Without any advance notice, American is increasing the price of “AAnytime awards” for travel effective June 1. This is the price when regular award seats aren’t available.
They are also eliminating their highly valuable, but complicated, distance-based oneworld awards.
US Airways also changes their version of AAnytime awards for travel effective June 1 as well, going to a four-tier redemption chart. (US Airways has had a three-tier award chart for years.) That applies only to the US Airways award chart and not to the partner redemption chart.
There are no changes at this time to American’s saver awards, which is what most of us book and care about.
American’s New AAnytime Awards
I’ve only booked a few AAnytime awards in my life, for instance during a British Airways cabin crew strike when I had a BA first class award I booked a United award as a backup home from London in case my flight was cancelled. It wasn’t, and I refunded the award. It’s a nice option but one I rarely exercise.
And it’s not unexpected. When American introduced their Hong Kong flight, they added a separate zone for the flight and priced their rule-buster style AAnytime awards nearly triple the cost of saver awards.
A year ago I predicted the death of the double miles award (and why the US Airways/American merger will kill it for good). American was the last holdout charging just double miles for last seat award availability offered to all of its members. That’s no longer the case, just as expected. It’s sad, but it’s competitive with other airlines, and indeed in many case their offerings are still cheaper than the competition.
What American has done is implement a three-tier structure for their AAnytime extra availability awards.
The lowest tier is in some cases fewer miles than what we pay now to buy out of capacity controls. The second level is almost always more miles. And the third level doesn’t even specify a price. Level three just says, “*AAnytime Level 3 awards are offered on a few select dates and will require higher number of miles to redeem.”
Here’s the new American award chart.
Remember, these are changes just to extra availability awards which apply only to travel on American. Travel on partners is always at the saver level and does not change.
It appears that with these changes there will always be last seat availability at some price. The price may be astronomical but the award will be possible. In contrast, United — at similar high prices — offers last seat availability only to their elite members and co-brand credit card holders. Otherwise MileagePlus has capacity controls even on their rule-buster style awards.
That said, the “*” third tier level is frightening. They won’t commit to a fixed price, and haven’t given us an indication of how it will be calculated. One expects pricing at this level to be rare, and rarely used anyway, but an explanation of what it means would be good.
The Elimination of the Distance-Based Award
I’ve booked the distance-based oneworld explorer award. It provides great value, especially for adding lots of short-distance flights around Europe without spending extra miles and for using extra miles to avoid American’s rather arcane routing rules like not flying via Europe to Asia and not flying via Asia to Australia or via the Middle East to Africa.
But I’ve only booked a few, they’re restrictive in other ways (like having to include only oneworld airlines, and include two of them other than American in the award).
American says they are getting rid of it “since very few AAdvantage members used the awards.” They also explain is as part of aligning policies with US Airways which doesn’t offer such an option, but there’s no reason of course that the alignment couldn’t have simply been to keep this option (with US Airways members getting it when the two frequent flyer programs are combined).
The Elimination of Stopovers
It appears – based on a conversation with an agent, an attempted booking on the AA.com website, and reports elsewhere – that stopovers have been eliminated.
American has permitted stopovers at no additional charge only at the North American gateway city. That meant that if you were flying, say, New York – San Francisco – Hong Kong you could have a stopover in San Francisco. If you were flying Tokyo – Dallas – Austin you could have a stopover in Dallas.
That feature appears to have been eliminated, although I’m waiting for official word on this.
Most people won’t notice these changes
I don’t love these changes, but they’re restricted to the sorts of awards I don’t book or that are fairly obscure.
It matters of course if there winds up less saver award availability than there is today, but we don’t have reason to expect that to be the case especially since saver premium cabin transatlantic award availability on American is already so limited.
The worst part is the loss of the hedge, I liked the idea of the double miles award more than actually using it. And the other component here that’s bad from a trust perspective is that these changes are being implemented without notice.
After all of this I’m still happier with American miles than United or Delta miles.
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The AAnytime Level 3 pricing already shows around the holidays. 50K miles for a coach one-way award! That takes it to a whole new level and makes even Delta look like a great deal. That’s a 100% increase with no notice.
Wow…. There was ZERO notice of this. I had long considered booking an explorer award to Australia, and if given some notice would have.
It’s a joke that changes are made at midnight with NO notice. You really sound like an AAologist glossing over this, especially with your post title.
Really? Wow…you are being really nice about these changes. Reality is: they suck. But the worst part is the lack of advance notice. This means we can expect anything at any time from AA without any warning. Today is this, tomorrow they’ll remove partner awards or just decide you’ll have to pay 4x more for them. Again, this sucks big time!!
BTW, I’m in the middle of an Explorer award so there are people out there booking them. Sugarcoating this won’t help in any way, shape or form. Aaaaaaaaaarghhhhh!!!
If nobody books them, why feel the need to remove them? The title really makes you look biased
Well, the elimination of explorer awards is something I would have used.
This does suck. It used to be that if I couldn’t find availability Australia-USA i’d consider booking an explorer award via Asia. Now if there’s no availability I have no choice but to book 2 separate awards. Not happy at all!
Riddle me this, Gary…you see they have stratified their award chart into 5 tiers. What other loyalty program with that many tiers puts the bulk of their awards low (tier 1-2) in the award chart? None that I know of. Point being this – it may have been that AAnytime awards USED to be something that “[I didn’t] ever book”, but why do I feel that SAAver awards are about to become a rainbow-colored unicorn?
Not at all surprising to see Gary author a softball piece on what is a terrible move from a loyalty and trust angle. Hard to dispute that he is totally in the tank for AA.
And yes, people do use Oneworld Explorer awards and do use Stopovers on one-way awards. So this un-announced devaluation affects real people.
Gary, you’ve gone to great lengths to strongly criticize those programs that make changes without notice — attacking Delta’s rationale for not providing notice, declaring Wyndham is a program you can’t trust, including a disclaimer on every post about Avianca regarding their tendency to devalue without notice … and when American goes and makes fairly significant changes overnight, you just more or less shrug?
Simple question: Is AAdvantage still a program you trust?
This kind of sucks for me as I was waiting for the year to progress to book an explorer award. Oh well .. more proof that frequent flyer miles are a perishable quantity. It would have been nice if there had been warning, though.
And such is life. Let’s not forget that these programs are kind of a game. That the rules change all the time is just part of the game.
Very disappointing to see you pussy-footing around these changes. By your logic, the DL changes were also not bad because it was very difficult to book low-level awards on DL anyway.
When Delta made similarly minor no-notice changes to mid-and high-level awards in September 2012, you emphasized that the issue was not the change but the lack of notice:
“Here, though, it’s not about the specific mileage amounts, however high they may be — and more a concern that Delta chooses to make changes to the prices of its awards without any notice at all, let alone reasonable advance notice.”
Now, when American does the same thing, you gloss over the lack of notice by emphasizing that the changes only affect awards “you probably don’t ever book” and “most of us book and care about.”
I agree that these are small changes in the overall program, but your lack of consistency strains your credibility — if lack of notice is a big issue when Delta does it, it should be a similarly big issue (and should receive similar emphasis) when American is the perpetrator.
You are being too kind to AA on this particular piece. Zero notice is plain wrong.
Honestly Gary, I have defended you many times in the past against haters posting comments, but these last two posts almost make it appear that you are on AA’s payroll. You would have had a hissy fit if Delta had done this and your reaction would have been much more virulent if it had been UA as well. Like I said, I am usually not the cynical one, but this certainly appears to be a case of making sure the Citi Aadvantage credit card dollars keep rolling in.
And what do you base your statement of “advantage awards most of you don’t ever book” on? Did you take a survey?
I don’t do them a lot but it seems there are fewer and fewer mile saver awards available so there are those times when I’ll do a anytime award one way.
And what is it with airlines and no notice? At least UA gave some notice what it was doing. This is pretty poor form.
This is awful for those of us that use AAnytime awards for holiday travel as I do. 50k roundtrip per person for a family was manageable. These changes are not.
@Gary – I don’t disagree with you often, but this is one of those times. The OW Explorer awards were of huge value and I know many people who used them. To take it away from those “few,” because the large majority doesn’t use them is a weak excuse. What’s the harm or cost in having that option just lying around for when somebody uses it? None to very little, in my opinion. I think they’re being disingenuous. As for the other changes, giving no notice is wrong regardless of how good or bad they are.
Just checked out a few routes… STL-SNA/LAX Sunday, Anytime Economy Award is 50,000!!! HA! What a joke. 100% increase!
I’m considering moving more of my credit card spend to cash back cards. I was hoping to travel on an Explorer award next year with the family. The Citi 100k offer makes more sense, in the context of this devaluation.
@AS – I agree they were huge value and I’ve written on them before. I gave the explanation on a couple of things and explained above where I think those explanations are wrong. Talking further with American on these changes later this morning
The elimination of the Oneworld Explorer award hurts as someone planning a trip to South Africa and then Mauritius. As a DFW hub flyer, I don’t mind the elimination of NA Gateway stopovers. Hopefully more DFW-OGG awards will now be available.
@Patrick I very much call out the lack of notice here it’s the biggest issue I have with the changes. And it’s the US Airways way of doing business, in my experience.
@farnorthtrader – I don’t think this is a positive post or spin on American at all. I’ve got more bad news coming in a bit,too.
@Ruy – agreed, zero notice is plain wrong. No matter what the changes.
@Brendan — “If nobody books them, why feel the need to remove them? The title really makes you look biased” There’s no need to remove them, I make that point explicitly in the post.
This requires a correction. Stopovers outside the US were never allowed. I think you meant to say “could have a stopover in San Fancisco
“That meant that if you were flying, say, New York – San Francisco – Hong Kong you could have a stopover in Hong Kong.”
Other than that I agree that aanytime awards are not important but the elimination of explorer awards are a huge blow. I booked about 20 of those in the last year for various people and I must admit that half the agents I booked them with told me they get a request like this about once a year. Having said that the excuse AA gives for eliminating them is as lame as it gets. The real reason is likely that they are quite expensive for them. I am glad I got one in for myself last month because I had a feeling this was going to happen. This was the most valuable and most fun to book award out there.
@Gary – you wrote: “American has permitted stopovers at no additional charge only at the North American gateway city. That meant that if you were flying, say, New York – San Francisco – Hong Kong you could have a stopover in Hong Kong.”
I think you meant stopover in SF, not HK?
Although rarely booked, the loss of the explorer award is a huge loss for the most aspiration type of awards. I booked a business class round the world trip for 220,000 miles several years ago that went from the U.S to South America (including easter island), Europe, Africa, India, and Australia before returning to the U.S. It was a two month trip before taking a new job and was a great experience.
Looks like the 100k Citi AA signup bonus and the “Share Miles” Promotion from US Airways were a well timed way to dupe people into hoarding their miles for AA/US. Would be a lot harder today to convince me to get the 100k card and hope that by the time I spend the Bonus miles there weren’t more unannounced plan changes to the program.
@Gary i certainly hope your tone with AA when you talk later isn’t the same you’re expressing here. there was ZERO reason to give ZERO notice on the explorer awards. even a 2 weeks would have allowed those who were deep into planning a chance to book the dream trip they saved for FOR YEARS. explorer awards take planning. AA knows this. what they did was a body blow to people. their ‘trust us’ rhetoric looks like a trap now. it’s shameful. i would hope that someone like you would tell them that.
@gobluetwo – correct, thanks, fixed
The loss of One World Awards is HUGE. They still have the page up on their website showing the breakdowns btw. I wish they would have just raised rates. I don’t believe the excuse of not enough people booking them one bit. If they were, they would have been eliminated a while ago. This was the single best way for the wife and I to see as many places as possible at once (that we really like to do). Now it looks like we will be stuck with booking multiple one-way awards to do the same thing at a much higher mileage requirement.
@Michael, stopovers outside the U.S. WERE allowed, but that was taken away a few years ago as well… Nothing but bad changes lately in our world…
I just lost total respect for you Gary! You have been blasting Delta for months now, and with zero notice from American about these changes is worse than Delta. American is heading down the Delta path and you don’t think most people will notice? We all know this is just the beginning. Maybe you will notice when the next devaluation is implemented without notice from American on saver awards you like to redeem for?
Gary – I have to agree with most posters here – this is the softest stance I’ve ever read you take with a program giving absolutely zero notice for making significant award changes. Perhaps you don’t realize how forgiving your tone comes across in this post and the last 90k US North Asia post. It just comes across so very differently from any other zero notice changes you’ve written about, that it’s relatively jarring to read.
@Trent Huge and No Notice are the lead words in my headline. But some perspective is in order. These changes are indeed to lesser used and less useful (though still valuable) features of the program, and AAdvantage remains far more valuable than Skymiles. So while deserving of criticism, it should be proportional to the change.
I agree that there will be more changes we don’t like, I could even rattle them off but don’t feel like giving them any more ideas this morning.
I appreciate your level-headed take on this, Gary. Quite unlike some other bloggers I know and love. 🙂
@Gary, “I’ve got more bad news coming in a bit,too.”
Uhoh… Partner award chart changes?
I find the loss of the explorer awards devastating, as that was my ultimate “aspirational” award that I’ve been collecting AA miles toward, and now have enough miles for and was simply waiting for the right time in figuring out scheduling. Now it’s gone with absolultely no notice. I realize miles devalue and you shouldn’t sit on them, but I did expect some notice and window to book prior to a change.
Given how poor AA is for award redemptions to Europe and Africa, and how rarely I’m able to make the longer trips to Asia, the program has substantially lost value in my eyes, beyond the fact that I don’t trust it any more.
As I have been saying all along American will be making big changes. Sometimes the Anytime awards were not bad. One thing they may do is expand what falls under the anytime award. Therefore they will say they are not adjusting the award chart but actually reduce the number of lower cost seats.
Re: “@Trent Huge and No Notice are the lead words in my headline”.
Yeah, but you don’t once in the whole article say that “no notice” is in any way bad… unlike every single post about a Delta award chart change. Most flyers may not notice these AA changes, but what other changes will AA spring unannounced in the future?
The email from American makes it sound like everything is great and that the changes benefit all. I never used the explorer awards but you (Gary) and the others mentioned that they thought it might go at some point.
When they make changes like this it makes me expect to see Milesaver inventory become very limited. This is basically a huge Milesaver stealth devaluation. They haven’t devalued their Milesaver award chart per se, but in effect they have massively devalued it. If you can’t redeem them easily enough at the lower levels your AA points are worth a good 50%-100% less.
I have used the US stopover to get cheaper pricing on summer awards. If I want to fly from NYC -> CDG in the summer, I was able to drive to BOS and take a BOS -> NYC in the spring, and then take a two month long stopover in NYC until my flight in the summer. This saved 10,000 miles per person. Oh well.
AA gutted the baggage allowance benefit for AA golds too today.
Randy Petersen advised the industry and some of its head honchos to make big changes all at once if they were going to make changes of this sort. No surprise today is a mAAssacre, and I doubt it’s all over yet.
Did AA pay you not to rip them a new one bc I know you’re not this naive. The elimination of stopovers is HUGE bc it completely devalues the off-peak awards. The OW Explorer Award was the best deal in travel — by far. No notice is just unacceptable. A sad day for the miles world.
Sorry gary but i agree with everything storm said above.
American is using #flyoneworld and cross promoting with their partners’ twitter handles (such as @JAL_Official_jp). If we want airlines to know that changing loyalty programs instantly without notice is an unfair relationship, then use both those in your posts.
If I was a partner of American and I got tons of bad press on twitter because of their lack of loyalty to customers, I’d give them hell about how to handle it in the future. Maybe, just maybe, they’d even respond in a meaningful correction this time.