I’m not sure whether this is good news or bad news, but American Airlines has moved to a more dynamic pricing model with awards on Air Tahiti Nui.
American Airlines Shifts To Variable Pricing On Air Tahiti Nui Awards
I was checking award space to Tahiti (not for me…as much as I’d love to return to The Brando) and noticed a concerning new approach to pricing to Air Tahiti Nui awards booked with AA Advantage miles.
Gone is standard pricing, which has been:
- 40,000 miles one-way – economy class
- 65,000 miles one-way – premium economy class
- 80,000 miles one-way – business class
Note that AA no longer publishes a partner award chart, but instead says:
Miles shown are estimated starting values for one-way trips originating in the country / region selected, for informational purposes only.
In practice, partner award pricing has not been devalued in years (for which many of us are very grateful) and tends to follow the minimum pricing reflected above. But that’s not true on Fiji Airways and it is no longer true on Air Tahiti.
Instead, you’ll now find pricing all over the map, with some business class awards running almost 400K miles one-way.
For example, on June 16th a one-way LAX-PPT flight is as much as 383K in business class:
But on June 18th, there are business class awards for 80K miles (about half the price of a premium economy award!):
A day later, pricing is all variable except for premium economy on TN101:
But if there’s a silver lining here, it seems that when Air Tahiti Nui makes saver space available, it is still available at the old 40/65/80K rates, and the higher-priced awards represent additional award space that was not previously available to AAdvantage members.
I think using 383K AA miles for a one-way business class ticket to PPT is absolutely crazy, but maybe others will value their time and miles differently, particularly if the tradeoff is spending $6,000 for the same flight.
Why I’m Not Excited
The old system of the award space either being available or unavailable always at a set price seems to be fading not just for an airline’s own flights, but also for partners. While that theoretically opens up more space, if partner suddenly goes up in price or becomes much more dynamic, those traditional “great deals” that make the miles and points games so valuable (like my own trip from Tahiti to Los Angeles) disappear.
Look at the pricing of AA on its own metal (or for that matter, look at Aeroplan pricing on Air Canada metal or Delta SkyMiles pricing on Delta metal or United MileagePlus pricing on United metal). When prices go fully dynamic, great deals are few and far between and when tied to revenue fares, points lose their outsized value that once made them so valuable (and helped airlines fill seats that otherwise would have gone empty).
I do take a glass-half-empty approach to this because one can certainly argue the upside, but I see the trend as variable pricing as starting reasonably but drifting toward the exorbitant (hello American, Delta, and United when it comes to longhaul business class pricing).
But for now, I guess this a positive?
CONCLUSION
American Airlines has introduced a more dynamic pricing model on Air Tahiti Nui mileage awards, with “saver” pricing still available on some dates, but also variable pricing that is magnitudes higher.
If this simply opens up additional space to members, then this is goods news. But if this leads to all awards on Air Tahiti Nui being tied to revenue fares, then ultimately the extra space will cost us dearly.
top image: Air Tahiti Nui
This is about access for those that can’t travel on a Tuesday off peak when space was available. It’s not a devaluation to the saver product. The same is true when you dig into FJ awards with AA miles.
And I very clearly said that was the case…for now.
*sad face* (the good ole days are gone…)
One could argue they have been gone for a while now.