American’s “new” award pricing calendar is not nearly as bad as you think—and offers prices much lower than its “old” pricing calendar, and even cheaper for non-loyalists
We’re happy to relay some good news: American Airlines is offering some very good deals on mileage award redemptions for travel later this year and into 2021, when compared to 2019.
We’ve been closely watching this trend. In March we reported on the new Hawaii opportunities where Business Class awards from Los Angeles are down 49% over last year.
This comes on the heels of AA virtually throwing out their charts in favor of dynamic pricing and charging whatever they wanted (case in point: a Los Angeles-Sydney round-trip ticket for 960,000 miles in Business!).
But with those stings come some cuddles, and we don’t think it’s a Covid-induced move either.
Concealed Miles Weapon. Are You Still Using AA’s Old Miles Chart (and Paying Through the Nose?)
Consider AA’s price drops from last year in the following chart.
American's New 2020 Round-Trip Biz Class Lowest-Cost Awards
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Although everything is up for grabs at the moment (to some extent), we think this is likely a new way of airline thinking. Airline yield management seems to be selling mileage award seats to the opportunity traveler more than ever before. That means you’ll reap giant rewards for traveling when an airline entices you to book the dates and destinations they want you to book.
Spotted: An AA search Page Discrepancy.
Are You Looking at Their Old Calendar Online?
Are you searching for AA mileage award space using their old calendar? I’m sure a lot of people simply have the AA search page bookmarked and click on that link whenever they want to check award space. But here’s the thing, it’s been revamped–and in a different location! And they’ve left the old page where it’s always been.
Importantly, there are differences between the two search engine calendars in the mileage requirements for trips.
AND from the research we’ve done so far at least, using the old calendar mileage requirements means you’re paying more of your precious miles than you need to.
The newer rate calendar is right there in plain sight, but being creatures of habit, we humans tend to always return to the places we’ve frequented before, and that includes booking sites.
Their new calendar has actually been live for a while now, which is why we’re saying “newer” and not “new.” To be fair, AA’s site does say (in small print), “Try our new award booking search, including Premium Economy.” This takes you to the new search tool, but there’s no mention of lower rates to be found when you do.
And yes, it can make a big difference.
A U.S.-to-Europe trip at the still-available “old” saver rate is 115,000 miles round-trip. But if you click on the page with the newer saver rate, that same trip is 84,000 miles round-trip. That’s a 31,000 miles savings by simply clicking on the newer page.
Here are the results we found when using the still-available “old” calendar for a New York-London trip in October:
And below are the search results for that same route on the newer search page link here:
Out With the Old, In With the New!
If you look closely at the first screenshot above, the “old” (and yet still available) calendar and link–which many AA members still use–shows only six dates with SAAver award level pricing. (Note: All the other dates display pricing for coach travel.) However, use the newer award pricing search page and the volume of lowest-priced awards is radically better–22 days instead of six, almost four times the space.
What if You’re Not Flexible?
Nowadays, with the new search engine, if you want more options for travel dates, you often only have to pay a bit more because AA has many different prices. Even when the lowest price isn’t available, some prices are not much more than the lowest one. Just look closely at the screenshot above, at the days in white / not green? See how most of them are not substantially more miles? Even if you’re not getting the best rates, you can still win much more often when you’re less flexible.
Concealed Savings
The other difference is in savings. One-way Business Class flights are 42,000 miles on the newer chart, compared to the old chart’s pricing of 57,500. That’s 15,500 miles, or 27% less.
Business Class on Transcons 35% Lower
With the Newer Calendar
In 2019, a 65,000-miles round-trip was the lowest saver award rate. Now, in 2020, with the newer search calendar, the lowest rate has quietly dropped down to 42,000 miles round-trip; that’s a 23,000-mile fall in just a year.
Business Class to the Carribean 20% Lower
With Newer Calendar
In 2019, the lowest saver award rate to the Caribbean was 50,000 miles round-trip. Now, in 2020, with the newer search calendar, the lowest rate starts at 40,000 miles round-trip; a 10,000-mile drop.
Business Class to Mexico 20% Lower
With the Newer Calendar
In 2019, 50,000 miles round-trip was the lowest saver award rate. Now it starts at 40,000 miles with the hidden search calendar; a 10,000-mile drop in just a year.
Business Class to Europe 27% Lower
With the Newer Calendar
In 2019, 115,000 miles round-trip was the lowest saver award rate to Europe. This year, the lowest rate is 84,000 miles round-trip with AA’s newer search calendar; a 31,000-mile discount. See FCF’s recent American Airlines alerts here and here.
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Beware of a one-way rate discrepancies. One-way trips to Europe are no longer 50% of the round-trip rate with AA. So if you only need a one-way to Europe, the rate is 50,000 miles–about 60% of the round-trip cost. [/aside]
Business Class to South America up to 30% Lower
With the Newer Calendar
In 2019, the lowest saver rate to South America was 115,000 miles. This year it’s just 80,000 to 84,000 miles round-trip with the newer search calendar; up to a 35,000-mile drop.
Get Premium Economy for Less Than Economy for Travel to Europe
In 2019, the lowest saver rate to Europe in economy was 60,000 miles. This year, it’s just 54,000 miles round-trip in Premium Economy with the newer search calendar; a free upgrade to Premium Economy.
Don’t See Your Town Mentioned?
Connecting flights to the hub cities in this report are free in most cases with American Airlines, apart from Hawaii originations, as its mileage plan is zone-based. Here’s an example:
New York to London in Business Class on American costs 84,000 miles round-trip. But if you live in St. Louis, you can add a flight to New York to hook up with that deal from St. Louis (or your departure city) for no additional miles.
ITINERARIES WITH Connecting Flights ARE
OFTEN LESS MILES and MORE PLENTIFUL, BOTH!
FCF research has found that at times, itineraries that include connecting flights can have more discount award availability than the non-stop flight from a hub city, plus at a lower rate. Can you image that?
Take, for example, Atlanta to Santiago, connecting via Miami for travel in September. At the time of writing, this route had 23 days of discounted award space for two travelers at a cost of 40,000 miles one-way (the lowest rate for southern South America is usually 42,000 miles one-way on non-stop flights). The non-stop Miami to Santiago, on the other hand, didn’t even have one day available at the discounted rate.
Many airlines take a complex approach to inventory management. One such approach is “married segment” availability. This means that they’re willing to make different mileage award seats available on a flight based on whether you’re connecting or not. In this case, AA’s best customers, based out of it’s Miami hub, can’t use their miles at low-cost mileage rates on the non-stop Miami-to-Santiago route. But any Joe, who originates in, say Denver, can fly via Miami to Santiago at lower mileage award rates.
There’s a lot more that goes into this, but in short, American is using married segment logic for saver level award seats, meaning that they’re only making low-cost award seats available as part of a connecting itinerary and not as a non-stop, if nothing else.
Or take Chicago to Tokyo in First Class connecting via Dallas for travel in February 2021. At the time of writing, this route had 12 days of discounted award space for two travelers at a cost of 55,000 miles one-way. (The lowest rate for the non-stop Dallas-Tokyo service is 80,000 miles one-way, if you could find space, which you almost can’t.)
Hold availability With American
If you want to grab an opportunity but haven’t sorted out your kids’ vacation times, hotel bookings, meeting dates, and the like, you can hold the award seat for five days at no additional charge. You can also get more than one date, and then cancel the ones you don’t need. There’s no charge for the mileage award hold. For more details go here.
Current American Buy Miles Deal
AA is currently running a deal whereby you can buy miles for as low as 1.86¢ each (includes taxes and processing fee), through a new, up-to-100,000-bonus-miles buy promo + save 3%.
Who is buying miles for? In general FCF wouldn’t recommend buying miles right now unless you have a planned trip, or if you don’t have any miles in your kitty, or don’t have a credit card that allows you to buy points.
A Bit of Good News Just In
