As an earn and burn program — the value of a program’s miles, not its elite status — it’s hard to imagine a program that’s done more to become less useful.
The value in American Airlines miles stems mainly from the ability to use points on their partners — but even there mostly for Asia and the Mideast, not for Europe (where their primary transatlantic partner incurs extortionate add-on charges), not for Africa (where their reach is limited), and not for South America (where award availability is poor).
The usefulness of miles are a function of:
- Cost how many points it takes for an award, here American went from offering a great pricing chart to one on part with United’s and well behind Alaska Airlines with their devaluation last year.
- Availability and on their own aircraft American offers fewer award seats than peers. In fact, while this doesn’t speak to saver versus extra mileage awards, airlines report the percentage of passenger miles flown on award ticket the prior year in their SEC 10-K filings. American reported 6.3% of passenger miles on awards compared to 7.7% at United and 7.9% at Delta.
- Routing rules how you’re allowed to combine available award flights into a single award. Even with the use of journey control on Delta, American AAdvantage routing rules are the most draconian.
I usually talk about the difficulties using American Airlines miles to fly their own planes in premium cabins and when awards and upgrade space open briefly I put the word out.
I prefer to use miles on their partners such as Etihad. Last month I flew Dallas – Abu Dhabi and also Abu Dhabi – Melbourne in first class, and I have a slew of First Apartment reservations booked that I may now cancel because of the laptop ban flying from Abu Dhabi to the US.
That is not how most people experience the program though. They want to fly places from their home city, usually on American and usually domestic. And what’s most striking to most members is the sheer lack of award availability — which means awards at the saver level, not awards where American wants 55,000 for a one-way first class seat from Austin to Dallas.
I live in Austin. American Airlines offers 11 peak daily departures on the 190 mile flight from Austin to Dallas. Between June 4 and the end of schedule in mid-March, 2018 there is not a single flight where there’s even one premium cabin saver award seat available. That’s over 3000 flights.
These are not super expensive first class seats, mind you, that you’d expect American to be holding back for sale and only willing to part with at that 55,000 mile price. Surely one flight out of 10 to 11 a day on one of these days, under a reasonable award allocation scheme, might be made available?
On occasion, my wife and I might want to use miles for one of American’s three daily flights from Austin to Chicago — and make that trip a little more special such as it is, using miles for first class. Unfortunately there’s not a single day between now and the end of schedule where you’ll find two first class award seats for the 977 mile flight from Austin to Chicago, not even on a Saturday night or a Wednesday morning.
Note that I’m not even talking about trying to coordinate a roundtrip here. I’m literally saying there’s not one day in the entire 331 day schedule with two saver award seats up front.
American flies Austin – Los Angeles three times daily, and there’s also not a single day in the entire schedule where you’ll find 2 premium cabin saver awards on that route either. Instead you’ll find the following one-way prices: 45,000; 55,000; 75,000; 90,000; 100,000. One. Way.
I’ve taken the Austin – New York JFK daily flight many, many times. If I wanted to use miles for a saver award up front, there is not a single day through the entire 331 day schedule with a single saver award available.
In fairness to American, there are 22 days between now and the end of the calendar year where American is making a coach saver award available on this flight:
- April: nothing
- May: nothing
- June: nothing
- July 8, 15, 22, 29, 30
- August: nothing
- September 19, 23, 26, 27, 30
- October 3, 4, 7, 14, 18, 21, 25, 28
- November 4, 7, 8, 15
- December: nothing
I flew the Austin – Miami non-stop inaugural two years ago. City officials didn’t bother showing up to give their planned speeches, and the cake was eaten by employees the day before by mistake. The flight didn’t sell well, and it was reduced to non-daily. Now it’s operated by Embraer E-175 regional jets three times a day.
After Wednesday, April 19th (where there’s a coach saver award) there is not a single day the entire year where America is offering either a coach or a first class saver award.
Now, American also flies Dallas – Phoenix, Philadephia, and Charlotte. I didn’t check those routes, instead I gave up in despair, like so many other members.
To be clear airlines do not have to ever offer saver awards on any given route, whether when the schedule first loads, close to departure, or any time in between.
When you advertise a price you are usually expected to make a certain minimum quantity of goods available at that price. I am not interested in the legalities here. You can’t sue a frequent flyer program for anything beyond violating its own terms, and the Department of Transportation avknowledges that it improperly ignores valid complaints when those complaints are about frequent flyer programs.
I am merely talking basic expectations, advertising that a price exists but not actually honoring it is bait and switch. Delta looks smart — as badly as they treat their customers — no longer publishing award charts since they don’t actually promise anything. And if you don’t promise any value at all it is harder to be criticized for not lying to your members.
I’m frequently asked why, since US Airways management took over and US Airways used to offer a generous mileage program, why American’s award availability is so bad? And what people forget is that Dividend Miles was great for international awards on Star Alliance partners. Availability on US Airways was poor on their own flights internationally and in economy.
US Airways domestic first class availability was pretty good (the product was a notch down from what American offers today, no seat power on those planes.. in many cases still.. and there weren’t even any meals on flights less than 3 hours 15 minutes) but airlines weren’t succeeding at actually selling domestic first class then as well as they are now. So you see a similar award availability philosophy at play as at US Airways, albeit apparently on steroids.
It’s no wonder program revenue isn’t meeting expectations for the airline.
You think options out of AUS are miserable, but I would suggest IAH is equally abhorrent. Especially considering that Houston is the 4th largest city. They downgraded all ORD flights to CRJ7s not too long ago which makes awards or upgrades virtually nonexistent. Likewise, they’re flying practically all LAX flights on E175’s which is hardly a luxury experience on a midcon.
THANK YOU!!! AAdvantage award availability is awful awful awful. This needs more press!
I remember when I got AA Platinum for life for being a 3 million miler and at the time it was their top tier – until they decided on a new, higher tier. Now Platinum gets … what? maybe early boarding and ..? Pathetic.
I rarely complain about award availability, but c’mon man….American Airlines wake up and start treating your loyal customers with respect. You should be ashamed.
I agree 100%. AA’s practices, especially with regard to SAAver business/first inventory, are nothing less than bait-and-switch. And when coupled with near-zero business/first award availability to Europe except on BA, which adds bogus surcharges (and which AA presumably profits in part from), the program fallen so far in value that it is no longer worth steering bookings to AA.
Unfortunately, AAdvantage has devolved into a sucker’s game.
It’s getting so bad that I’m about to start buying cash tickets to position to hub cities for the likes of Cathay or JAL, and I will go out of my way NOT to buy an AA ticket. I’ll fly Delta, Jetblue, SW — anyone but AA. It’s gotten ridiculous that I have to do this, but it’s nearly impossible to even find coach awards to connect, and I’ve looked last minute, it’s not like their planes are full.
What options are good for AA redemptions? You mention Asia and the middle east on partner airlines. I have about 70k AA miles that I’m not sure what to do with and was considering a trip to those parts of the world. What would be the best value? Anyway to add them with either Chase URs, Amex MRs or SPG points for larger redemptions?
Silver lining is that 7.5k mile awards are available.
The biggest problem perhaps is that AAnytime has no upper limit, like that 100k domestic flight.
American Airlines is DEAD. They can burn in Hell as far as I’m concerned.
Bravo Gary, THIS is what I expect to read from an expert like you, not United did nothing wrong.
Can you do another article just like this and list all the devaluations, make it EXP focused, list how SWU went from 8 to 4, etc. etc. etc., then add what everyone else lost like (I don’t have it right in front of me right now, for example JL 62,500 went to 110,000 first class 3-cabin), etc. etc. I have my own list but you are expert, type it all out just like you did here.
Thank you
You were warned American! We couldn’t have been any more clear here and at all other related sites in our warnings that your Mileage customers would walk if you destroyed your program and actually had the gall to change the value of a mile and yet still call it a mile. I was a 40 year monthly customer who would go out of my way to fly Alaska (for full miles), Jetblue (for more leg space), or Southwest (for no change fees) before I’d fly your airline again. Dead to me! Dead to millions! Corporate suicide.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogAqgkkTV5U&w=560&h=315%5D
I managed to get 4 tickets saver awards to singapore and back from japan, burning 300k AA miles, now have only 100k left
not flying AA anymore and if I have to then crediting to alaska
after 15 years being pla or exp I dropped them, but what bothers me more than the redemption availability is the poor earning….
I am aware that revenue earning is now same for big 3, hence I avoid all of them like the plague
Amen brotha. Preach. I just wish the big banks and other companies buying/offering AA miles as to customers as incentives, would start making some noise. They’re been scammed like the rest of us. RIP AAdvantage.
Management at AA shows lack of understanding of the purpose of an airline loyalty program. An airline loyalty program must be a two-way program that benefits passengers and the related air carrier. Unless both parties are rewarded, the program suffers.
In the case of airline loyalty programs, it is the royalty program that is usually more profitable than the airline that sponsors the loyalty program.
For many years, AA had the most profitable and was considered the best loyalty program of any major air carrier.
For reasons that defy logic, severe devaluations were made to AA’s loyalty program, AAdvantage. The devaluations are so severe, the purpose for remaining loyal to AA has markedly diminished.
Although I am EXP with AA, and I have been for many years, this year will likely be my last year of remaining EXP. The severe devaluations are my reason to drop loyalty to AA.
As a result of the severe devaluations, I stopped using my Citibank credit cards. I also now book with other airlines.
I have heard and read comments from numerous others who feel as I do about the severe devaluations and diminished feeling for loyalty to AA.
Had I known that AA would make such severe cuts to its loyalty program, I would not have taken the loss I currently incurred.
Citibank was also hurt by the devaluations. Citibank must feel ‘used” by AA because of the millions of dollars Citibank paid to AA for miles that are awarded to Citibank customers.
Considering that countless customers are not using their Citibank credit cards or have cancelled them because of the near uselessness of the miles, it appears that Citibank also has a “bone to pick” with AA over the severe devaluations made to AA’s “loyalty” program.
Hopefully, someone at AA who has authority, will review the mess that was made to AAdvantage before too much more damage is done.
Gary- Great article. This is what i come to your site to see. These guys deserve to be named and shamed.
I am Plat and my wife is Gold, basically the only benedit ive ever received are upgrades, even they are shrinking after the merger with US Airways.
We have NEVER takena single redwmption flight together, ever. We once managed to fly Dallas to Vancouver on one free and one cash ticket in First.
I have been relocated to Portland Oregon and am trying to get us to Alaska with similar perks.
Great article i like American so i hate the way this will sound but…….. shine the light on these cockroaches, it is the only thing that makes them run and hide.
Apologies for the spelling in the above post. On a phone, waiting to board…………a United flight no less. Wish us luck.
Doug, be aware AA’s wrecking crew wont’ let Alaska give as many miles as you can get from crediting to AA. Better if possible to fly Alaska – including Virgin transcons – credited to Alaska.
@greg
tks greg, indeed at some point even that will stop
I fly to south america often, so looking at aeromexico (although the non existence of international transfers at MEX is a big minus) and LAX using combination of ALASKA and LATAM
AA is dead to me….
AA is sadly dead to me as well.
you are so right in has been looking for a business class saver award from Chicago to San Juan Puerto Rico and only fond 6 dates from now until next year in March it is really shameful
Trying to burn up our remaining 134,000 miles, but not easy given the dearth of award space. I will probably bite the bullet and use them up on one way 65,000 from Europe just to get rid of them. I will be cancelling a Cit card that I have had for 30 years as well as any other card associated with AA. Have a nice life, AA….
Gary, good article on the pathetic state of AA mileage program. Dare not call it advantage. After 15 years as Exp and almost 4 million miles, I will not fly AA unless forced.
Decreased earning, increased award prices and no premium cabin award possibilities on AA flights (even with empty premium cabins) have me looking elsewhere.
Even US Airways never looked this bad. Because they are bigger, they think they can be worse.
I want to be done with AA. But I can’t be… because I live in CLT. No choice here. None. No low-cost airlines (WN has like 7 flights per day, but they’re not low-cost anymore). UA is competitive to IAH, ORD and EWR. DL via ATL everywhere, but F that in the ear.
At least I can credit to AS. After 3 years of EXP, I quit trying. Not worth it. Matched to MVP 75K on AS, though I never fly AS (they don’t fly to CLT).
It’s sad to see what AA has done to AAdvantage. They had a legit differentiating factor in the industry, and they pissed it away.
The deval stung…but if they had then opened up saver inventory I could have lived with it. I have tons of points and can’t use them without paying 360k for one round trip F…absurd
Thanks you for this Gary!
You should do much more but then again no one outside the points community cares about points and the reason the airlines can do whatever they want and not one holds them to account.
I will burn 1/2M AA disAAdvantage points this year. Only 700k to go to be done for good.
@atxtravel exactly my experience. nothing AUS to LAX in saver just to put CX F in the same res. I am gonna try DL for the 1st time ever.
Just messaged Citi to cancelled my AA cc.
Thanks for this post Gary.
Would you be able to talk to your AA contacts and raise this issue more seriously?
AA really needs to open up award space.
AA’s current award seat availability trend is beyond pathetic.
Much as I like Alaska service as well as their award chart — I have too many miles on both Alaska and American and have been considering getting more to burn Starwood points on Marriott packages before they too are devalued — I can not get Alaska availability to Asia (I book 11 months out and pay cancellation fees) as they just can not “see” any space.
I don’t see very much value in any program at this point, with the possible exception of Starwood platinum due to sometimes being treated very well with them. Hyatt as well, but as I can no longer reach their top tear, there next. Tier offers nothing.
Gary thanks for writing about this availability issue, but the writing on that s ben on the wall for a long time. anytime a blogger or news outlet touts some miles , we should make comments about whether there is current availability (let alone a year or two in the deteriorating future )
@ Gary — Yeah, this situation is so bad, it doesn’t even make any sense. Surely they have to change this. I am not going to spend my money flying AA if they can’t offer reasonable award redemptions.
Well said! I am also very upset with this new AA management team. Why don’t they hear their passengers and made this once very good program down to this bad.
And no one has even mentioned their error-ridden, phantom space displaying, mis-pricing, pathetic website yet. I expected some level of demise after the merger, but this is, plainly and simply, gross incompetence.
Truly is astounding. At least with United there is more availability with the card.
We’ll see if the tide turns with the next economic downturn.
Yes, I, too, have stopped using my Citi-AAdvantage card because I’d rather accrue points/miles in more user friendly programs. I called to cancel my card and I told the retention specialist that this is why I rarely use it anymore. I’d have cancelled the card were it not for a decent retention offer to keep it.
The banks have more leverage than any one individual. Perhaps if enough consumers complain and cut back on their card usage, or cancel altogether, American might change their tactics.
I actually found a flight I could use with saver economy space on for 2 tickets in coach. Only there, not home. But I’ll take it. So the question is should I use 7,500 AA miles or 7,500 Avios to book the ticket?
I found a Saver Business seat on AY JFK-HEL over Christmas. Unfortunately, there is not a single first class Saver seat from RDU or CLT or GSO to any New York City Airport. Nor are there any that day or even that week from ORD or DFW or DCA.
A year ago when I needed positioning flights from RDU to BOS to meet up with a BA flight I had my choice. I could have gone via CLT or PHL or DCA or even ORD (which I took). What a difference a year makes. I’m glad you said something.
I live in PHL but stopped flying AA last year when they announced revenue earning. Delta planes are better and crew always friendly. I’d rather connect then flying direct on AA. Still keep the barclay cc for 10k miles yearly and free bags. But I don’t put any spending on it.
For years AA was my number one program for mile redemptions and cash purchases of tickets. I was like a walking advertisement for AA. Now, I have quit trying to even find flights on AA and simply will not fly them anymore due to exactly what you exposed. I also quit using my Citi cards last year and am in the process of dropping them. I see no use in earning AA miles anymore and see no reason to purchase tickets on from an airline that hates its customers.
Great article, Gary. As an Atlanta resident, AA is never going to be my go to airline, but even finding coach award seats to PHL and LGA (two AA airports with several flights) is darned near impossible. I’m to the point where I will just start using these miles for hotel stays, which flies in the face of everything we in this community believe in. What is the point collecting miles if you can’t use them?
Recently, AAdvantage has shown no one-way flights from my airport to London on BA in First. But when I try to book a one-way flight from my airport to the European continent, AAdvantage shows the BA ticket in First to London, with a connecting flight to my selected city on the European continent. Odd. Anyone else notice this quirk? I just want a direct flight to London, and am (reluctantly) willing to pay the $480 fee to fly non-stop on BA in First.
I agree with @Tom. Stop posting and start asking your executive contacts at AA to explain the lack of award availability.
It’s a waste of miles on even save first class awards considering the flight is under an hour. A bulkhead main cabin extra seat should be comfortable enough.
You missed one of the important factors the determine usefullness of miles. A factor that is as important as availability to me, and more important than routing rules and cost (in term of “how many miles …?”). The factor you are missing is “fees and other charges to book award tickets” that includes booking fees, close-in fees, and most importantly fuel surcharge. These could be part of “Cost” but you did not mention them. British Airways’ and some South Asia airlines’ program suck because of exorbitant fees despite being good or at least not bad on all other factors you listed. Also DL, AA, and AC are much worse than United in term of fees (although UA charges close-in booking fees but that is much less than fuel surcharges charged by DL, AA, and AC, and they are workarounds for close-in fee)
Truly sad I loved UA 1K until CO took over I sought refuge at AA as EXP and got to really like them but after US took over I knew it was a matter of time before they ruined the airline. I only fly now when a first class fare is worth it and it goes to the most convenient timed flight. I got Mosaic with B6 via company card. 50k for their Mint class which is what AA charges if you can find the space. AMEX pay with points and 50% back has solved all of my domestic premium class problems. 250k AA miles I haven’t been able to use for the past 3 years! Truly pathetic program now.
AA needs to be embarrassed by the national media. It seems to be the only way to get the Airline industry’s attention.
I am looking to go from BOS or MHT to RDU for Thanksgiving this year. With kids in school we had pretty strict date requirements. We found 3 saver tickets on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at the saver level.
Now hold onto your seat. A ticket from RDU to either BOS or MHT on the Sunday after Thanksgiving was 75k miles ONE WAY in Coach.
Yes, I understand this is one of the most popular travel days of the year, but 75k… come on.
Intereresting read…especially since there once was a “thought leader” who implored the masses to join American Airlines. He would spew vitriol at competing airlines and defend American when they devalued. For the masses that followed the “thought leader”…they got a crappy airline with a crappy frequent flyer program.
Thank you for bringing this up — Strangely, the travel blogosphere has been largely silent about this. Let’s leave international award flight alone first, and just look at the domestic route between NYC and Chicago, which is currently the busiest route within the US: AA has barely any saver economy award within a whole month… They have devalued their miles tremendously withhout notice, while still selling the miles like it’s worth 2 cents per mile. We should notify Citibank about the fraud AA is engaging in.
I earned 2,000,000 miles and permanent platinum status 12 years ago. I enjoyed the benefits of early boarding and preferential upgrades. The availability of award travel was clearly stated in the article and I have experienced the same for domestic first class. I have successfully used flying on awards miles to Freeport several times and it has saved money using it for this destination. The flights were always sparsely filled and there could be no excuse for not making award travel available.
It was bad before US arrived, and it’s gotten worse. It’s a shame, because AA has become more useful to me with my relo back to DC. I’m probably gonna get made fun of for saying this, but I’m only saying it because it’s turned out to be true in recent experience – hidden chart or not, I’ve had better luck with SkyMiles than AAdvantage “miles” lately.
Who are all of these dummies saying they were putting a lot of spend on Citi AA cards? If you bother to read blogs like this you know that’s one of the dumbest things you could do!
I have moved my $10k per year travel away from AA due to this. After almost 7 years EXP, I simply could not handle the obliteration of the program. Again, $10k per year is not much, but now I’m married and most of my travel is leisure, so make that $20k lost business from me.
AA space is absolutely dreadful. I’m one of the many who has to take a paid positioning flight or drive several hours to use an award now. Not a chance I’ll renew their credit cards unless fee is entirely waived. The one silver lining is that Alaska started serving my airport this spring, so that there is now a domestic use for AA miles if flying to a city with connections from here.
Gary,
I can’t agree more. I’ve been a member since 1993. It used to be the premier program available. We have three sons and we would take vacations from the Austin area (I feel your pain) together with no issues. Now I can’t even book my wife and I together on a flight, unless I go out 9 to 10 months and then sometimes it’s impossible! I hate what they have turned into and usually try to use partner airlines wherever possible, especially JAL to Japan. Love that airline! Thanks for publishing this. I sincerely hope it gains traction!
Mike Hinshaw
NomadicTexan
“To be clear airlines do not have to ever offer saver awards on any given route”
Well, neither do they have to shill their credit cards and miles program non-stop and have their FAs parading up and down the aisles with applications – infuriating to have to listen to that crap endlessly on flights, especially when you know it’s a scam.
AND, next time you’re getting quoted in some news piece, why don’t you drop that “not a single saver award in 3000 flights” tidbit. Shame them publicly. Please.
I live about an hour drive NW of O’hare. When I started this hobby a couple years ago, I opened accounts with Chase and started booking domestic and international flights with United. My mother opened an AAdvantage account with Citibank so I offered to help her book flights, and I thought I was doing something wrong because I could never find good redemptions from American. I’m glad to see it’s not just me, thanks for pointing this out. Because of this issue, I haven’t bothered to open any credit cards associated with AAdvantage (but may do so for an international trip in the future), and I haven’t transferred points to British Airways as availability for domestic flights I want out of O’hare is nearly nonexistent. I’ve even found great deals on Delta out of O’hare (>2.2 cents per mile), granted the majority of flights are connecting but at least I can access the lounge at O’hare with my Amex Platinum card.
@Markj – it made sense to go with American when they were better, and I’m letting folks know they’ve changed. It would have been silly to immolate oneself with a less valuable airline because a different airline won’t remain more valuable forever.
…And that doesn’t even begin to explain the loss of confirmed upgrade space using miles, miles + cash, Business ExtrAA BXP Certificates or eVIP certificates. Upgrades simply don’t exist unless you’re willing to wait until 24-36 hours before departure. Who wants to take a chance of being on a 5 hr transcon or a 10 hr flight to Europe and “hope” that you’ll be high enough up on the list to be upgraded.
Before January 11, it was relatively easy…just looked for the “discounted first class” (“A”) inventory and it was done. Then the world ended. Now that “C” inventory is what is needed, there’s simply nothing. The scarcity of upgradeability has been breathtaking. (And on BXP1 certificates, it even requires more expensive fares to upgrade which you might think AA would encourage. Regardless, there’s just nothing.) I’d think about moving elsewhere, but neither DL or UA are any better (and worse in some cases). And as a DFW based flier, there really isn’t much of an alternative. And yet, management continues to orient itself to price-sensitive fliers or leisure travellers. Why is it that when any airline talks about an “enhancement” (to onboard service, flexibility or most importantly, their website) it NEVER is?
Please reach out to AA for comment on your findings.
@Maxie Dean – when I wrote up a similar finding 20 months ago I spoke to the then-President of the program, she was frustrated and sympathetic. After I noted the program’s financial underperformance on Thursday night, an American spokesperson reached out and offered, “Counterpoint: AAdvantage is actually excellent” 😉
Loyalty programs should sway travellers to prefer a given airline even when schedule or cost are not optimal: the traveller is willing to give up something in exchange of a better treatment (status) or a future benefit (award flight).
I am sure that in the immediate calculation of the bean counters, limiting the value of the program saves money.
Over the mid and long term, it makes the proposition of loyalty program devoided of value, as there is no reason to even consider the future benefit.
I used to be LH senator before they ruined their program, then I have been EXP for years, but now I buy the cheapest, most convenient first class seat and ignore the miles nonsense. For me, the AAdvantage program has zero value.
Gary Leff says:
April 16, 2017 at 8:37 am
@Maxie Dean – when I wrote up a similar finding 20 months ago I spoke to the then-President of the program, she was frustrated and sympathetic. After I noted the program’s financial underperformance on Thursday night, an American spokesperson reached out and offered, “Counterpoint: AAdvantage is actually excellent”
________________________________________________________
As to AAdvantage being actually excellent” it is true, depending on how one defines “excellent”.
The devalued AAdvantage program is, indeed, “excellent” provided you are looking for an “excellent” example or business plan developed to cause loyal customers to abandon AA and use the services of other airlines.
The new AAdvantage program is also an “excellent” example of how to mislead a major bank (Citibank and Barclay) and customers/passengers into buying miles that are overpriced and which can rarely be used.
I wonder if Citibank and Barclay in the U.S. will realize the scam that AA has pulled on them and on passengers who were foolish enough to buy AA miles.
I noticed that in Brazil, Citibank no longer has AA as a miles earning partner. Hmmn – at least somewhere, someone is waking up to to the fact that something is wrong at AAdvantage.
AGREED ! After 31 years in this program…..achieving higher and higher ‘status’..
As well as weathering the BK ups and downs…saving a six figure mileage balance in
Order to ‘enjoy’ my retirement….not even able to utilize my high upgrade total in order to upgrade on a trans national flight. All these ‘saved’ miles mostly due to work loads interfering with leisure time…..AA has screwed its senior ‘elite’ participants….
Time to ‘screw’ it BACK……
Add to this their policy of making you pay for “upgrades” and then after they get your money, telling you there is no availability. They have about $100 of my money I expect to never get back.
Vick said it best! Since the airlines (not just American) have devalued their mileage programs, there is no reason to be loyal to any airline. We buy first class tickets now based on lowest price that fits into our schedule. Time to bury these loyalty programs as loyalty no longer exists on the part of the airlines!!!!
I am a million miler on American and United and I am happy to say I only have 15,000 miles left on American and I won’t have to deal with them again.
With all the “benefits ” for being a million miler, United has left American in their dust. Just two examples: United gives your spouse or partner a similar status, and on United you can use airline clubs on international connections. American requires you to have 2,000,000 miles. I have been retired for 15 years, so I will never ride 500,000 more miles on American.
American has lost their focus on people like me that have spent a lot of money with them over the years.
My husband and I were holding saver award business class seats, round trip, to Paris, on AA, which we had confirmed in July, 2016. Sadly, a week before our April 11th departure, a medical issue arose necessitating we cancel our trip. We’ve been on a mission to locate availability so we can rebook our travel plans but the only AA offerings to confirm are not at the saver level. If we want to go it seems we must either double our mileage redemption or agree to multiple stops or pay the so called fuel fees. As such, Gary, your article “speaks” to us more resoundingly than you could have imagined when you wrote it. It’s so timely that my head is practically spinning. Even though we have enough miles in our AA accounts to suck it up and commit to the AAnytime redemption, we refuse to on the very grounds that we are opposed to participating willingly in our own abuse. If we end up deciding to pay out of pocket for the class of service and exact flights/equipment we want, you can bet we will not choose AA. We are retired and can travel just about any time there are seats offered. And therein lies the rub: they aren’t.
It seems like AA is on a 12-step program to self-immolation. The bridges the company built to its best customers from just about the time I joined the AAdvantage program (July 1982), are being systematically burned to a well-done crisp. I decided last year when the devaluation was announced to spend-down all the miles in my account and ‘retire’ from air travel. A First/Business-class trip to New Zealand on American and QANTAS was delightful. The First-class trip to Japan, solely on American, was shocking. From sweeping out the crumbs and other debris from my international First-class seat (in both directions) to picking through the meals to find something palatable to having the entertainment system (1990s vintage) go kaput (twice!) to a mournful discussion with the head Flight Attendant as we compared American’s First Class service from the 80s to its simulacrum of same today.
Sadly, AA has nothing left to do but swiftly proceed to the ‘final step’ in the program and pray someone is listening.
So when do you pull down your links to Citi DisAAdvantage cards? Or as my late father would say, put your money where your mouth is!
@GringoLoco — I disagree. I have recommended AGAINST ongoing spend on AAdvantage cards. However, (1) the signup bonus can be worthwhile, but (2) more importantly for someone that flies American regularly but not enough for elite status, having but not using the card is a great strategy.
* Priority boarding, avoid having to gate check your bags
* Also means you can bring on a full sized carry on if you’re on a basic economy fare
* Checked bags benefit is a cash savings
Of course I recommended against spend on the cards before award availability on the airline dried up, because if you want American miles you earn them more efficiently spending on the Starwood American Express card and transferring to American (plus the option to transfer elsewhere). That’s been true for years.
I still carry a Citi Executive card, it earns elite qualifying miles for $40k spend and provides lounge access (and that access extends to free authorized user cards, so I give on to my wife). It makes sense for me as an American Executive Platinum.
You’d have an argument if I were somehow telling people to put their ongoing everyday spend on the cards, but except in the most limited of circumstances that’s not what I’ve ever done.
Parker is not a builder he’s a wrecker. We saw this in USAir when he ripped the wiring out of the seat arms for in flight entertainment but left the controls so everyone was faced with music that didn’t work. Who would do that beside some fat slob trying to cut costs while begrudging customers of being able to listen to music to cut the boredom.
That extrapolates to the entire operation since he took over American, nothing improved just patched up wreckage. He was warned loudly by customers via influencers like Gary about the utter ruin he’s rain down by devaluiing Aadvantage and how he’d actually trump the other Big Two by staying mileage based as though that’s some big compromise in a mileage program. Instead that’s left to the scrappy builders at Alaska, because nothing was going to stop big wrecking ball Doug. Your business plan of showing millions of your most loyal customers the door is reaping the wind.
More important than ever to have multiple options. Gary, would this be another way to look at the benefits of being diversified…while I still have AA miles etc., Chase offering the flexibility through their travel portal to use Ultimate Reward points to book any airline (and some other credit card companies do this as well) can be a better option.
At 1.5 per point you could book roundtrip Austin to Chicago in First Class for around $600 or so (in September and that is an N=1…did not do extensive searches here)…or essentially 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points….thereby creating your own “Saver Award” and actually getting miles and Elite qualifying dollars and credit for the flight.
I agree with @dg. When will Barclay and Citi (and others) realize they’ve paid a premium for miles their customers can’t even use, and therefore question AA’s practices?
The current situation is a bait and switch on the most grand level. The in-flight credit card pumpers tell us we can get a RT ticket anywhere American flies, yet there is no space at the level that anyone can redeem said miles at without paying a 2 or 3X premium for AAnytime awards.
Completely unethical bordering on criminal. A sad day for the airline I’ve flown and loved my entire flying life, sometimes going out of my way to pay more or take a longer routing out of loyalty.
Thanks for the article, I thought I always happen to pick the peak days to travel on American Airlines. I could never find cheap award mile tickets like they advertised. 50k+ miles for a round trip that can be purchased for $300 can never be justified. I’m taking my loyalty else where.
Gary, nice article and thanks also to the commenters above with all the additional food for thought. A wake-up reminder that I need to use up my remaining 120k miles on Etihad and elsewhere, and then cash out. Though I’ll still get Gold for next year, I saw my platinum status erode substantially in the past months and am not eager to pursue further with AA.
I just canceled my AA citi mastercard. Given the outrageous award pricing, I value AA miles at less than 0.5 cents. What a joke. Sad part is the joke is on me since I have a half million AA miles.
IS A SCAM.PERIOD.
I’m burning through the last of my 190,000 AA miles and stopped my loyalty to that terrible airline. Even though I’m hub captive in DFW, I will go out of my way to fly connections with Delta and definitely more of Alaska out of Love.
Whenever I see these stories I just laugh because this is the same “I am not my fare” guy that was telling us how wonderful AA was just a couple of years ago. When the rest of us correctly noted that AA and DL were fast headed in the wrong direction while UA was rebounding.
That being said I am indebted to Gary and Lucky for letting us know when AA releases huge blocks of international saver awards as this permitted us to burn our entire stash of AA miles for 4 business class tix to Europe last summer. Never had any regrets about that.
I am a very blessed man. I am 69 years old, have played this game with a modicum of expertise for the last 14-15 years and we have seen much of the world – in the very front of the plane and for a song! Most of Europe, Thailand, HK, Australia, New Zealand, etc. And the bottom line over those years was simple, get the points and plan ahead. There were “rules”. You knew when award seats became available, you pounced. People laughed that we planned so far ahead but they were in awe of our photo albums and most, eventually, asked for help.
At this stage I’m ready to throw in the towel and buy a place in Florida. We were very lucky to get AA First Class to Buenos Aires for our cruise in February. Look now and I don’t think there is one seat in Business or First one year out. It is disgraceful beyond words. Sure, we will sell you miles, Sure, we will GIVE them to you if you get a co-branded credit card. Just don’t try to use them for anything you might actually want. With well over 2 million miles/points, the game is getting to be too much of a hassle. I guess I will retire in the next few years and then just grab last minute stuff and hit the road with my wife. But I consider myself very fortunate to have experienced what was truly the golden age of award travel.
“I am not interested in the legalities here…I am merely talking basic expectations.”
Weird.
Until your commenters pointed out how appalling your attitude was, you initial posture last week was to focus entirely on letter of the law (was United were allowed to do what they did according to their T&Cs of carriage?), and not on basic expectations (passengers reasonably expect not lose teeth and get concussion).
Do basic expectations trump T&Cs only for those rich enough to be of interest to airlines through their loyalty programs?
@”Mike” (and all your other commenting names): clearly two different issues, being dragged off a plane and bloodied and booking a saver award.
@Steven S: you expressed exactly my view. I’ve been executive platinum for many, many years, and used my SWUs for upgrades and my miles for vacation travel, by planning very far in advance and being flexible. But now I routinely find zero award seats or upgrades (even business to first) for the entire 331-day booking window.
Great article. I love with your clear, basic (reasonable) expectations. I am frankly shocked at the results you posted. I currently try to use advantage files mainly for international travel – although it’s annoying to call international call centers to book Etihad, for example.
Gary,
Good post and thanks for calling AA out on their terrible award availability. You have posted before about using BankDirect, and I’m wondering if it is time to walk away from my BD AA miles earning checking account, where I have been keeping $50K for several years, earning 60K miles / year with a fee of $144, and foregoing interest that I can earn with a high yield savings account (I have two such accounts that earn almost 1% now). Considering taxes, the cost of “buying” AA miles through BD is getting close to 1 cpm. I prefer redeeming AA miles for long haul business class, but I also consider redeeming for coach awards within the US or Caribbean if I can get 1.5 cpm or better, which is getting harder given the lack of SAAver inventory. Any thoughts on this topic?
@JN I do think that remains worthwhile, if the best you’d do on that 50k is 1%, I still value an AA mile at 1.5 cents. Not as worthwhile as it once was though for sure.
Gary,
You are absolutely right about all of this. I can hardly get a direct from DCA-ORD anymore. I wish they would listen to you. Does AA have any response.
Just used my last AA miles (at an exorbitant rate) to book ORD to LIH. Don’t expect to book any in future, as I’ve shifted almost all my spending (not insignificant) away from AA credit card. And now book any flight I can (most of which are business/first) on another carrier. AA was 1st choice once upon a time, but no more. Sad.
Excellent Article, there has been a steady downward trend in the value of miles, to their current status of near worthelss. I’ve gone from $50k+ spend per year on AA cards to almost none, and instead of 200 EQM per year on AA, I’m now doing 100k on AA and 100k on United.
I have had success twice getting saver capacity released for very short-haul flights as EXP (in coach). But otherwise almost unable to use miles.
United/star alliance award availability (in premium cabins, the only time I ever really redeem awards) is excellent. American is really appallingly abysmal.
I continue to fly them is the when they are the sole provider on a non-stop route I need (though this happens enough that i do hit EXP).
I would value AA miles at 1.2 cents. Tops. Saver Awards, especially roundtrip, have virtually disappeared.
Indeed Citi and Barclays (and Chase and AmEx) are the facilitators. They have the economic power to stop this fraud and don’t.
Personally I’m stuck with 1 million AA miles and 750K British Airlines miles now. (Although it won’t be hard to burn them at AA’s prevalent rates for available flights).
Flew TWA til they became American, Million Miler by 2009. Platinum for years. Tried to find reasonable trip to anywhere in Europe this year using miles…didn’t happen. Bought a Delta flight instead. I fly out of STL & they have pulled 100s of flights from here over the years. Makes me sad. Used to be proud to be a loyal American customer, no longer. They have gone downhill since joint w/US Air. The American employees must be very sad. They were always so professional, under all conditions.
You know another little trick that AA has started to do is give you such insane routings on simple routes. For instance Seattle to London. (Partner BA has two nonstop a day). I took a June 3-June 10 routing looking for AAdvantage Business class.
57.5 K miles is available!!!!!! However you leave at 9.59 PM and land in Oakland. Then the next day you leave Oakland at 3.05 PM
On the way back you fly BA from LHR to JFK, then the next day you leave out of Newark.
They are making it ridiculous
It looks like Gary touched nerve with this post.
In my experience, AA is indeed next to useless for domestic flights from my home base (Boston). Routes to Florida, Los Angeles, Hawaii etc either show little to no availability or outrageous prices (e.g. Boston-Chicago for 60k in coach!).
However, the flights to Asia, on partners, are an excellent value and the availability seems to be very decent.
Ok. What’s the alternative? I live in NYC, so I can use any airline. Are Delta and UA better all-in? That post would be a better use of blog space.
@anthony
you from all people are better positioned than most
if you fly to europe you have dozens of choices in all alliances, same if you fly to south america or asia
if you fly domestic fly alaska or american and credit to alaska
its not that complicated
Anthony, In spite of United’s public relations issue, they have better availability of rewards flights plus a better (more members) Alliance.
Meanwhile, I just redeemed East Coast to Midwest for 3.5k on WN. Have another intra-Midwest for the same amount. Both were booked 2-3 months in advance. Love them. AA who?
I’ve avoided United due to some bad experiences a few years go, but I’ll give them a try. I’m not the biggest Newark fan, but whatever
I think Delta has the best ops of any of these airlines, but I would bet $100 Gary would complain much, much more about Skymiles than he does AAdvantag
@Anthony,
The widely shared view is that, yes, Delta has the best operations (including on-time arrivals and quality of food in domestic first) and the worst frequent-flyer program. What all three legacy airlines are saying, loud and clear, is: Forget about frequent flyer programs, forget about loyalty; buy the flight and cabin you want time.
This article rings so true to me. Especially as a fellow Austinite.
I’ve worked hard the last couple years to accumulate ~200k AA miles (not a lot to some of you but for me a while) only to see when I finally sought to use them, looking to travel this summer as I’m starting B-School in the fall, absolutely nothing is available.
I thought I’d be able to at least finagle 2 business class international tickets out of this (Asia or Europe), and I can barely find 1 (!!!!!) economy ticket that doesn’t eat away most all the points.
@Gary I seek your sage wisdom! Thanks for validating I’ve been smacking my head against the wall for good reason.
Very good write up and I couldn’t agree more. It seems hilarious that they won’t open up a business class saver award seats on so many short and cheap routes. MSP to ORD in business sells for $75-$300 one-way, yet they want 45,000 – 75,000 miles for those exact same seats. They have to be kidding themselves. I actually hate Hilton for much the same reason and wrote a similar screed about them here http://theflyingmustache.com/2015/12/12/182135-reasons-i-hate-hilton/
Basically, the same idea (and mind you this is before the deval). Offering a hotel as a category hotel and then never, ever making a single room available at the category rate. Instead they were pricing every room for every night at their “premium room rewards” rate and thus a room that should go for 30,000 – 60,000 points per night and be eligible for 5th night free was instead over 260,000 points per night and not eligible for a 5th night free. Of 182,135 possible room nights not a single one was available at the category rate when I checked.
I called the hotel and complained. I wrote letters to the GM and complained and I wrote to people at Hilton corporate and complained. They told me that hotels are somehow independent (which is why they have the Hilton logo and participate in the rewards program *eyeroll*) and that there isn’t really anything they can do. The hotel, of course, also said there was nothing they could do. I’m sure there is a similar situation at AA. Nobody is responsible and nothing can be done. Except of course to take your business elsewhere.
Always love your insight into the industry! Thanks Gary!
This is why it always annoys me when bloggers sing the praises of using 7500 British Airways miles for short domestic flights on AA. Good luck actually finding any seats on useful routes.
Gary, I think the folks at AA heard you. I just checked the AUS-DFW route for Business MileSAAver availability going forward and it is wide-open, available most days into the future.
Well then they must be catering to Gary because the midwestern city I fly to annually with ridiculously fixed fares (which once was illegal) no longer has Saver seats for over a year, after being able to find them for 20 years before.
“Frank Lorenzo says:
April 24, 2017 at 7:45 am
Gary, I think the folks at AA heard you. I just checked the AUS-DFW route for Business MileSAAver availability going forward and it is wide-open, available most days into the future.”
After reading your post, I just checked my usual routes for saver tickets.
Just as I already reported, every day, including up to early next year is blocked for saver awards on AA.
I don’t know the route you selected but you got lucky. The rest of us loyal AA customers are being shafted, big time. Our past and long-term loyalty to AA is getting the middle finger by AA management.
If AA would offer some explanation why saver awards are blocked, we would perhaps understand why they are blocked. But, to repeatedly and routinely have aircraft depart with empty J seats while there are no saver awards offered lacks logic.
I have seen an international flight I often use go out with more than 20 empty business class seats, no saver awards and AA asking for 150,000 miles. Totally baffling.
Is AA management not accountable to anyone?
I booked a business class AA flight from London to the US in August 2016 for 57,500 miles (traveling June 2017). Are you saying that I will probably not find this again in the future? When exactly did the change happen?
BTW the last leg was Alaska Air, since AA doesn’t fly to my town.
@Cindi – sure you will, watch this blog, American releases batches of award space occasionally and when they do it’s time to jump on it. 🙂
I live in Austin too. I’m trying to dump these AA miles. I’m going to have to drive to DFW to make anything work. Whatever.