While American Airlines has not formally announced a devaluation of its award chart, the consensus is it is only a matter of when, not if. Tonight, AA.com is either acting up or gives us a preview of what a new AAnytime award chart might look like: variable pricing.
I was searching for London – Los Angeles flights for a client and noticed that prices for AAnytime awards (last seat availability) now fluctuate based on the date. AA had been the holdout among legacies, charging only twice as much for AAnytime seats as saver awards, while Delta, United, and US Airways charged a much higher premium. It comes as no surprise AA would change this practice, but a bit odd that this change was not announced and the current AA award chart still shows 100K for a USA – Europe one-way premium AAnytime award.
In searching AA.com, prices now fluctuate between 100K and 135K for AAnytime business, 125K and 175K for AAnytime first, and 45K-65K for AAnytime economy.
Saver prices appear unchanged for now:
If this is an award chart change and not just some sort of glitch, you would be well-advised to book upcoming planned travel using your US Airways or American miles sooner rather than later. Providing no notice is not at all consumer friendly.
how soon do you think they will implement the change, all I heard was rumors not til next year but you are saying sooner, like when ?
@choi: This could all be a web glitch, but it just seems like a logical devaluation to match standard awards on Delta and United. All I have is my hunch, no inside info–though I have asked AA for clarification.
Well, bad news indeed. Another post coming later today, but this is a massive devaluation folks!
And this is just the warm up; we’ll see the real deval. when the full merger comes. The three legacy carriers are aligning their programs to the ‘minimum to max’ formula. For example, AA’s elimination of a stopover. The intent forward is to downsize/modify frequent flyer programs or outright elimination. If all 3 are onboard then it’s doable. One replacement as a bare bones FF program is to simply issue a monetary/upgrade voucher after so many paid miles flown good for one year to apply to a ticket.
The part that hurts me the most is the elimination of the oneworld Explorer award. I was just sitting down to figure out my planned routes. So much for that now.
And on another note, thanks for welcoming me to the team! I’ve heard a lot about you and I’m looking forward to learning from you. It’s nice to have someone with your professional experience to interpret all the legalese.