I first broke the news on Flyertalk rather than this blog because I wanted to have the greater FT community weigh in on if I was late too the devaluation party or if this was real doom and gloom.
I would appear that American Airlines is diverging from a straight AAnytime pricing model (remember, these are not the sAAver awards we all try to book, but rather the pricier ones that USED TO BE just double the price of a sAAver award) in favor of dynamic pricing.
For a while now, there have been multiple tier of AAnytime Awards and the price varied based on day. So a flight from NYC-LAX might be 52,500 miles in AAnytime one day and 62,500 another day.
But I am now seeing pricing that varies by not just date, but TIME as well.
This is BAD, BAD news.
It appears to be a move towards Delta’s dynamic pricing model based on either revenue pricing or expected demand by flight.
Here’s a screen grab of a whole month of AAnytime JFK-LAX
As I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying just last week, the 3 remaining legacy carriers are locked in a “race to the bottom.” Once carrier makes it more difficult to earn or use miles and the other two follow.
I reached out to American Airlines for comment via Twitter two days ago and was simply told they would “look into it” making it seem like it’s a computer glitch. But do a month by month search for availability JFK-LAX in AAnytime and you will see what I mean.
This does not help the fact that premium cabin award availability in the sAAver category is generally nil or close to it unless you can travel literally the next day.
I do this route a lot using miles and I have to say, this looks grim.
I know Delta has been playing games with award flights for a long time. If you just are browsing
award flights one day, and come back the next to book it, the availability may be gone or at a higher level.
I think United does the same but not quite as blatantly. The bottom line today is to book it when you see it.
Delta has been the leader in screwing over the mileshounds… removing redemption tables, instituting dynamic pricing. But the worst is the games with checkout. Both on miles and even revenue, Delta is the only one that consistently tries to change the deal after I have accepted a price and enter my credit card. They are the only one that won’t hold your price *while you checkout* and that alone makes me not trust them at all.
Wish these airlines would realize we are their friend, not their enemy. If just one of the legacies could nail customer service and customer trust they would be big winners…..
Dave – I totally agree…..but they get away with it because there is little competition and American consumers
apparently seem content to put up with it. Any method of squeezing a few extra bucks out of the consumer is today’s name of the game. Currently we are trying to burn our legacy miles. We just wiped out my UA account by booking a RT from EWR to VIE for 140K on Austrian Airlines, direct. I would have taken advantage of the new Delta reward sale to clean that account out but I am booked with a flight almost every month until January, then another in Feb., and the Vie flight in early April. I also had to turn down the latest Emirates biz class offers for the same reason (Italy before Christmas sounded great!!!). For domestic flights I am trying to use Frontier once in a while. I have to go to Toronto & Quebec in Oct. & Dec. and opted for Porter over UA or Air Canada, which I hate with a passion. Talk about poor customer service, AC is the master. Every time I used them they tried to bump me with no compensation. I figure it’s only a matter of time until AA and UA eliminate their award charts like Delta. I also wonder how long it will be before legacy carriers start charging for seat assignments. But, I guess that is what deregulation does for us.