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Originally Posted by no1cub17
(Post 31155145)
Meh I have mixed feelings. I'd much rather have Europe-US J availability 70k than no availability at 57.5k. Pick your poison I guess.
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I have come across it already on the AA site when looking for certain mileage awards..did a lot of searches.. I think it was the awards to Asia..
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Originally Posted by no1cub17
(Post 31155145)
Meh I have mixed feelings. I'd much rather have Europe-US J availability 70k than no availability at 57.5k. Pick your poison I guess.
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Originally Posted by JDiver
(Post 31157278)
What makes you think it’ll be that cheap? South Pacific awards have been as high as 375,000 miles one way Business and 420,000 one way First since September 2016. (Current chart cost are 40,000 Y, 80,000 J, 110,000 F for MileSAAver, to compare.) It might be that st times, but when demand is high, I’d expect higher costs.
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Originally Posted by JDiver
(Post 31157278)
What makes you think it’ll be that cheap? South Pacific awards have been as high as 375,000 miles one way Business and 420,000 one way First since September 2016. (Current chart cost are 40,000 Y, 80,000 J, 110,000 F for MileSAAver, to compare.) It might be that st times, but when demand is high, I’d expect higher costs.
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Once DL and UA pulled their award charts, and moved to dynamic award pricing, it was only a matter of time until AA followed suit.
Originally Posted by joeyE
(Post 31155364)
Am hoping all these AA customers follow through & leave for Delta/UA, freeing up seats for the rest of us, driving down demand & allegedly dynamic prices
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Its a game of the blind leading the blind. AA is following in the footsteps of the other legacy carriers. It amazes me that AA devoted flyers are always amazed at this. They have a poor business model. they made billions selling miles to credit card companies. We, the flyer, bought into accumulating miles hook line and sinker, more than the airlines ever imagined. Now that they realize that, they are redefining the terms of the game. So we all need to pivot and figure out what works best for us. For me, I use my miles to get tickets for kids. As always if it's important for me to ride up front, I am willing to pay for it. That allows me to look at these things and chuckle. AA will always have the last laugh. For those that leave to other carriers, they have their stink as well.
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Since AA does not have to release any awards at all, it is hard to complain about them releasing an award at a high price. Well, those of us who joined AAdvantage when awards were not capacity-controlled might be wistful for those days; but an award at any price is better than no award inventory (or at least, they are the same if you're not going to take the offer, i.e. it's not any worse).
As I understand it, flights go out rather full these days. If the economy slows down, hopefully there will be more availability at lower prices. This assumes, of course, that awards are released and priced rationally. Some airlines, such as QR, prefer to fly out with empty seats rather than release awards. AA might also put a low priority on releasing award inventory, or vastly overprice awards, just to be mean to its customers. That would be bad, but not surprising. But dynamic award pricing, in and of itself, is not necessarily something bad. |
Originally Posted by SeeBuyFly
(Post 31157705)
... But dynamic award pricing, in and of itself, is not necessarily something bad.
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Originally Posted by SeeBuyFly
(Post 31157705)
AA might also put a low priority on releasing award inventory, just to be mean to its customers. That would not be surprising. But dynamic award pricing, in and of itself, is not necessarily something bad.
We get the fun double whammy of still having YQ when flying BA, so now instead of 55k pts + $450, it might be 105k+$450, or 200k+$450, etc. etc. "At least" Skypesos come with $5.50 taxes/surcharges. |
Originally Posted by Gig103
(Post 31157781)
AA already put a low priority on SAVER inventory; AAnytime awards were already always available, the same as how Delta (with dynamic awards) are "always available", but both at crazy prices.
All that is 'new' under so-called dynamic pricing is that saaver award pricing can vary. But not releasing any saaver awards, and pricing aanytime awards dynamically, is effectively the same thing. |
Not a shocker that AA is devaluing its program after UA/DL. But let's face it - for a long time now it has been better to accumulate transferable points from Chase/Amex/Citi etc rather than having miles locked into a single program. It will be interesting to see if bank customers are smart enough to grasp the effects of the devaluation and shift their business. The Amex experience with DL cardholders suggests that won't be the case. However at some point cash back cards start to look far more attractive, particularly if partner saver awards start to disappear.
Of course the real losers here are the elites who earn miles through actual flying. Those miles are effectively devalued, and your choices are limited in terms of other programs for crediting your flights. Plus you need to credit EQM to AA if you want to keep your elite perks. I don't fly AA much so not an issue for me. But I do plan to explore options for my UA flights. At this point the only remaining US-based program that has not massively devalued (or is using a fixed conversion rate like WN or B6) is AS. |
Originally Posted by SeeBuyFly
(Post 31157839)
There's no question that airlines should have been forced to honor the implications of their advertising, by making awards available at saaver levels on every flight. But that battle was lost a long time ago. Now awards are released only to fill seats that would go empty; and AA does not need to make saaver awards available in order to fill seats. That's how it is.
All that is 'new' under so-called dynamic pricing is that saaver award pricing can vary. But not releasing any saaver awards, and pricing aanytime awards dynamically, is effectively the same thing. |
Originally Posted by rumboj
(Post 31158826)
When, exactly, did AA imply that award seats are “available at sAAver levels on every flight”? :) :) saunders111 |
Originally Posted by azepine00
(Post 31157725)
if you havent tried to book anything with DL miles you may want to check on DL board before drawing such conclusion...
Now clearly an intercontinental J trip that’s pricing at $8k rt would be 615k miles @1.3c (though in reality it’s probably a little less) which is probably more than 2x AA’s AAnytime. So definitely a devaluation. Bottom line is that this is bad for those of us who hoard miles for int’l Premium cabins, but good for usage on domestic flights in coach. With a relatively fixed value, you don’t have to hunt around for arbitrage opportunities. That said, DL does have mileage “sales” on US-Europe from time to time, where availability is decent and prices are not terrible (I want to say as low as ~130k r/t but I can’t remember exactly). |
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