[Rumor] American Airlines To Introduce Premium Economy Awards

There are some rumors swirling that American Airlines plans to introduce premium economy awards as early as the end of January. Gary from VFTW covered this earlier this month, it also seems to be backed up by JonNYC and American Airlines reps have told FT user jackonferry that changes are coming as well (although not specific to premium economy and they talk about a March launch date). Obviously more options are great, but we need to know what pricing will be like and if it will also be available on partners or only on AA metal. There is also some concern that by adding premium economy awards it will make it easier for AA to increase the price of business class awards.

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culdeus
culdeus (@guest_709495)
January 21, 2019 16:32

One issue AA will have here is pricing out these seats on a mile basis vs. revenue. The PE seats on super longhaul 787 metal at times tend to be only 300-400 bucks more than an economy ticket . I actually did a DFW-FRA flight where the PE seat was cheaper than economy! Others on FT have reported similar odd fares.

My guess is the cpp value of these seats, even on saver will be the lowest of all the 3 or 4 fare categories by far.

Lingua
Lingua (@guest_709100)
January 20, 2019 15:07

Keep the AA miles comments coming…ive never had the miles and need to decide whether to plop down 95 for the barclay aviator (im within the 24 hour window Hard pull on my first barclay card, the arrival). Feeling like its a no brainer…

Frogger
Frogger (@guest_709130)
January 20, 2019 17:37

Get the business Citi AA 70k miles and no fee first year.

Jason
Jason (@guest_709186)
January 20, 2019 20:42

I’d still start with Barclays though since it’s miles you’re not gonna be able to get once you go in hard on AA. And I think there’s a no AF Barclays AA option, right? Barclays is supposed to be better for traveling (chip+signature priority, but chip+PIN fallback) than most US cards, so worth just having in your stable for when you go abroad, IMO.

Chucks
Chucks (@guest_709151)
January 20, 2019 18:24

There’s no way 60k miles get so devalued they aren’t worth a hard pull and fee now. Churners sitting on a few hundred or million miles could lose a few hundred or maybe a thousand or more in value though.

lingua
lingua (@guest_709232)
January 20, 2019 23:03

Appreciate the responses! Went ahead with the Aviator, went to pending, reconed right away, and after a few questions, got it approved. This with no other hard pull. Thanks for the input. I’m happy with the Aviator and Arrival off one Transunion pull for a Barclay noob. Was tempting to go for a third 🙂

Since I’ve been racking up airline reimbursements with AA I’ll probably go Citi next.

aubergine
aubergine (@guest_709067)
January 20, 2019 13:07

Basically the AAdvantage loyalist has to burn their miles faster than AA can pump them out. My SO and I are finally under 10k each.

Frogger
Frogger (@guest_709089)
January 20, 2019 14:27

I am not sure what you are saying. I have gotten 7 round trip award flights to Europe in the last year and still have 270k miles.

culdeus
culdeus (@guest_709064)
January 20, 2019 12:43

I mean if you have called into any CSR for an award ticket in the last 12 months and ask they said this was coming in 2019. The warning they gave me was if I purchased a MCE seat, and then changed my award ticket to PE that I would lose my MCE dollars.

I’ve gotten this info from more than 4 CSR starting back in June 2018 and consistently been told the same thing, that A) You will be able to upgrade a economy ticket to PE without a fee B) It’s coming soon.

Peter
Peter (@guest_709060)
January 20, 2019 12:19

Givingaway 60000 miles for $95 on each flight. Everyday. Seems lot of outstanding miles on their books to devalue.

Charlie
Charlie (@guest_709063)
January 20, 2019 12:41

Could you expand upon your statement? I’m not sure what you’re saying.

mathew
mathew (@guest_709091)
January 20, 2019 14:34

AA tends to offer the signup promo for the AA Card as an “exclusive offer” on domestic flights offering 60K points for $95 annual fee.

Frogger
Frogger (@guest_709131)
January 20, 2019 17:39

He is talking about Barclay AA card. Barclay is only allowed to market on flights. And comes with 95 dollar fee and bonus on.a single purchase.

Wayne
Wayne (@guest_709066)
January 20, 2019 13:05

Must be referring to the Barclay or Citi card offers?