AAdvantage Devaluation Tomorrow – How To Buy More Time

I’m sure that just about everyone reading this blog knows that today is the last day to book awards using AAdvantage Miles at their historic rates so there’s probably going to be a bit of a frenzy today. As of tomorrow the cost of awards is going up, in some cases by quite a significant amount, but what can you do if you’re not ready to book an award today or if you can’t find the award you want? What do you do if you need more time?

There will be two main groups of people for whom this blog post has relevance:

• People who have found award space for the dates they think they’ll want to travel but a need a little bit more time to finalize their plans before they’re ready to commit.
• People who are ready to book awards but haven’t been able to find awards for the dates they want.

Luckily, although the new AAdvantage Award Charts kick in as of tomorrow (22 March 2016) there are things you can do to buy yourself more time if you fall into one or the other of the categories above.

Put Awards On Hold

American Airlines allows passengers to place an award on hold for 5 days so, if you can see award availability for dates that would work for you, simply go to the American Airlines website or call up your local American Airlines reservations line and place the award(s) of your choice on hold.

There is no fee to do this and the cost of the award will be locked in for a period of five days which may buy you enough time to finalize your plans.

Know The AAdvantage Rules

There will probably be a lot of people who would dearly love to use up some of their AAdvantage Miles right now but can’t find award space for dates that work for them – if you’re one of those people knowing what the AAdvantage rules will and will not allow you to do is key to buying yourself more time.

American Airlines has a very generous policy with regard to re-booking awards and, as long as you keep within certain parameters, it will be possible to change awards after the devaluation date without the award repricing at the new and higher rates.

Gary Leff over at View From The Wing got clarification on this from American Airlines spokesperson Laura Nedbal who said:

We have advised our agents that voluntary changes to date/time only will be permitted without forcing new higher/lower award levels, and we’ll have more information once the new award levels are applicable. As long as the origin and destination remain the same, the date/time changes can be made.

In reality the American Airlines rules are even better than what that comment makes them out to be as Gary found out when he delved a little deeper.

This is what American Airlines will allow you to do:

1 – You will be allowed to change the dates and times of your flights without the award repricing at the higher rates as long as you keep the airlines you’re using and the routing of the trip the same.

2 – You will be allowed to change the routing of an award without it repricing at the higher rate as long as you don’t try to add stopovers and your origin and destination remain the same.

An example of this would be a Los Angeles – Chicago – London award. With this type of award you could change it to a Los Angeles – New York – London award or, if you wish to remove the domestic portion of the trip, you could change it to to a Los Angeles – London non-stop award.

If, for some reason, you with to add a connection to an award then that will be ok too but I can’t see that being something that many people will be looking to do.

This is what American Airlines will not allow you to do:

• Change the type of award you’ve booked:
  • Mile SAAver Awards cannot be changed to Anytime awards (or vice versa) without the award repricing at the higher rate.
  • An award on American Airlines cannot be changed to an award on a OneWorld partner (or vice versa) without the award repricing at the higher rate.
• Change date/times of flights as well as the routing.

Using The Rules To Buy More Time

American Airlines awards are valid for up to a year from the date of purchase so, if you can’t find award availability on the dates you’re prepared to travel, this is what you can do:

• Find dates on which your award of choice is available
• Make sure the dates are further out than the dates you’re prepared to travel (I’ll explain why later)
• Book the awards
• Monitor award availability (via ExpertFlyer or whatever websites you prefer to use) and, should  an award of your preferred date suddenly become available, you can change the original booking to the dates you’ve just found without repricing the award (as long as you followed the rules as set out above)

Example:

Etihad First Class awards between Europe and the Middle East cost just 40,000 miles today while, from tomorrow, they’ll cost 62,500 miles…so it’s a good idea to get these locked in before the devaluation.

The week I’m prepared to travel (10 – 16 December 2016) there is no First Class award availability between London and Abu Dhabi (“Guest First” has to show as available if you are to book Etihad First Class with AAdvantage Miles):

Although the screenshot only shows the lack of availability for one day, you can tell from the number of miles that Etihad is quoting for the other days (under the dates) that there’s no availability for the whole week.

I happen to know that Etihad can release First Class awards on this route at any time but they’re also prone to releasing award space close to departure…..so this is what I do:

• I search for award availability past the dates I’m willing to travel so that my award doesn’t expire before Etihad has a chance to release inventory

In this case I’ve found First Class availability on 19 January 2017

• I book the award
• I then keep my eye out for award availability between now and December.
• When Etihad releases First Class awards on one of the dates I’m willing to travel I call up American Airlines and, because I’m not changing my routing or changing my origin or destination, I can get the award rebooked for the date I’m happy with without it being repriced a the higher award rate.

In this example I would be changing my award almost nine months after American Airlines changed it’s award charts but I would still be flying the trip at the pre-devaluation day pricing.

Bottom Line

Just because you can’t find the award(s) you want right now doesn’t mean that you have to resign yourself to paying the new and inflated award costs that kick in tomorrow.

Do a little bit of homework and try to book your favoured award on any given date in the future…..but try to book it as far out as possible to give yourself maximum flexibility going forward.

Because you’re booking the award on 21 March 2016, and because AAdvantage Awards are valid for a year from the date of booking, your booking will be valid (and therefore changeable) up to 21 March 2017.

As long as you keep to the rules you should be able to book and change your bookings as many times as you want (for a year from the date of booking) without the award repricing at the higher rate – make the most of that!