DatBoi

For a very long time people been using their AAdvantage miles to book EY awards. Does anyone know if this is the reason our program is being devalued? And would you be happy if EY blocked AAdvantage awards?

Dogmatick

Seems like they've been curtailed somewhat since Sept1

ajeleonard

No, it is not the reason

akalra1187

Back this up.

stargold

Because if this was the reason, it would be a trivial matter to simply stop giving space to partners.

I believe it's more related to the way they've been printing a huge amount of miles for credit card sign-ups for the last few years (e.g. ADCB 200,000 welcome miles for a new Infinite card) and feel that they need to do something to offset it.

In a dual income household, you can get 1 million+ miles in total for around AED 13k by each signing up to 3 credit cards at the right time of the year.

DatBoi

My parents got the ADCB, NBAD and ADIB Infinite and Platinum cards along with the sign up bonuses. All these cards have modest (50,000) miles initial bonuses but when spend threshold are reached more miles are posted.
We met this threshold by paying into my Dad's defunct clinic.

OpenSky

AAdvantage Awards = Leeches.

They are basically bloodsuckers. Thank goodness the management of American is hostile to Gulf Carriers, so even the AAdvantage phone agents and reluctant to book.

Since Sept 1, the AA people can only access EY award inventory 30 days in advance So if you want to book anything book it before they grab it.

DatBoi

I think EY could possible keep (but revise) the agreements with AA, blocking 388/789 awards, F awards and decreasing availability for the AArseholes. I am a member of AA(dis)advantage, but only for the sake of crediting UL segments.

Dogmatick

I truly don't believe the lack of a single F apartment being available for ever from JFK is down to EY members as there are far more out of LHR and there's a lot of availability there

AA users are given miles easier than confetti and our multipliers are 50% and 75% for tiers theirs are 2x and 3x so it is easy for them

For the regular fters just think how many questions we've answered by AA users wanting to book reward flights as despite them getting miles easier they then have to use *less* of the blasted things to book our reward seats!!

Phoenixtinct

There is an important thing to consider - currently, AA is being led by former US Airways management and the US program did not allow Lufthansa First Class redemptions. So, the management in charge will be very vigilant if there are too many EY redemptions. Regardless of the fact that AA FFers use miles to book tickets on EY, AA actually pays cash to EY for those seats. If there's no balance between both programs, i. e. AA paying a lot more to EY than the other way around, AA would limit those redemptions. Since that hasn't happened, in my opinion, this is just an issue of perception. Another example would be when United removed Singapore inventory from their website - it has since returned but airlines keep a close watch on these things and if there's a problem, they'll act on it.

Flying for Fun

May I ask how you arrived at your statements bolded above? Last month I booked 2 F Apartment awards AUH-SYD for the second week of January. I found availability for the dates I wanted (just like anyone could do). When I called AA and fed them the dates and flight number they could see them too and within 10 minutes they were booked. (just like anyone could do) There was absolutely no reluctance from the AA agent and he was appreciative that I had done my research saving him a lot of time and effort. So your statements are wrong on all accounts in my experience. Keep in mind that EY awards were devalued for AA redemptions too now requiring 110K up from 90K last year. That is a 22% increase in required miles for a redemption. Would you be happy if you could redeem your EY miles ONLY on EY? Are you suggesting that AA should not be able to book on EY but EY can book on AA? It is the partners the allow a further reach around the globe rather than being limited to a particular airlines Network.

You can call me a leech if you like but any airlines Frequent Flyer Award Program would be of no value to most if limited to redemption only on that airline and would be counter-productive to the concept of loyalty.

Between American Airlines and Alaska airlines I have booked EK, EY, QS and CX premium awards for a seven week RTW itinerary from credit card spend and butt-in-seat flying. If this was not a possibility I wouldn't be loyal to any of them. Sign-up bonuses are a very small part.

Have a great day.

James

Dogmatick

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James I understand your position entirely. However I've never managed to book a single seat on AA, to book a forty minute flight from SAT to DFW I was asked for nearly fifty thousand miles as despite being many months out AA releases few if no F domestic seats

May I ask what your quoted 110K miles was for and what the EY equivalent tariff is, I'll happily look it up if you supply the itinerary

DatBoi

Actually I would be happy if EY guest redemptions were limited to EY. We are loyal to EY because we intend to use our earned miles to fly on EY and (somewhat) still enjoy the EY experience.

DatBoi

I bet if AA had a competitive F hard with private suites/soft product with caviar service, chauffeur drive and improved catering you would not hesitate to redeem your AAdvantage miles on AA itself.

TPJ

IMHO EY needs AA more than AA needs EY. AA already has a de facto partner in the Middle East - it is QR. They are both oneWorld members.

If I fly with QR I know when my perks are (and QR delivers all of them). If I fly with EY, I am not sure what I am entitled to (no complains - made it to the AUH First lounge earlier this year).

QR still code-shares with AA on the DOH-US flights.

Also AA still has a semi partnership with GF (i.e. mostly lets GF to feed AA's LHR-US flights).

So AA - with QR and GF agreements - will survive in the Middle East, even without EY. But can EY make money on their US flights without a local partner? Maybe all these F-class redemptions were just price EY had to pay to keep AA as a partner? (But this is just pure speculation )