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AA awards priced differently for roundtrip vs one-way?
Breaking news, at least to me:
AA awards priced differently for roundtrip vice 2 one-ways. Fly JFK-LHR nonstop a few times each year, AA awards biz class AA metal, 2 one ways always priced identically to one roundtrip during the past few years (perhaps very slightly different taxes/fees like a dollar or 2). Prices this year on AA metal have been minimum of 78,000 AA miles each way, 156,000 roundtrip. Booked flights 6 weeks ago for travel next week, 2 one-ways, 78K miles each. While gardening the reservations a month ago, saw one ways offered at 65,000 each way, jumped on it, booked, cancelled 78K flights. Gardening every few days since, never saw 65K one way offered again, always 78K minimum, 156K roundtrip. Just now, looking at changing dates or times, still 78K one way BUT see 130K roundtrip for several dates/times for the next week or 2, not offered for flights in August 2023. Don’t know if this is temporary, similar to the 65K one ways I booked, or if it’s ongoing. |
It's been ongoing for a while now, for all AA metal roundtrips vs. one-ways. Definitely pays to check both ways.
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Originally Posted by JJeffrey
(Post 34780538)
... a while now ...
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On the order of a year, if not more.
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AA miles devalued 60% in 2013. It is time for another devaluation.
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Why garner bad press through explicit devaluations when you can use web specials to price things however you want?
The day when AA devalues their TPAC partner chart is the day when I stop focusing on AA. |
The pricing difference happens because on round-trips, AA sometimes opens additional / lower inventory buckets versus the one-way. Web Specials are priced based on inventory availability, so it's no surprise you see lower prices.
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The regular award rate for business class US-Europe is 57,500 each way. Anything else is a special fare and could be any rate. That one day there may be availability at 65k and another at 78k is just dynamic pricing
Taxes will be greatly different on JFK-LHR vs LHR-JFK due to the different taxes If I recall correctly, web specials cannot be changed - you would have to cancel and rebook at the rate applicable, so if you have 65k now and change to a flight that costs 78k, you would have to pay the difference |
Originally Posted by golfer20
(Post 34782588)
The pricing difference happens because on round-trips, AA sometimes opens additional / lower inventory buckets versus the one-way. Web Specials are priced based on inventory availability, so it's no surprise you see lower prices.
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Originally Posted by Dr Jabadski
(Post 34780740)
Please, how long is "a while now"; a month, a year, 2 years? Not certain how long I've been behind power curve.
Originally Posted by javabytes
(Post 33375195)
This is a new one for me, and I’ve not seen mentioned elsewhere. AA web special award pricing now depends on whether you are traveling one-way or round trip.
Example: ORD-LHR for 2 pax on 5/18/22. Business class web special on AA 806 prices at 84k per person. When searched as a round trip, outbound on 5/18 and returning on 5/25, the outbound leg on AA 806 prices at 69.5k per person. So the one-way is pricing higher than the same exact flight on a half-round-trip basis. This is feeling more and more like Delta award pricing every day. For those of you who say award charts are unimportant, 400k one-way business class TATL awards are here now too. This is also a big devaluation for anyone that booked multiple one-way awards instead of round trip/multi-city to have the greatest flexibility in tweaking/making changes to one part of the trip as award inventory changes over time. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8837868c81.png https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...eed76c9fbc.png (And no, for those of you looking at the time stamps of my screenshots, it’s not because inventory is tied up by the round trip. I searched the one-way first, then the round trip, and repeated several times with the same results.) |
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