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.
Gone, but not forgotten!
How can anyone call this a “reward” or “award” travel – for what ? Spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars or flying hundreds of trips for mileage to accrue enough for this trip? They (the airlines) act like they’re doing us a favor while they paint such unrealistic expectations. Spare people the agony and go back to “you want F class, pay for F class” I would bet there are still plenty of people – translated – Money Is No Object that will fill those seats and the rest of the unwashed masses can just watch.
Fiji Airways are dynamic the same way that AA awards are since they participate in Aadvantage. It’s an interesting development to see it with TN, and I wonder if AA negotiated someting special with the airline because members really want to go to Tahiti. DL and UA can charge you whatever they want on their metal, but AA can’t. PPT is probably the biggest hole in the Oneworld map. I’m not really interested in going to Tahiti, and I certainly wouldn’t pay that much, but there are plenty of road warriors in Dallas whose wife will make them.
I have 400,000 miles on American and its astounding to me that it could all be gone on one ticket. No thanks. Ill keep going back and forth to Budapest for 60000 round trip in economy
If you think points redemptions to Tahiti are a rip-off, wait until you see your hotel bill.
Let’s Go To Tahiti (Bill Boatman, Roger Tillison)
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Well, the man been working in the shop all year
He said, “Men, we’ve got to get out of here”
Well the girl been working in the five-and-dime
She says, “Girls, let’s go while we’ve still got the time”
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Tell the captain, “Put the rhum on the boat”
Everybody on board, let’s see if she’ll float
Let that old jet plane fly on by
We’ve got the time till the day we die
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
Let’s go to Tahiti
The FJ awards can be similarly outrageous but I see plenty of west coast USA to Sydney now in J for 80k. I just booked two in June for my boy and I home from the World Cup. So if it means instead of zero space there is some available for 300l with the odd 80k save space available then I’m fine with that.
I’m in LA until Wednesday if you’re around Matt!
Just a few months ago, AAdvantage was charging a flat rate of off peak (to March 31) of 22,500 miles for economy class LAX-Paris CDG.
Their uniforms are nice but the airline is just standard/average in my opinion.
Noticed AA’s new dynamic pricing on TN’s CDG-LAX route too. But the same flight is also available using 70k AS Atmos points. As AA moves to dynamic pricing on partner awards, it pays to check pricing through other OW partners (CX, QR, BA, AS, AY, etc) and use transferable points strategically. In the last couple of years I’ve started to diversify earning opportunities across Bilt, Capital One, Amex, Rove, etc to cast a wider net of transfer partner options.