Tag Archives for american aadvantage.
Despite several reports in frequent flyer forums and on blogs to the contrary, it is still possible to make changes to partner awards. No policy change went into effect May 4 that would alter this. And American Airlines confirms this to me.
Back in December, American Airlines shared that they planned to eliminated fixed-price awards in 2023, and make all award travel on American Airlines ‘web special’ variable pricing.
We now have a window into when this change will occur.
While there was much talk in 2021 about AAdvantage devaluations, they committed not to change their award chart as they rolled out Loyalty Points as a new way to earn elite status. Now the deferred chickens may come home to roost – risking the value of the AAdvantage program, the revenue streams for co-brand partners, and the quality of AAdvantage-backed debt.
Effective today Bask Bank is now awarding 2 American AAdvantage miles per dollar annually on its Bask Mileage Savings Account, an increase of 1/3 over the previous 1.5 miles per dollar and double where the earn rate was in July.
There’s also a compelling offer for opening a new Bask Mileage Savings Account by December 15, 2022.
Marriott has myriad airline partners – at 38 it’s way more than bank transfer programs. We’re now seeing a change to the Marriott points-to-miles transfer bonus. Specifically, the hotel chain informed customers this morning that the bonus would no longer be available on transfers to American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, or Avianca LifeMiles effective October 31. Transferring 60,000 Marriott points will yield only 20,000 AAdvantage miles going forward – not 25,000.
Effective today Bask Bank is now awarding 1.5 American AAdvantage miles per dollar annually on its Bask Mileage Savings Account, an increase of 25% over the previous 1.2 miles per dollar. And that rate had only gone into effect on August 1. From the time of product inception (about two and a half years ago) until that point, the account had earned 1 mile per dollar. So that’s a 50% increase in earn rate in just over two months.
Having AAdvantage in the same group as revenue management would make sense if the goal were for AAdvantage to gain access to more saver award inventory. That hasn’t been the trajectory at American, which has focused on buying seats outside of traditional saver buckets and more making additional inventory (‘web saver’) available to customers based on prevailing fares.
Instead the explanation for the move is, “Adding the AAdvantage team to this organization will make sure our AAdvantage members are able to unlock benefits across the entirety of our commercial programming.” Allowing AAdvantage members to ‘unlike benefits across the entirely of the airline’s commercial offerings’ sounds more like merchandising, monetizing the member base. Great offers can still be value-add, of course. We’ll have to wait to see how this evolves in practice.
There are several rebates and bonus offers available right now for Uber and Uber Eats, that you can stack for lower costs, points, and to earn American Airlines elite status all at the same time if you sign up for the offers and use the right credit cards. In fact there’s a triple-dipping opportunity.
The top line message from the American Airlines second quarter was record revenue and a return to profitability. But their financial statements actually show that flying planes from one place to another, and selling tickets, doesn’t generate profit for American Airlines. Instead, the AAdvantage loyalty program is responsible for all of American’s profits.
Back in March American Airlines named Julie Rath to head the AAdvantage program or at least the customer-facing parts of it. This is the shortest tenure at the helm of AAdvantage that I’m aware of.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
