Cathay Pacific flight awards are now easily bookable on aa.com using miles. What could be the downside? A big one, as it turns out.
Cathay Pacific awards have always been bookable using your American Airlines miles. In the past, you’ve had to check for award space using the British Airways or Qantas flight award search tools, then call AA to book.
It was a bit cumbersome, but Cathay Pacific has historically been very generous in releasing award space in advance, making up to four business class award seats per flight available, even on most longhaul flights.
This is where true value was found in AAdvantage, a loyalty program that offers limited value on American redemptions.
As much as I appreciate airlines empowering customers to use their miles more effectively, I must again remind us of the consequences of this action. Award space is a tightly-controlled, limited inventory commodity that many people are chasing: a classic supply/demand issue. By putting it out in the open for everyone to book, demand is further increased by a slew of new market entrants (AA users who had no idea you could call to book Cathay space), further straining supply. This further gives AA ammo to raise prices on these awards…because it literally can get away with it. Easily. Just wait.
Look, I made the same argument before when JAL, Malaysia Airlines, LATAM, Qatar Airways, and Fiji Airways were added.
And I was right!
Award Expert has been booking oneworld awards for clients for eight years. We track award space closely and I still am looking at it on a near-daily basis. Unsurprisingly, we’ve seen award space on all these partners erode as it AA has made it much easier to book online.
CONCLUSION
I reject any charge that wanting to shield online award space is poor sportsmanship or greedy. It is selfish, but only in the sense that I believe those who invest the time to study and learn loyalty programs should be rewarded.
The days of calling AA to book awards are over. I like that. But I’d far prefer to call in then have no award space at all. Just watch the Cathay Pacific award space quickly dry up, especially the space for next year.
> Read More: Why AA’s Expanded Online Award Space Is Devastating News
> Read More: Warning: Fiji Airways + Malaysia Airlines Now Bookable On AA.com
Typo alert: (AA users who had no idea you could call to book AA space)
I agree. It sucks there’s no more secret menu…
“I believe those who invest the time to study and learn loyalty programs should be rewarded.”
Wow. Reading a chart is ‘studying’. Hopefully you did not go to grad school…
It’s far more complicated than that.
Changes like this are a net good. Sure, the people that knew about it before and everyone else didn’t it was glory days but with technology and innovation (and airlines desire to downsize human employees) we should see more of this type of thing.
I say kudos.
Counterpoint: loyalty with a business should only demand using it’s product, and the perks that come with loyalty shouldn’t have hidden behind lots of terms and conditions, barriers etc.
If you value net human joy vs reduced revenue for your points business because less people will need it, then it’s a good thing. Would you have said putting best flight prices online vs the Spirit model of going to airport is better?
It’s really not about my business, but more about the value of the points for travelers who have taken the time to really study and learn about loyalty programs. My fear, as I wrote about above, is that demand so far outweighs supply that AA could double pricing overnight and still have all kinds of takers.
The crunch for anyone contemplating an award ticket on Cathay is the fact they’re reducing frequencies…and it’s hard to imagine much award capacity on key routes ( particularly NYC, which has a major reduction). I have several bookings but I’m far from confident I’ll ‘make the cut’ ( miles deducted, taxes paid, tickets issued notwithstanding ). So I’d expect any premium cabin availability through AA to be reduced rather than increased in the future. On the other hand, maybe the downturn in paying customers is so acute that they are more open to partner redemptions, if only in the short term.
I’ve already seen complaints about lack of JAL availability lately. No coincidence it started after awards started showing on AA. 🙁
I’ve seen it myself. 🙁
guilty here. Just snatched a pair of NRT-JFK in F for their conveniently timed Saturday evening departure. Given that their Haneda departure is late morning, I’d much prefer the NRT route this time due to the timing, especially for the end of your vacation where you wanna maximize ground time before heading home.
I get your point, but booking award tickets over the phone is one of the universe’s worst ways to spend your time, so I’ll take the online availability.
Sorry. This seems like a minority trying to protect their own benefits at the detriment of everyone else.
People aren’t more valuable because they like award charts or calling agents on the phone. Many have earned AA miles the old fashioned ways and are entitled to use them. Artificial barriers to benefit the few are not a good thing.
This is net negative. I agree that as you democratize award bookings that are historically arcane to book, you’ll give the everyone easier access and thus the limited supply will run out faster.
While I appreciate the ability to book online, it means I will also be competing with everyone else that previously would not have bothered with checking other websites or was even aware of that award option, thus losing my advantage (which was earned by going through hoops to find it in the first place.
Every time an award becomes easier to book online, you complain. While I see your point that only advanced hobbyists and professional booking services should be able to book very desirable awards, I think that you’re looking at this the wrong way. If a reasonable amount of premium award seats were available, space would be easy to book online for everyone. Any blame that the system doesn’t allow this should be apportioned to the airline restricting available award seats.
To be fair, this is also going to free up a handful of seats. All of the AAdvantage members who were previously limited to choosing DFW and LAX to HKG will now have other options. I can live with that, considering how bad CX’s transpacific service now is.