. I have been flying 30 years so I have (hopefully) a reasonable expectation of what I might expect with mileage programs. I did look at other possible 'connections' leaving through other cities with me taking responsibilities for 'getting there' on a different carrier. At the end of the day IMHO the AA miles are pretty much a joke so I will not seek them anymore.
UA Star Alliance did have some reasonable options for other trips I was planning overseas. I also use WN which is IMHO the gold standard for award programs.

Again, I was expressing my opinion and my frustration with AA.

enviroian

Star Alliance does indeed generally more business saver awards available. Keep in mind although the non UA partners these seats are available on are 70K miles each way vs. 57.5. Just a data point.

LondonElite

Wait until you see what other airlines charge you in YQ and fees for a 'free' booking!

CALlegacy

I like SW a lot, but of course there is no J and no international beyond resorts in Mexico. Generally saver awards in Y are not hard to come by on most airlines and AAnytime awards don't actually gobble up that many miles. Of course in that department you have to consider the value in $/mile may not be very great.

Jaimito Cartero

Uncle Nonny

Enjoy that Southwest flight to Venice.

cesco.g

No YQ shenanigans on UA & partner award tickets.

enpremiere

I tear up each time I read that to the little fliers in my household, just thinking about a mystical land of U inventory floating around.

justhere

I'm in the middle of booking 2 J seats on Qatar USA-DOH. Not a bad use of AA miles so this is very user dependent. AA miles might be a joke to you but they work for a lot of people. Just because they don't work for your needs doesn't make them a joke.

And how can an award program that is limited in destinations be the gold standard? Don't get me wrong, it's a great program, but they could have award seats for 1 point but if they don't go where you want to go that gold is pretty worthless.

rjw242

If you have the luxury to be flexible in your travel schedule, that helps a LOT.

(Posted from onboard a flight I booked in Saver J )

enpremiere

The lecture-esq posts are probably more just an unhappy acknowledgement that this is the current reality and hear to stay for now so hopefully they didn't strike too much of a negative chord.

Given that you're comfortable with other alliances, have you thought about a Marriot/SPG (or other similar) points card that enables you to be flexible with your points currency? I believe that you can transfer those points to American, BA, Delta, SouthWest, and United (full official list here). They even offer transfer bonuses as well so it might be something to consider.

Affinity programs tend to be very much one-sided, it's just that we're used to seeing lots of redemption opportunities (and that's how it comes across in the marketing of these programs/cards) when there can sometimes be very little or just plain ridiculousness (carrier imposed fees in the case of airlines) in a given program.

Good luck and hopefully this doesn't detract from the trip!