Every good thing has to end, as the proverb says.
A significant, albeit undesirable, change to the way you redeem miles with the American Airlines AAdvantage program could occur next year.
This is a result of plans by the Fort Worth-based carrier to make certain negative changes to its reward charts.
As part of the airline's redesigned AAdvantage program, which was unveiled on Thursday, American said that starting next year it will only give "truly dynamic mileage awards" along with the launch of "a new, simpler award chart" for travel on American.
That isn't a lot of information to go on, but I did speak with Heather Samp, managing director of AAdvantage, to gather some more information.
Saver and anytime awards are no more
At some point in the following year, American will discontinue the MileSAAver and AAnytime awards, which is arguably the greatest devaluation yet.
Samp stated that "we are deleting the static prizes of MileSAAver and AAnytime," albeit the exact date is still uncertain.
Only redemptions for American-operated flights are affected by these changes.
American will focus entirely on its Web Special fares, which offer dynamically priced redemptions that vary according to demand, seasonality, and other variables, once these rewards are sunsetted.
In order to offer prices that were cheaper than the MileSAAver level, American initially announced Web Specials back in 2018.
Additionally, no specific "saving" ticket class is necessary for these awards (historically, "U" for business and "T" for economy).
Web Specials are no longer always cheaper than the award chart for MileSAAver.
In fact, you might be able to reserve a Web Special for more than a MileSAAver award but less than an AAnytime award if there is only AAnytime space.
"The membership has really gravitated to those fares over the previous few years that we've had Web Specials in the market, which has produced some really wonderful pockets of value for the membership in terms of redemption," said Samp.
In some locations, Web Specials can offer a fantastic redemption value, but the transition to entirely dynamic pricing is concerning and could eventually result in less advantageous redemption rates.
In truth, American has covertly increased the number of AAnytime award tiers in recent years, pricing certain trips much over the Level 2 declared requirements.
Consider a trip from New York to Tel Aviv as an example.
At the time of publication, American was charging 300,000 miles for a one-way business-class ticket on December 23, an increase of 145,000 miles over the listed AAnytime Level 2 on the award table.
Although American will do away with saver and anytime award rates, it will not do away with award charts, which were first done by Delta back in 2015 and then by United in 2019.
A "refreshed" award chart for travel on American will be released by the carrier at some point in 2019.
Who knows how that will appear, but Samp was quick to emphasize that American is keeping its promise to not delete award charts.
Americans claimed to maintain award charts, and we do as well, Samp remarked.
"We want to be sure that our members know that when we pledge to something in relation to the loyalty program, we mean it,"
Possible design of the new American award chart.
Rick Elieson, the previous head of the AAdvantage program, provided some hints on the potential design of the new award chart last year.
In July 2021, Elieson compared the subsequent iteration of AA's award charts to a real estate website that displays the number of people who have purchased a property in a specific area, along with their purchase price, as well as a ticker for the number of people who are currently looking at a particular property.
For American, that might take the form of a webpage where you enter your origin and destination and the algorithm returns a range of past award rates as well as what passengers are now paying.
This idea gained popularity with the redesigned Aeroplan program from Air Canada, which still publishes an award chart but instead of presenting set prices, offers price ranges for award flights that are offered by Air Canada.
However, if you "go in a high-demand period," Air Canada warns that costs "may still go beyond quoted levels."
However, the airline may decide to publish minimum award ticket rates, similar to what Air France-KLM Flying Blue did earlier this month.
Samp would only remark that "we are dedicated to keeping something out there for our members to see how much value they can obtain with their AAdvantage miles" and would not provide any further information.
What remains the same
Currently, American publishes two award charts: one for redemptions on American flights and one for flights operated by the Oneworld airline alliance and other airline partners, such as Etihad Airways and JetBlue Airways.
In the past, the partner award chart has provided the best value, with redemptions like the 75,000-mile business-class award from the United States to South Africa in one of Qatar's renowned Qsuites coming in at a top value.
(These completely enclosed apartments occasionally go for $8,000 or more.)
The partner award chart will remain in place for now.
When asked if that graph is altering, Samp responded "Right now, I don't have any intentions.
I have nothing fresh to add there."
Although it sounds like American isn't going entirely dynamic for partner awards, it's feasible that the airline will adjust the partner award pricing.
On the other hand, American might be updating its award charts in pieces or it might be adopting Aeroplan's method of releasing a conventional award chart for partner flights only.
In any case, major changes to the AAdvantage award price are on the way; keep checking back for the most recent information.
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