Tag Archives for american aadvantage.
American Airlines offers a generous 5 day ‘hold’ for award itineraries. You don’t have to put down a credit card or spend your miles to lock in an award option.
However back in April I identified that awards for travel on Cathay Pacific placed on hold were being cancelled out.
The President of the AAdvantage program is leaving American Airlines after just over a year in his current role. His farewell message to employees has been leaked.
We are losing the men (and back then, they were all men) who gave us the modern frequent flyer program. Last year Rolfe Schellenberger passed away. Now his boss Tom Plaskett has passed away as well. Plaskett was just 77.
I first wrote about Bask Bank and the Bask Savings Account at the beginning of 2020. I’ve been saving and earning with them for a year and the mileage-earning strategy has proven-out.
That’s not really a surprise. I’ve been a customer of Bask Bank’s parent, Texas Capital Bank, since July 2003. But it’s great to see that the value proposition has remained constant throughout the past year’s turmoil, and even looks more attractive compared to today’s alternatives.
American Airlines now lets AAdvantage members redeem 12,000 miles for an at-home Covid-19 test and they’re offering slightly more than a penny per point in value with the redemption.
Yesterday I wrote about American’s holiday gift promotion and new targeted promotions for flying. Offers are now live in member accounts. What gift did you receive, and what offer was targeted to encourage you to fly?
Here’s what I got – I’m left shaking my head.
On Wednesday, December 2nd American AAdvantage members can go to the Promotion Center in their mileage accounts to find a free gift (miles, lounge passes etc) and register for a targeted promotion.
American AAdvantage still has award charts, although the awards you book may not be based on chart pricing. They’ve increased the price of ‘unpublished any time’ award levels and a one way business class ticket on an American flight to Tokyo may now cost as much as 450,000 miles – but there’s something to look for that could cut the cost of the same redemption by 84%.
American Airlines announced this morning that they’ll no longer charge telephone booking fees on award tickets, and no longer charge fees to cancel an award ticket and redeposit miles into a member’s account. Those are both real improvements to the program. They are also extending their pause in mileage expiration through June 30, 2021.
The piece opens with new American Airlines frequent flyer head Rick Elieson, who moves over from cargo, explaining how loyalty and cargo aren’t that different than you’d think and the joke almost writes itself about AAdvantage members being self-loading cargo.
Elieson does confirm that award charts aren’t going away, that he’s working to get more saver award inventory, and that he’s open to considering a family pooling benefit.
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 »
