GetSetJetSet

dynamic pricing! If the error was for triple the price you think they’d refund the miles?

metallo

By the way, hearing the word amok around Halloween somehow instantly brought Sarah Jessica Parker to mind lol...

rbAA

Well, I'm quite a few years removed from being a student, but recently did BKK-SIN-SYD-LAX-MIA and FLL-LAX-SYD-SIN-BKK in coach, except for the LAX-MIA which UPG'd on the 773 and FLL-LAX UPG'd on an AS A320 with the old white seat which I like, and lived to tell about it. Of course, the BKK-SIN RT, with a layover in SIN on the return, was on CX, and SIN-SYD-LAX-SYD-SIN was on QF with the SIN-SYD red eye being the worst as it was a full flight and even my bulkhead aisle seat wasn't very good. Of course, I'd never consider doing this on AA especially on an award. My suggestion: get a spa treatment at the QF FC in SYD if you have access. Made all the difference, well that and the almost "PE-like" recline in my exit row window seat on the A380. Great legroom as well and it's slightly wider than AA's MCE seat. Not sure you can do that in AKL though where you'll need it. A couple days of massage in NZ might be enough to get you back on that horse.

Intl359Widget

You never know anymore what is a valid award ticket pricing in the world of dynamic offerings. AA has advertised previous flash sales for certain markets at 5,000 miles one way including some international and Hawaii flights.

This was offered as an Economy Web Special so it is reasonable for the consumer to believe that this is a genuine Bona fide special limited time offer and as such should be honored if ticketed.

Dave Noble

yeah - of course - any reasonable person would believe that US-AU at 6k is a genuine offer and not a mistake - honest - would anyone believe such a claim?

BearX220

There is no longer any reasonable presumption of standard / orthodox redemption rates based on an award chart.

Besides, I have known "reasonable people" (not experienced FFers, but still "reasonable") under the impression that flying 6,000 miles for free required redemption of 6k FF miles.

Bowgie

Delta recently had an advertised Skymiles sale of 10k for round trips from LAX or SAN to YVR. Booked a trip for two with lots of availability. Yes, I know SYD is somewhat farther than Vancouver, but still for a coach award redemption, that is not on the surface impossible. “Dynamic pricing” means some flights should be less than normal.

Frankly, anyone willing to endure coach to Australia deserves to pay only 10k!

84fiero

Indeed. Airlines that have implemented dynamic pricing have mostly been clear in saying that one will know the award price when the search results are presented; the award price is whatever the computer says it is. So there no longer is any reference point for reasonable.

For example is 566,000 (five-hundred sixty-six thousand) Flying Blue miles for one-way AMM-ORD in J a mistake or unreasonable? That's what FB is telling me for several dates I searched on last week. By definition it can't be unreasonable because the cost is whatever the website returns. So I would have no cause to suspect that a result of, say, 5,600 miles for the same trip was a mistake.

Airlines shouldn't be able to have their cake and eat it, too, but of course they will try and unfortunately will mostly succeed.

olouie

Take an AA flight lately? The FAs will hawk the credit card offers for what seems like half the flight. Last time the FA pitched it as sign up for this limited time offer and get enough miles to fly first class round trip anywhere American flies. So yeah ... that plus no mileage charts doesn’t help.

Antarius

And if it wasnt, then AA can learn the hard way that actions have consequences.

Their IT systems are lurching from one disaster to another and there appears to be no plans to truly fix that.

skunker

You can't say AA can advertise heavily resistricted dynamic "web specials" and then say the consumer has the duty to determine it is a genuine offer. I've seen some very wide range of web special rates to Hawaii. Rates can range from 12k to 42k each way for web specials (with most options over 20k) and the mileSAAver for the same day is 20k or 22k. Is the heavily restricted 42k web special a mistake?

cmtlatitudes

Maybe naive, but when I posted this, my immediate thought it was some shameless PR gimmick in conjunction with their LAX-AKL announcement. My next thought was it incredibly good ploy to be able to point to dynamic pricing and say "See, there are great deals to be had" - right before they jack the program around and 40K looks good for an economy web special. Cynic that I am, I thought it was deliberate, and while shaking my head, wondered what AA's motivation was. (Like a hammer waiting to drop.)

Now after reading comments here, I agree - "How would a "reasonable" person even know or be able to make such an assessment?" AA's awards are all over the map. There's been hidden levels of higher awards than the published chart for years. This was an economy web special, in the nastiest seats, severely restricted, etc. They've been openly testing dynamic pricing. 6K is low for sure, but not so low, that I'd have discounted it as an obvious mistake.

Will be interesting how this plays out.

GUWonder

To endure such a long flight in economy class, some people may require a massive price discount or even to be paid to endure the discomfort of such a journey. 6k miles one-way in economy class? I still wouldn’t take it as a purely discretionary, leisure trip.

Since the US3 airlines mileage pricing for tickets can cover such an extremely big range, 6k miles for a flash sale in miserable class makes as much sense to the average consumer as 200k+ miles for a US-Australia one-way flight.

Dave Noble

12k just to get to Hawaii vs 22k for a normal award vs 6k to Australa against 40k milesaver - doesn't seem like it is anythog other than a mistake to me - if it was a genuine promotion, with rates like that, I expect it would be being heavi;ly promoted

Anyway , it is up to AA whether it chooses to honour the bookings that were made or cancel them

Antarius

What about the 240 dollar fare between DFW and PEK I flew on? Or the 750 USD Y fare between MIA and CLT? Theres no discernable "logic" to prices.

Similarly 12500 miles can net you a flight that costs 50 dollars in cash or 1000 dollars in cash. So miles historically havent been directly correlated with replacement cash value. Or AAnytime J can be an absurd hundreds of thousands of points on some days.

As a result, 6000 could easily be viewed as a limited promotional fare coupled with their same day DFW-AKL announcement or simply that they had extra seats that they managed to fill by a special deal.

Either way, if you want people to measuring tape their bags or deal with the consequences, you cannot, in good faith, argue that AA is allowed to weasel out of this. They sold it, too bad; next time, dont make a mistake.