US Dividend Miles - Oneworld Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[sergeyvzn]

No notice devaluation by US and AA!

American And US Airways Award Program Changes Without Notice - One Mile at a Time

US Airways:

It wasn't unexpected but it mainly concerns US based travelers

no change for South Pacific based travelers so I wouldn't worry too much

AA - pity the OneWorld Explorer awards are gone but the rest of the changes is again pretty insignificant for AU based travelers

 

[Beta4Me]

US Airways:

It wasn't unexpected but it mainly concerns US based travelers

no change for South Pacific based travelers so I wouldn't worry too much

AA - pity the OneWorld Explorer awards are gone but the rest of the changes is again pretty insignificant for AU based travelers

I'm sure there'll be more changes to come and my trust is now gone so I'm no longer going to be purchasing ("sharing") the 300K DM I was about to. Also, I'm majorly screwed over by the AA devaluation.

 

[sergeyvzn]

I'm sure there'll be more changes to come and my trust is now gone so I'm no longer going to be purchasing ("sharing") the 300K DM I was about to. Also, I'm majorly screwed over by the AA devaluation.

I'm obviously more trusting as I have "shared" 100K US DM today

 

[MEL_Traveller]

pffft. An increase of $100 (share miles promo) to get the difference between the old and new chart for North Asia.

 

[sergeyvzn]

pffft. An increase of $100 (share miles promo) to get the difference between the old and new chart for North Asia.

And only if you start your journey in the US

 

[MEL_Traveller]

And only if you start your journey in the US

i suspect there will be some more adjustments... the difference USA-Nth Asia between business and first is only 10K miles. That will have to increase.

(but on the flip side... please no one ask 'is it worth it to go first class rather than business' on that route! It's $50 difference!!!!!!)

 

[anat0l]

My guess is that all the warehousing of mileage in accounts in anticipation of the merger was not helping things. Imagine how many oneworld awards would have been easily cashed in had the ability to mutually sweep miles between US and AA been instituted.

 

[serfty]

My guess is that all the warehousing of mileage in accounts in anticipation of the merger was not helping things. Imagine how many oneworld awards would have been easily cashed in had the ability to mutually sweep miles between US and AA been instituted.

So why a one week sharemiles promo?

 

[anat0l]

So why a one week sharemiles promo?

Still gotta make money some how. Who knows how much money they make from these, and then even more due to mile breakage...

I suppose legal is breathing a sigh that they didn't put the timeline of US DM and AAdvantage up yet, otherwise there could be a major consumer law case there.

 

[Beta4Me]

suppose legal is breathing a sigh that they didn't put the timeline of US DM and AAdvantage up yet, otherwise there could be a major consumer law case there.

I'm amazed that what essentially amount to sales by deception and making major changes without notice is even legal anyway.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm amazed that what essentially amount to sales by deception and making major changes without notice is even legal anyway.

for BIS flyers i could see this as a devaluation. But if you are buying miles for use under USDM then there has been one tiny change. And the miles can be bought for $100 to cover that change.

Is there something else I've missed?

 

[Beta4Me]

for BIS flyers i could see this as a devaluation. But if you are buying miles for use under USDM then there has been one tiny change. And the miles can be bought for $100 to cover that change.

Is there something else I've missed?

Sorry. Wrong thread. I meant the AA devaluations which are much worse.

 

[Alanslegal]

So why a one week sharemiles promo?

I'll be positive and say it is to reward "existing" members ie new members need not apply for share bonus

 

[anat0l]

for BIS flyers i could see this as a devaluation. But if you are buying miles for use under USDM then there has been one tiny change. And the miles can be bought for $100 to cover that change.

Is there something else I've missed?

It helps a lot that we in Australia experience almost nil change from this.

The Americans are not so lucky; their sweetest spot on the rewards chart has been partly nullified. And before you say "it's just $100", remember that Americans get really antsy even when their very small taxes increases by even only a fistful of dollars.

 

[Princess Fiona]

It helps a lot that we in Australia experience almost nil change from this.

The Americans are not so lucky; their sweetest spot on the rewards chart has been partly nullified. And before you say "it's just $100", remember that Americans get really antsy even when their very small taxes increases by even only a fistful of dollars.

Also hang out at the BAEC on FT as the recent introduction of a £30 charge for changes to Award bookings has caused a riot amongst the OWE there.

 

[Alanslegal]

There may be further devaluations in the works so guess its wise for everyone to book something ASAP "just in case". The change/cancellation fee that you incur if you really have to change your plans down the track is small 'insurance' money to protect against points devaluation.

 

[anat0l]

There may be further devaluations in the works so guess its wise for everyone to book something ASAP "just in case". The change/cancellation fee that you incur if you really have to change your plans down the track is small 'insurance' money to protect against points devaluation.

With all the blogs now claiming that an F award between North America and North Asia is only 10k differential to J now, I suspect someone in the war room is going, "****! We forgot to raise the prices of the F awards!"

 

[zainman]

Anyone successfully book a GUM itinerary yet? Do the USDM changes impact such routings?

 

[Beta4Me]

Anyone successfully book a GUM itinerary yet? Do the USDM changes impact such routings?

Read the successful bookings thread. They have booked one and they are impacted due to less options to get there with OW.

 

[smit0847]

Read the successful bookings thread. They have booked one and they are impacted due to less options to get there with OW.

No one has booked one?

There is only 1 OW flight per day from anywhere in the world to GUM/SPN (being JL NRT-GUM) meaning the entire GUM concept is at the mercy of JL for that one flight vs the dozens of options we had on UA, as they hub there. It is almost impossible to accurately find availability on this route as BA.com often show phantom JL availability, and the only accurate availability is JL.com itself but because the flight is on JL metal, its unclear whether the availability JL.com show is being held for JL FF members, or being provided to partners.

There's no wonderful awardtravelr where you simply plug in your destination and date and it returns dozens of routing options. You have to think about your route, then find each flight individually and double check it on various different airline search engines. Its very time consuming, and very frustrating, because it was so easy on *A.

While not impossible, it is 10x harder to book a GUM trip on OW than *A.