Yesterday, AA finally officially announced the details of its 2016 elite program and mileage program. The elite-program changes were already explained very clearly in chanye’s article, Matching the Competition: AA Frequent Flyer Program Changes for 2016. Starting in the second half of next year, just like UA and Delta, the AA miles you earn from flying will also be tied to how much you spend, which means Mileage Runs will become much less rewarding. As for the mileage program, most people expected a devaluation; the real question was how bad it would be. Yesterday, AA gave us the answer. The current award charts will remain in effect through March 21 of next year, and the new charts will take effect on March 22 next year.
You can see the relevant charts here: old award chart for redeeming AA miles on AA flights, new award chart for redeeming AA miles on AA flights,
old award chart for redeeming AA miles on partner airlines, new award chart for redeeming AA miles on partner airlines.
Below is OneMoreDay’s comparison of AA’s old and new award charts (one-way from the continental U.S.):
Note*: The 7,500-mile rate applies to nonstop flights of 500 miles or less.
Note**: 32,500 is the off-peak rate for AA flights, 35,000 is the peak rate for AA flights, and 37,500 is the rate for oneworld partner flights.
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China/U.S. round-trip economy is mostly unchanged, while business and first class require more miles
As you can see, for the China/U.S. route we care about most (China is in Asia Region 2), economy finally gets an off-peak award level, which brings the round-trip cost down to just 65,000 miles, cheaper than before. Note that off-peak awards are only available on AA-operated flights. Peak pricing on AA flights stays the same as before. If you want to redeem for economy on oneworld partners such as Cathay Pacific or JAL, then you’ll need more miles—37,500 one-way, or 75,000 round-trip. That’s higher than both UA and Delta, and about the same as Aeroplan. The off-peak dates between China and the U.S. are as follows:
To Mainland China/Hong Kong: January 1 - April 30, July 1 - September 30, October 11 - November 30
From Mainland China/Hong Kong: February 1 - May 31, September 1 - 19, October 2 - December 31
As you can see, for travel back to China, more than eight months of the year are off-peak (including summer vacation), and for travel to the U.S., more than seven months are off-peak as well (including the National Day, Labor Day, and Chinese New Year holiday periods).
As for business and first class, we all know AA awards have been far cheaper than UA and Delta. Right now, business class back to China is only 55,000 one-way, and first class is 67,500, so a devaluation on this route was basically inevitable. Business class isn’t too bad—it only goes up to 70,000, which is still the most generous among the U.S. Big Three. Delta is also 70,000, but Delta charges hefty YQ on China Eastern redemptions, and Korean Air has tightened partner award space significantly (only two economy seats and one business seat per flight). As for UA, its own flights cost 70,000, but if you want to fly ANA, Asiana, EVA, etc. for better service, you’ll need 80,000 one-way. By comparison, AA charges 70,000 for both its own flights and alliance partners, and it doesn’t collect YQ, which is still very solid.
First class, on the other hand, sees a huge increase. It jumps from 67,500 all the way to 110,000. So if you want to book JAL or Cathay Pacific first class, you should do it soon. That said, even after the devaluation, there’s still a workaround. In the new chart, first class between Japan and the U.S. costs only 80,000 one-way (Korea, like Japan, is also in Asia Region 1, so Korea/U.S. first class is also 80,000). That means we can still enjoy relatively cheap JAL first class. So how do you get to Japan? If your home base in China happens to be a JAL destination, congratulations—you can use BA miles for a domestic-to-Japan ticket (for an introduction to BA miles, see OneMoreDay’s British Airways Avios Introduction (1) – Award Redemptions). Here are JAL’s destinations in Greater China:
As you can see from the chart, these routes are actually quite short, which makes them perfect for BA’s short-haul sweet spot. JAL flights from Shanghai (both Pudong and Hongqiao) can be booked for 7,500 Avios. The same number of Avios can also book routes such as Dalian-Tokyo, Tianjin-Nagoya, Taipei-Nagoya, and Taipei-Osaka. Other JAL flights only require 10,000 Avios. What if you want to try business class on these routes too? In reality, JAL’s short-haul business-class hard product is pretty average and doesn’t offer lie-flat seats. JAL really shines on long-haul business and first class, especially first class. OneMoreDay has daydreamed many times about the Ryugin Roppongi (Michelin three-star) dining experience in JAL first class. Even after AA’s devaluation, JAL first class is still a very good value. So, using 7,500-10,000 Avios + 80,000 AA miles can still make a China/U.S. first-class experience happen! And you can even add a side trip to Japan or Korea.
So how do you search for JAL first-class award space? You can read OneMoreDay’s Japan Airlines Mileage Introduction (1) – A Great oneworld Award Search Tool, which explains in detail how to find JAL award space. After you find it on JAL’s website, it’s best to double check on BA’s website, and then you can call AA customer service to ticket it. For the specific booking steps with AA, see chanye’s American Airlines Miles Introduction (3) - Using Miles (Advanced Part 1).
One more thing: if you’re not based in one of these major cities but still want to use the trick above, then UA miles, AC miles (before the December 15 devaluation), and ANA miles can all be very helpful.
Short-haul flights within North America can be booked for 7,500 miles
But honestly, this isn’t that exciting. It only works on nonstop flights, so BA still crushes it here.
Modest increases for U.S. to Europe and Northern South America
AA is still keeping these two relatively valuable sweet spots. Off-peak economy to Europe goes from 20,000 to 22,500, while peak economy remains 30,000—still quite reasonable. Business class rises slightly from 50,000 to 57,500, which is still fair. As for first class, BA is basically the only option across the Atlantic, and since AA charges high YQ on BA awards, it was never a particularly great value to begin with, so we can ignore it.
For Northern South America (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, etc.), AA economy goes from 15,000/17,500 to 17,500/20,000. This sweet spot is still alive, which is pretty generous (unlike the AC devaluation, which removed one of its few remaining highlights). Business class stays at 30,000. OneMoreDay has wanted to visit South America for a long time, so I’m very grateful AA didn’t take a hatchet to this region.
Economy pricing to Central America actually drops
Now Central America costs just 12,500 in off-peak and only 15,000 in peak! Business class also got cheaper! Cancun, Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico—I’m coming, haha!
Summary
AA’s chart had gone a long time without a broad adjustment, and its award prices were already lower than UA and Delta, so this devaluation was very much expected. Other than China/U.S. first class, the increases are still fairly manageable (and even for China/U.S. first class, you can still work around it by using Japan/U.S. first class instead—though if your goal is Cathay Pacific first class, I’d still recommend using Alaska miles). The trend across most mileage programs now is that first-class awards are getting more and more expensive—and harder and harder to book—while economy pricing often stays the same. So if you mainly redeem for economy, whether it’s UA, Delta, or AA, mileage devaluations usually won’t affect you much, and sometimes things may even get cheaper (just like AA adding off-peak China/U.S. awards this time, bringing round-trip pricing down to 65,000). Hopefully everyone can take this devaluation in stride. And don’t forget: those who hold the Citi AA Platinum credit card or one of the Barclays AA Aviator credit cards can still get a 10% redemption rebate, effectively making all of the above awards 10% cheaper. Under the new chart, China/U.S. business class would then cost only 63,000 one-way, which still easily beats UA and Delta.
Given this devaluation and the close relationship between Citi and AA, OneMoreDay will make one bold prediction: not long after the AA devaluation takes effect (that is, after March 22), Citi ThankYou Points will gain the ability to transfer to AA miles.
In this post, we analyzed AA’s new chart from the perspective of departures from North America. In the next post, we’ll look at the chart for departures from Asia Region 2, where China is located.