On March 22nd, 2016 American Airlines will make significant changes to redeeming miles for flights. All flights booked before this date will be priced at existing levels, regardless of when the actual flight is.
Summary Of Changes
Here is a brief summary of changes:
- What’s considered European ‘off-peak’ is changing dramatically. Previously it was October 15th – May 15th, it will now be  January 10th – March 14th and November 1st – December 14th (going from a total of 213 days to only 106).
- First & business class flights are getting much more expensive
- Short haul domestic flights are getting cheaper (e.g flights under 500 miles will be priced at 7,500 miles, previously they would have been 12,500 miles)
- Flights to the Carribean & Mexico are decreasing (previously 17,500 miles, now 15,000 peak or 12,500 off peak)
Other Useful Information
- You can book flights 330 days in advance
- American Airlines haven’t released any Saaver availabity for 2017Â (I assume they will once these changes come into effect)
Final Thoughts
If anybody else has any useful posts/information about the changes, please feel free to share. If you’ve got a stack of American Airline miles, it might be a good idea to use some of them up now especially if you’ve got plans to travel in any of the premium cabins.
Do you know how changes to booked awards will be treated after this date? Dates should still be free to change as long as the inbound/outbound airports remain constant, right?
Just booked two one-way Business class tickets to South America later in the year for the spouse and me @ 100,000 total miles. Fortunately before booking I remembered about the 10% redemption perk of my otherwise now unused Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card. While I don’t anticipate flying American in the future with bonus miles, 10000 miles essentially a free bonus, returned to me is acceptable.
Just a heads-up for other reads that will likely be cashing in before the devaluation early next week. As Matt suggested above, use the right credit card to pay the $5 taxes and reap in a sizable bonus.
I’m still wondering how AA will treat reduced mileage awards for short haul flights, now that they’re 15,000 miles round trip. I have the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select, which is one of the cards that gets a 7,500 mile discount off a round trip flight. I can’t imagine a reduced mileage award of 50% off, but it would be sweet if they kept it that way!
from their site “Reduced mileage award travel is not available with the short haul award (Contiguous 48 United States & Canada (≤ 500 miles)) March 22-31, 2016. New reduced mileage award levels will be introduced for these shorter flights on April 1st.”
My guess is the reduced mileage awards will be around 2,500-3,500 miles RT. That would still make for a bargain at 11,500-12,500 for a round trip short haul flight.