AAdvantage award Devaluation - Bookings from Mar 22nd 2016

[incumbent]

It's a game to you? There in lies the problem.

It's a more realistic approach than treating miles as a non-depreciable investment.

Plenty of bad news in the announcement, but Asia ain't where it's at.

 

[get me outta here]

Croupier, which month is that? It that a return fare points?

Thanks, I'm surprised I didn't get pinged for non direct route or going over the MPM, was tempted to see if I could throw a NZ sector in just for laughs.

 

[get me outta here]

Does the points required change if flown after the new date, or just booking after the new date?

 

[get me outta here]

Does the points required change if flown after the new date, or just booking after the new date?

EDIT: sorry, just read the thread title properly.

 

[kpc]

Not happy with the changes but trying to think how I can use my points before tha changes in March 2016 kick in. I want to book 4x J one way award seats Hkg-Jfk on Cx for travel in July 2017. Currently that is 4 x55000 AA miles, which would increase to 4 x 70000 AA miles with the changes, meaning a 60000 miles increase ouch!

If I wait till March next year (just before the changes kick in), and book 4 x J award seats for Hkg-Jfk in Feb 2017 (furthest out I can book), can I then wait til 4 months later, and change them (without any $ or AA miles cost) to July 2017? Any restrictions in doing that....eg ticket must be used / flown within 12 months of original booking date (in this case booked in March 16)?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

It's a game to you? There in lies the problem.

Its absolutely a game

 

[anat0l]

Sometimes big charts are easier than many little ones...

One set of these is a summary of the changes, and as you can see, pretty much increases across the entire world. Very few wins, and they are pretty situational.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8r491s1ju...nges 2016-03-22, correct 2015-11-18).pdf?dl=0


With these changes, my days with AA might well be over, as are most of my days being a low status premium award flyer (i.e. via buying points). AS is the last hold out, and it's rather situational.

 

[openseat]

Well I would have to point out that it's actually very difficult to get to Sri Lanka with AA anyway. You can get one seat on MH but not two.

I've managed a trip every second year or so using either all CX or QF/BA to SIN and CX to CMB as well as MH.

 

[Deleted member 26544]

Sometimes big charts are easier than many little ones...

One set of these is a summary of the changes, and as you can see, pretty much increases across the entire world. Very few wins, and they are pretty situational.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8r491s1ju...nges 2016-03-22, correct 2015-11-18).pdf?dl=0


With these changes, my days with AA might well be over, as are most of my days being a low status premium award flyer (i.e. via buying points). AS is the last hold out, and it's rather situational.

Many thanks for posting this link. It'll help the partner and I figure out what to do with our respective balances (101k and 127k)

 

[kezzakawasaki]

Like others, we had stockpiled about 500K in points via USDM in recent years and just recently booked a long awaited trip for 2 pax to Europe in Aug~Sep 2016 via the following routing / redemptions:

SYD~AUH 45K each in business | AUH~DOH~ARN 30K each in business
CDG~DOH 40K each in first | DOH~AUH~SYD 45K each in business

As our flight dates and arrival / departure cities were not that flexible, we weren't able to route / redeem at the 60K level, but the Middle East alternative using both EY and QR was very reasonable I thought, especially as the only seat available out of CDG coming home was on the QR A380 in First! At 40K, really amazing deal (while it lasted....)

We're sitting on 180K points now which we'll probably just use for night flight returns back from SE Asia or Japan, or 20K internal Australia. For our trips over to SE Asia, Avianca Lifemiles continues to have a good option using SQ in economy at 22.5K points (even better value with points + cash) and as we are mostly happy to take day flights on SQ we'll probably use this option more often in the future.

 

[Danger]

The breadth of this devaluation is very disappointing. I understand it's AA's program and the airline can do what it wants but devaluations upwards of 50% are really just giving the middle finger to your customers.

Well just locked in my trip, thought I might as well get my points worth. Itinerary goes like this.
OOL-SYD---SYD-PER---PER-MEL-AUH-CAI
--- denotes overnight layover to visit family.
120K for 2 PAX in F get the apartments while they last ;-)

Wow. As you noted, I think you got lucky. There's a fair backtrack in there. That said, one of the aadvantages of AAwards is the fact that you don't necessarily have to take the most direct routing to a destination to get the minimum cost, unlike on QF. Next year I'm off to Stockholm out of Perth. The most direct would be via DOH or maybe HKG and LHR but I've got two transits in Australia, one in Asia and one in Helsinki, all for the same 60k J award. That is value.

is it possible to get 2 F apartments on EY or do they release only 1 for each flight?

Yes. I've seen more than one at a time, including a date I'm very keen to jump on.

Does the points required change if flown after the new date, or just booking after the new date?

Not happy with the changes but trying to think how I can use my points before tha changes in March 2016 kick in. I want to book 4x J one way award seats Hkg-Jfk on Cx for travel in July 2017. Currently that is 4 x55000 AA miles, which would increase to 4 x 70000 AA miles with the changes, meaning a 60000 miles increase ouch!

If I wait till March next year (just before the changes kick in), and book 4 x J award seats for Hkg-Jfk in Feb 2017 (furthest out I can book), can I then wait til 4 months later, and change them (without any $ or AA miles cost) to July 2017? Any restrictions in doing that....eg ticket must be used / flown within 12 months of original booking date (in this case booked in March 16)?

My understanding is that date and time changes are permitted with a re-price; only origin and destination changes result in an award going back to the rates desk. That said, as you've noted, I think you'll be up against the 12 month restriction.

 

[wandering_fred]

So much for holding the miles to head back to my 50th reunion in June 2017... So one way will have to be cash (subject to further changes, of course). Now the issue is simply maintaining the status to make the trip bearable...

If you still can, happy wandering

Fred

 

[quokka77]

The rules change. The game continues.

 

[quokka77]

SQ/KF and CX/AM suddenly look even more appealing.

 

[drron]

Quite frankly Aadvantage is just catching up to others programs.And it is still better due to less taxes/fines.
My most frequent award is Japan to USA.So it has gone from 62500 to 80000 in F.I still consider that very good value.However I hope it does lead to increased award availability as that has been the real problem for me in the last 2 years.
And just looking at Australia to the USA 80000 in J and 110000 in F are still considerably better than QFF.As well far less taxes and the award stays the same whether you are flying to LAX or JFK unlike QF.Once again though I hope that they start releasing some J,F awards on their own SYD-LAX service after March 22.Unfortunately not that confident they will.

 

[Croupier]

It's been ticketed? Somehow an error has crept in which didn't get picked up as there wouldn't be a published fare for that routing I wouldn't have though.

It's ticketed
I've done searches on AA's own award booking site and found fares that seemed to break their own rules.
I think it all comes down to their system, if the agent punches in the details and it spits out an award as a single routing then your in luck.
I've also had luck with single awards EU - PAC transiting both Asia 1 & 2, it shouldn't work but it does.

 

[quokka77]

The things that will really kill AA for Australians out of this deval are:
- we don't earn anything like 1ppd on cc spend to AA.
- earn rate on Qantas domestic isn't that great.
- weaker AUD and less generous buy miles promos.

Unless you've got workarounds for some of these problems AA isn't likely to offer great value going forward... But take note of the sweet spots, and use them as required.

 

[incumbent]

take note of the sweet spots, and use them as required.

Pretty much true of everything in the entire FF world.

 

[Nizar]

Any restrictions in doing that....eg ticket must be used / flown within 12 months of original booking date (in this case booked in March 16)?

Date can be changed but travel must be taken within 12 months of date of original ticketing

 

[Pleb Status]

Burn baby burn. 150k AA miles to go over the next few days.

It does make me worry about my 1M+ QFF points.