Jan 7, 2020, 1:43 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
Dynamic Award Pricing means award “prices” in miles will present with pricing dependent in accordance with supply and demand driven cash prices rather than by displaying static award prices on a published chart. Delta and United Airlines, among others, already offer dynamically priced awards, rather than pricing static miles costs on a chart.
Dynamic Award Pricing was initially introduced with multi-tier AAnytime awards, and expanded with the Economy Web Special awards listings added to the standard award display at the end of October, 2018 and fully operational in 2019. This means an award can price as a a lower than usual Economy Award Special or an AAnytime award as high as >400,000 miles for a one way longhaul award.
Links
Link to Economy Web Special" Award (dynamic price, fewer miles, more restrictions Oct 2018) (FT, 29 Oct 2019)
Link to AAnytime award dynamic tiers: higher costs coming to S Pac "late" Sep 2016 (AAnytime to SoPac can price at 375,000 J and 420,000 miles F.)
Link to Anytime / AAnytime award / awards [master thread] (Discusses three tiers and hidden fourth tier for AAnytime Award Pricing)
Articles:
link to American Airlines Dynamic Award Pricing is Here (Alongside Regular Awards) by Gary Leff on April 18, 2019
link to American Airlines Says Dynamically Pricing Awards is Coming by Gary Leff on May 30, 2019
Link to American Airlines Confirms That Dynamic Award Pricing Is Coming by Darren Murph May 30, 2019
Dynamic Award Pricing was initially introduced with multi-tier AAnytime awards, and expanded with the Economy Web Special awards listings added to the standard award display at the end of October, 2018 and fully operational in 2019. This means an award can price as a a lower than usual Economy Award Special or an AAnytime award as high as >400,000 miles for a one way longhaul award.
AA effectively moved toward dynamic pricing with the roll out of Economy Web Specials in October, with JT Genter noting the following: “The appearance of ‘discounted’ awards costing 9,500, 10,000, 10,500 and even 13,500 miles on a route where the standard rate is just 7,500 miles is quite concerning. Hopefully this is just a bug in the rollout, and not the first step toward a revenue-based redemption program like what we’ve seen Delta transition to over the past few years.” - JT Genter, quoted in TPG - link
(On 30 May 2018) Senior Vice President of Revenue Management Don Casey said dynamic pricing of awards is a strategy they’re using to drive higher revenue from the loyalty program. More mileage redemptions means recognizing more deferred revenue, and redemptions at a higher mileage price does too. = G. Leff, see below for link
“We’ve said publicly we’re adding dynamic awards called web specials. Because we’ve received positive customer feedback so far and we will continue to roll out web specials. Some of the coverage we’re seeing now is pure speculation – more web specials only mean more web specials for now. No decision has been made on anything beyond that. That said, we love when customers redeem miles. If TPG readers are thinking about a big, fancy trip, we hope they take it. We’d love to serve them soon.” AA to TPG, 30 May 2019 (link below)
Link to Economy Web Special" Award (dynamic price, fewer miles, more restrictions Oct 2018) (FT, 29 Oct 2019)
Link to AAnytime award dynamic tiers: higher costs coming to S Pac "late" Sep 2016 (AAnytime to SoPac can price at 375,000 J and 420,000 miles F.)
Link to Anytime / AAnytime award / awards [master thread] (Discusses three tiers and hidden fourth tier for AAnytime Award Pricing)
AAnytime awards
With no blackout dates, you can use AAnytime awards for any seat on an American Airlines or American Eagle® flight for as low as 20,000 miles each way, plus any applicable taxes and carrier-imposed fees.
AAnytime award levels vary by date (including time of day) and region. There are select dates that require a higher number of miles (in addition to Level 1 and 2 awards, there is a hidden level 3 based on aspirational value and premium product and even some hidden level 4 award space released on Flagship transcontinental flights). When you search for awards while booking, you’ll see the applicable available award level.
With no blackout dates, you can use AAnytime awards for any seat on an American Airlines or American Eagle® flight for as low as 20,000 miles each way, plus any applicable taxes and carrier-imposed fees.
AAnytime award levels vary by date (including time of day) and region. There are select dates that require a higher number of miles (in addition to Level 1 and 2 awards, there is a hidden level 3 based on aspirational value and premium product and even some hidden level 4 award space released on Flagship transcontinental flights). When you search for awards while booking, you’ll see the applicable available award level.
link to American Airlines Dynamic Award Pricing is Here (Alongside Regular Awards) by Gary Leff on April 18, 2019
link to American Airlines Says Dynamically Pricing Awards is Coming by Gary Leff on May 30, 2019
Link to American Airlines Confirms That Dynamic Award Pricing Is Coming by Darren Murph May 30, 2019
Dynamic AAdvantage Award / Drastically High Pricing (master thread)
Jun 30, 2019, 1:36 pm
#62
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And, there were reports of this (PE awards sometimes/often being more expensive than premium cabin awards) from the day/hour PE awards were introduced.
Jun 30, 2019, 1:51 pm
#63
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Jun 30, 2019, 2:13 pm
#64
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"Dynamic Pricing is Already Here"
An April 2019 "God Save the Points" article mentioned that since DL has already implemented dynamic pricing for sometime, customers have even seen J class go for 500k points over there. (It did not specify if this was OW or RT fare on points).
I just did a quick search now and DFW-MAD in Anytime J for late Aug and early Sept 2019. If this isn't dynamic pricing, I'm afraid of what it will look like if it hasn't already arrived: (nice to see some 110k biz anytime, though)
Jun 30, 2019, 2:45 pm
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Sorry I didn't cover this in my other post, but I would advise you to book one-ways only. If you have flexibility with your departure and arrival date, you can save significant miles with this method,
Jun 30, 2019, 2:50 pm
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Jun 30, 2019, 4:31 pm
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Jun 30, 2019, 5:05 pm
#68
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Still no idea what that has to do with your wife's TN F award ticket though.
Jun 30, 2019, 6:25 pm
#69
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That looks like 3 levels of AAnytime awards, which I don't think is inherently different from how it's been in the last few years (AAnytime 1/2 was most common, but there could be a 3rd unpublished level IIRC). There is more variation across dates, and that's probably "Step 1" in the implementation of dynamic pricing, but I would expect things to get even more variable eventually.
Jun 30, 2019, 7:17 pm
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Jun 30, 2019, 9:22 pm
#71
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That looks like 3 levels of AAnytime awards, which I don't think is inherently different from how it's been in the last few years (AAnytime 1/2 was most common, but there could be a 3rd unpublished level IIRC). There is more variation across dates, and that's probably "Step 1" in the implementation of dynamic pricing, but I would expect things to get even more variable eventually.
Dynamic need not mean fare-based. At least not yet. Delta started off at 5 tiers, then pulled the charts and now their dynamic award pricing very closely matches revenue fare class availability. You can see it embodied in the award fare basis codes.
Jun 30, 2019, 9:36 pm
#72
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My wife will be traveling to France in April, we have been looking at award availability SAN-CDG.
There is a fair amount of "saaver" X availability through DFW, ORD and CLT on 787, 777 and 330 - for 75k miles.
Thanks to EF (and FT), I was able to find "F" saaver availability on TN LAX-CDG, T availability SAN-LAX - for 57.5 miles.
Was necessary to call to create a PNR for the TN flight, agent confirmed that saaver X is often more expensive than U/Z.
Part of the new dynamic pricing policy? Many companies will pay for TATL / TPAC W, but not J/F?
There is a fair amount of "saaver" X availability through DFW, ORD and CLT on 787, 777 and 330 - for 75k miles.
Thanks to EF (and FT), I was able to find "F" saaver availability on TN LAX-CDG, T availability SAN-LAX - for 57.5 miles.
Was necessary to call to create a PNR for the TN flight, agent confirmed that saaver X is often more expensive than U/Z.
Part of the new dynamic pricing policy? Many companies will pay for TATL / TPAC W, but not J/F?
Jun 30, 2019, 9:43 pm
#73
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Learning a ton on this thread today. Is there any link on AA to find the tiering? Looked for a good 20min just now and couldn't find anything. Would also help OP out
Jun 30, 2019, 9:57 pm
#74
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is it in line with anytime level 2 award chart https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...ward-chart.jsp
Jun 30, 2019, 10:01 pm
#75
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Dave Noble’s link earlier in the thread provides details of all the published MileSAAver and AAnytime levels. You can probably deduce the unpublished levels by running a few searches around the peak travel periods. Economy Web Specials (where they are offered) don’t follow the normal tier structure.
