TrAAveler8

Hi all, I am a frequent reader but an infrequent poster. Thanks for all of your help over the years, and I sincerely apologize if this question has been covered elsewhere.

Here's the skinny: When traveling with my family, I use AMEX Pay With Points. Since I have great elite status with AA but they now have a dollar requirement in addition to elite qualifying miles and/or segments, this is a good system for me - since I can use points (and get the 50% pay with points discount)...but these family trips still "count" towards my AA status re-qualification since they are revenue tickets.

HOWEVER, when I am making reservations using this Pay With Points system and I see "Insider Fare" availability, naturally I select those fares since they require fewer miles. And herein lies my question...

I recently used this Insider Fare/Pay With Points technique to buy a last-minute ticket from LGA-MIA on a very busy holiday weekend. No surprise: the only inventory was Y - and the ticket itself cost around $750 (the Insider Fare mileage redemption was something like 70,000 points - actual cost to me 35,000 points). I had expected that the ticket would eventually yield an elite qualifying dollar credit of $750, give or take a bit for taxes...but much to my surprise the actual EQD credit was only $200. In other situations where I've bought an expensive ticket like this (in coach OR business but not an Insider Fare), I have never seen such a spread between the price (or points) paid vs. the EQD value on the AA site. This leads me to believe that "Insider Fares" may in fact get categorized in some special way by AA, leading to a much lower EQD value.

Does anyone know what the heck I am talking about? If I were able to confirm my theory that Insider Fares are worth approximately 1/3 of the EQD value of "regular fares," and if the points discount is relatively minor (often only 5-10,000 points difference), there might be occasions where it makes sense to "pay" the extra points so as to maximize the EQD value. Or I could be totally wrong about what is happening here, and some other forces could be at work. Again, I am grateful for Greater Minds to weigh in on how these AMEX fares are calculated by AA in the New World where ticket price applies to elite qualification.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

TrAAaveler8

dw

Because it was apparently some form of special fare, it looks like AA awarded you redeemable miles and elite qualifying miles and dollars based on distance and not fare paid. Check here for more information:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...cial-fares.jsp

mia

You may also wish to review this thread in the Citi forum where it is impossible to predict how a fare will be credited by AA:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...cial-fare.html

TrAAveler8

Thank you all for this incredibly helpful info. So is it accurate to say that Insider Fares (even wildly expensive fares that appear to be full-fare Y in the AA system) are still treated as Special Fares, whereas other Pay With Points fares are calculated in a more typical / predictable way? Any strategies to get ahead of this or to know what's what before a booking?

DeltaFlyingProf

TrAAveler8, can you check on your AA account what it says the method for miles awarded is? Does it say fare or distance? I have an upcoming insider fare flight and would like to predict what will come my way from it.

PS: I went back to look at my husband's earning for an insider fare. He received 257EQDs with a "fare" calculation method for a ticket that was $255.40 before taxes. The additional EQD is likely to be only due to having two flights receiving partial amounts rounded up. I'll see if my ticket tomorrow is also fare based or distance based.

TrAAveler8

Hi there, it says "Method: Distance - special fare." Hope that helps.

DeltaFlyingProf

Yes it does. That explains why you had such low EQD credit. What booking class was it? What was the distance?
I just flew on an insider fare and the whole ticket posted as distance based.

nrr

Which is good for some traveling a long distance on a "cheap fare".
[JFK-ZRH-JFK for $480 RT but (approx.) 8000 RT miles.]

jayaajay

Hey is there anyway to use amex pay with points for AA tix and not select the discounted insider fare but the normal fare that has the strikethrough price and still pay with points...therefore getting full egd/rdm with pay with points

mia

Paying the higher fare may not accomplish your objective. See this thread in the Citi forum where there seems to be no pattern to how AA credits flights purchased with ThankYou points:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...cial-fare.html

jayaajay

Of Course...Duh...why did i think I could have the cake and eat it too...i guess since I am getting 50% (later to be 35%) its still rather acceptable

Thanks for clarifying

cplush

Ironically, i got around $480 EQD's on american for a $393 "insider fare" i used points to book. guess its hit or miss