Wednesday marks the end of an era in the world of loyalty programs.
While it’s not too surprising, American Airlines has just become the last major US airline to drop the savings awards rankings – a move it first announced was imminent. last year.
In the future, AAdvantage redemptions for American journeys will be exclusively dynamically priced, allowing the airline to tailor the reward rate for any given flight.
While that may be good news for American profits, it certainly hurts for flyers looking to maximize their points and miles and enjoy the predictability of the prize chart.
That said, the introduction of “Flight Awards”, as Americans now call them, may not really change redemption models that much, especially given the popularity of the prizes. “Web Special” is now discontinued by the airline.
Read on for all the details on the major US AAdvantage update.
‘Flight Awards’ Replaces ‘Web Specials’
Back in 2018, Americans introduced the Web Special award. These fares are designed as a way to offer a lower price than savings. In addition, these awards do not require a special “saving” ticket class (historically, “Z” for first, “U” for business and “T” for economy).
Since then, Web Specials have been launched for nearly every American flight worldwide — so much so that the vast majority “overwhelm” passengers booking these awards today, according to Chris Isaac, American’s loyalty director. In addition, Web Specials is no longer always undervalued on the saver award chart — a move that truly marks the beginning of the transition to dynamic pricing.
And now, as of April 5, Web Specials has essentially been renamed Flight Awards and MileSAAver and AAnytime fares have been dropped. The next time you search for US reward flights, you’ll see one price: Reward Flights.
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“MileSAAver” and “AAnytime” have historically been used to denote “savings” and “anytime” reward prices. The reward rate for MileSAAver redemptions has been fixed at the price published on the old rewards leaderboard. Meanwhile, American has multiple levels of AAnytime prizes, although it only posts certain rates on its website.
In the future, you will no longer be faced with a choice. You can book a trip at the published Flight Award price or not.
Flight rewards inherit the same terms and conditions as the now-defunct Web Specials rewards. Specifically, you cannot change these fares. Instead, all modifications must be made by canceling your ticket, resetting your mileage, and rebooking a new flight.
New American award ‘ranking chart’
Although Americans have now eliminated the savings and time award, it does not remove the award charts, a move that has been popularized by Delta in 2015 and next is unified in 2019.
Instead, the refreshed US prize chart shows “starting from” values for the Flight Prize, and you’ll find the full chart available below.
| Land | Main cabin starts from | Premium economy starts from | Business/first time started at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contiguous to 48 states of the US and Canada | 7,500 miles. | do not apply. | 15,000 miles. |
| Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America | 10,000 miles. | do not apply. | 20,000 miles. |
| South America, short road | 15,000 miles. | do not apply. | 30,000 miles. |
| Hawaii and Alaska | 20,000 miles. | 40,000 miles. | 60,000 miles. |
| Europe | 25,000 miles. | 50,000 miles. | 75,000 miles. |
| South America, long distance | 30,000 miles. | 60,000 miles. | 90,000 miles. |
| Asia, Middle East and South Pacific | 35,000 miles. | 60,000 miles. | 95,000 miles. |
Interestingly, some reward rates “start at” are lower and some are higher than previous MileSAAver levels. Long-haul and first-class business class surged, up to 30,000 miles in some cases, while many short-haul international and domestic short-haul journeys start at lower rates than before.
That said, don’t read too much into this new chart. Isaac said the price will vary depending on many factors and in some cases you will even find some “moments of surprise and delight” when the odds of the prize will be lower than the chart.
While it’s certainly better than nothing, the so-called US award leaderboards only provide price floors. The sky is the limit on how many miles Americans decide to charge for any given ticket, and I’m sure the premium will increase once the fare has been paid.
The first American to start talking openly about revised award rankings in 2021. At the time, Rick Elieson, then-president of AAdvantage, compared the next iteration of AA’s award rankings to a real estate website showing how many people have purchased a property in a certain area (and how much they paid) and a banner showing how many people are currently viewing a property specific — similar to Air Canada’s innovative Aeroplan program offers.
In spite of Elieson is no longer with the airline, he will probably be disappointed with the new award rankings. They don’t look what he originally envisioned.
For your reference, I have saved my old savings chart and US anytime prize on TPG’s server and a PDF file can be accessed by clicking here.
No changes to partner awards — yet
Historically, American has published two award rankings: one for redeem on US flights and another flight due to Oneworld Alliance and other airline partnerssuch as Etihad Airways and JetBlue Airways.
The partner award table has a tradition of delivering the highest value, with discounts like Business Class Rewards 75,000 miles from US to South Africa in Qatar’s famous Qsuite has the highest value. (The self-contained suites sometimes sell for $8,000 or more.)
Fortunately, the American told TPG that there are no plans to change the partnership chart. The carrier also confirmed that prizes for both the US and partner segments will still be priced according to the static partner chart.
“We have a lot of partners, and working through that kind of change with as many partners as we have is huge work. So at the moment we’re sticking with static charts. to partners,” Isaac said.
For now, you’ll likely find the best value when you exchange AAdvantage miles for a partner ticket. Hopefully the airline doesn’t copy United, which compiled the award rankings for United-operated flights in 2019, then a year later and killed the Star Alliance award rankings.
This update doesn’t make much sense
While this may surprise you, these AAdvantage changes probably won’t really mean much for most travelers.
That’s because Web Specials has become so popular in recent years, and American doesn’t announce the availability of saver rewards as it did in previous years.
Isaac confirmed that American still plans to free up seats in the fare groups that were once reserved for MileSAAver and partner-issued awards, and he even thinks the airline might offer it. than seats for partners than before.
“It gives our revenue management team more flexibility because those inventories are no longer general-purpose,” he says, but it is still unclear — and unlikely — that this scenario will work. never come true or not.
If you can’t find the savings rewards space, the only way to redeem miles for a US flight is through the AAdvantage program, which recently priced most flights at Web Special rates. Americans will also maintain last row availability with the new Flight Award.
At this point, Isaac promises that “nothing has changed in the context other than the name” regarding the valuation of the Flight Awards.
Of course, we’ll have to see if US reward pricing algorithms evolve over time, but for now, this move might not really affect you as much as you think.
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