American Airlines planes at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in San Francisco, California, US on September 15, 2022.
Typhoon Tucson | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
American Airlines It is throwing away the traditional frequent flyer rewards graph as the carrier moves toward dynamic mileage redemption pricing, the latest shift in its lucrative loyalty program AAdvantage.
Starting late Wednesday, the carrier will publish starting levels for the number of frequent flyer miles likely to be required to redeem a ticket in certain regions — for example, 7,500 for a one-way ticket within the 48 contiguous US states and Canada. Previously, the chart showed stable recovery levels.
American said in December that it would get rid of its various redemption categories, MileSAAver and AAnytime Awards, which set minimum rates. The new redemption level will be called Trip Awards and the chart will act as a reference guide.
“Just like cash tickets, they will be rolled out based on demand,” Chris Isaak, director of American Loyalty, said in an interview.
American introduced dynamic award ticket pricing in 2019, which means the number of miles required to redeem a ticket fluctuates based on supply and demand.
“It became the product our members gravitated towards,” Isaac said. This category requires the same number or fewer award miles that are set in the ‘Up’ chart 85% of the time over the past few years.”
Previously the scheme looked like this:
American Airlines Old Frequent Flyer Reward Ticket Scheme
American Airlines
It will now look like this:
American Airlines’ new frequent flyer reward ticket scheme
American Airlines
Award tickets on American Airlines and others can also vary based on the time of year.
For example, it costs 126,000 frequent flyer miles for a round-trip ticket in standard economy in America between New York and Rome between June 1 and June 8, during peak season, but only 89,500 miles from October. From 1st to october. 8, during the season of low demand.
“What I think is good about this is, it brings the awards map in line with where Americans are today [travelers] Henry Hartfeldt, founder of Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry consulting firm, said that an award ticket would cost them a certain number of miles is no longer accurate.