Navigating the airline’s new mileage award redemption rates and an updated mileage award search tool.
On Jan. 24, American Airlines (AA) finally released its Premium Economy (PE) mileage award rates. AA started PE service back in October 2016. Since then FCF has done many fare alerts for AA’s PE product. Below is a list of the most recent ones (many of the fares have expired, as fares often only last a few days, but this shows how low fares can be with American in PE):
Premium Economy Fares Found from California to Europe from $826 R/T, Spring and Fall
New Asia Premium Economy Fares Found Starting at $884 R/T
$1,759 R/T Australia and New Zealand Premium Economy Fares Found on American
Plus, we did an in-depth report on how reasonable an AA upsell is from economy, which can cost as little as $7 per flight hour—or can even come out free once you add in all the extras economy can cost nowadays.
New PE Developments
Well, the time is finally here. AA now offers a mileage redemption for its PE cabin. And overall, FCF is satisfied with the award rates for most regions, as many rates are a split between economy and Business Class. For example, PE costs 40,000 miles one-way for U.S. to Europe and southern South America vs. 30,000 in economy and 57,500 in Business Class.
The major exceptions to this are Alaska, Asia (region 1), and Hawaii, as the cost of Business Class is not much more than PE, which means it’s likely a better value just to get a free Business Class award, if you could. (See chart below for a quick look at the difference between economy, PE, Business Class, and First Class.)
American’s New PE Cost at a Glance: The Difference Between Economy, Premium Economy, Business Class, and First Class, Each Way
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Note that AA at this point is NOT offering PE awards to all regions, such as the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. To reiterate: AA is NOT changing mileage award rates in any category; it’s just adding mileage award rates for its PE seat product.
Upgrades to PE or PE Partner Awards
Neither upgrades to PE on American nor partners—such as British Airways or Qantas—awards are available yet. FCF thinks that PE partner redemption and American upgrades will be added in the near future, however, for right now it’s not an option.