Rumor, Speculation: AAdvantage Program Devaluation 31 Jul 2019
Jul 31, 2019, 10:33 pm
#211
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: DCA/IAD/WAS
Programs: MAR AMB, WOH Explorist, AA EXP, UA 2P
Posts: 2,138
So I've seen some of this in action - last week I booked two economy web specials DCA-JFK May 2020 for 8,500 each (no T available and I'm EXP so I'm out nothing). Looking now, they want 9,000 each for the same. The price to pay for the flight (BE or MC) hasn't changed, so I'm not sure how that works.
Aug 2, 2019, 11:49 am
#212
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP MM, HHonors Lifetime Diamond, Marriott Lifetime Ti, UA Silver
Posts: 5,037
The idea is to give EXPs the same upgrade "purchasing power" as they currently revceive. We currently get 4 SWUs that can take us from Y to J on 4 journeys. With 8 New-SWUs you would still be able to go from Y to J on 4 journeys. However, you'd also have the added flexibility to (e.g) go from Y to PE on 8 Journeys, or Y to 3 Cabin F on 2 journeys plus Y to J on 1, etc.
Aug 2, 2019, 12:37 pm
#213
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 7,043
The idea is to give EXPs the same upgrade "purchasing power" as they currently revceive. We currently get 4 SWUs that can take us from Y to J on 4 journeys. With 8 New-SWUs you would still be able to go from Y to J on 4 journeys. However, you'd also have the added flexibility to (e.g) go from Y to PE on 8 Journeys, or Y to 3 Cabin F on 2 journeys plus Y to J on 1, etc.
Regards
Aug 2, 2019, 9:30 pm
#214
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hilton Silver, Marriott Titanium Elite, AS MVP Gold 75K
Posts: 130
Well, considering I just looked at a J award to LHR and it comes out to 360K miles plus $294 r/t, I would say they have thrown the award chart in the garbage. According to that, an AAnytime J award to Europe is 135K e/w or 270K r/t. Hell, an AAnytime first class award should be 175K e/w, and even that is less than what J is pricing out at. Miles were pretty useless before, now they've gone the way of the skypeso. Of course, you can still book AUS-DFW-SJD in "business" for 25K e/w...except that you're in economy from DFW-SJD...give me a freaking break.
Aug 2, 2019, 10:19 pm
#215
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: SNA
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K (until it expires then never again), *wood Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 9,239
So its August now and unless I missed it, I haven't seen any communication from AA as to what change was made. Seems from the past few posts and some random searches I did that basically the devaluation is simply some dynamic pricing of AAnytime awards? Is that right or is there more?
Not that charging more for AAnytime awards is a good thing or something to be happy about but its also far from terrible IMO. If you read back and review the speculation in this thread I'd say that this is in firmly in the "sucks less" category. Anytime awards were never a good value and something to be avoided at all costs, even in the case of last minute emergencies often you can find partner awards which would be on far superior airlines and at saver rates so kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about this. If there's every a scenario where I find myself needing to burn miles on an AAnytime intl J/F award, whatever occured to make that necessary is far worse than the loss of miles!
Not that charging more for AAnytime awards is a good thing or something to be happy about but its also far from terrible IMO. If you read back and review the speculation in this thread I'd say that this is in firmly in the "sucks less" category. Anytime awards were never a good value and something to be avoided at all costs, even in the case of last minute emergencies often you can find partner awards which would be on far superior airlines and at saver rates so kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about this. If there's every a scenario where I find myself needing to burn miles on an AAnytime intl J/F award, whatever occured to make that necessary is far worse than the loss of miles!
Aug 2, 2019, 10:22 pm
#216
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 115
So its August now and unless I missed it, I haven't seen any communication from AA as to what change was made. Seems from the past few posts and some random searches I did that basically the devaluation is simply some dynamic pricing of AAnytime awards? Is that right or is there more?
Not that charging more for AAnytime awards is a good thing or something to be happy about but its also far from terrible IMO. If you read back and review the speculation in this thread I'd say that this is in firmly in the "sucks less" category. Anytime awards were never a good value and something to be avoided at all costs, even in the case of last minute emergencies often you can find partner awards which would be on far superior airlines and at saver rates so kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about this. If there's every a scenario where I find myself needing to burn miles on an AAnytime intl J/F award, whatever occured to make that necessary is far worse than the loss of miles!
Not that charging more for AAnytime awards is a good thing or something to be happy about but its also far from terrible IMO. If you read back and review the speculation in this thread I'd say that this is in firmly in the "sucks less" category. Anytime awards were never a good value and something to be avoided at all costs, even in the case of last minute emergencies often you can find partner awards which would be on far superior airlines and at saver rates so kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about this. If there's every a scenario where I find myself needing to burn miles on an AAnytime intl J/F award, whatever occured to make that necessary is far worse than the loss of miles!
Aug 2, 2019, 11:22 pm
#217
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: SNA
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K (until it expires then never again), *wood Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 9,239
I did a few more random city pairs looking at the calendar and actually did see some higher mileage saver awards (30K vs 22,5K) on LAX-LHR, not a massive increase and its Y (as in WHY would you book this), but at least in the spot checks I did none of the saver J/F prices were higher. What was interesting though is that when I picked the dates that were 30K to see what flights they had, I expected the 30K ones to be AA metal but both the BA flights and AA flights on those days were at the increased rates...
Sep 24, 2019, 1:34 pm
#218
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP MM, HHonors Lifetime Diamond, Marriott Lifetime Ti, UA Silver
Posts: 5,037
I could see them making a "New Systemwide" upgrade. Each NSWU would upgrade you one cabin and you could use multiple NSWUs to upgrade multiple levels:
Y to PE = 1 NSWU
Y to J = 2 NSWU
Y to 3 cabin F = 3 NSWU
PE to J = 1 NSWU
PE to 3 cabin F = 2 NSWU
J to 3 cabin F = 1 NSWU
In fairness, they would need to give 8 NSWUs per year to EXP members in order to keep overall upgrading capabilities similar.
I also think they should make the upgrade process a "jump" rather than a "step". IOW, you'd use (e.g.) 2 NSWUs to jump straight from Y to J, rather than having to first clear an upgrade Y to PE with 1 NSWU and then clear a second upgrade PE to J with a second NSWU.
Y to PE = 1 NSWU
Y to J = 2 NSWU
Y to 3 cabin F = 3 NSWU
PE to J = 1 NSWU
PE to 3 cabin F = 2 NSWU
J to 3 cabin F = 1 NSWU
In fairness, they would need to give 8 NSWUs per year to EXP members in order to keep overall upgrading capabilities similar.
I also think they should make the upgrade process a "jump" rather than a "step". IOW, you'd use (e.g.) 2 NSWUs to jump straight from Y to J, rather than having to first clear an upgrade Y to PE with 1 NSWU and then clear a second upgrade PE to J with a second NSWU.
The idea is to give EXPs the same upgrade "purchasing power" as they currently revceive. We currently get 4 SWUs that can take us from Y to J on 4 journeys. With 8 New-SWUs you would still be able to go from Y to J on 4 journeys. However, you'd also have the added flexibility to (e.g) go from Y to PE on 8 Journeys, or Y to 3 Cabin F on 2 journeys plus Y to J on 1, etc.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...r-members.html
Maybe AA will follow (as they tend to...).
Sep 24, 2019, 1:49 pm
#219
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Gatwick, UK
Programs: UA *G, BA Silver
Posts: 1,673
UA just implemented an upgrade scheme along these lines with generic "points" that can be used for various levels of upgrading:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...r-members.html
Maybe AA will follow (as they tend to...).
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...r-members.html
Maybe AA will follow (as they tend to...).
[Added: It may only be the Skip Waitlist upgrades that are lost if you change plans - these are expensive upgrades that are instantly confirmable more than 30 days before the flight.]
Sep 24, 2019, 2:14 pm
#220
Join Date: May 2009
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP, DL DM HH Gold, Marriot Titanium
Posts: 1,298
UA just implemented an upgrade scheme along these lines with generic "points" that can be used for various levels of upgrading:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...r-members.html
Maybe AA will follow (as they tend to...).
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...r-members.html
Maybe AA will follow (as they tend to...).