Flying from Phoenix / Strange Happenings in AA Points Redemptions

 

An American Airlines Plane Departs in the Shadow of Camelback Mountain

 

Fluid Points and Wildly Differing Fees

I am planning two international bicycling trips in 2024.

Trip One: Cycling Tuscany (April /May)

For this trip I'll make a brief pre-trip to Rome. Then I'll take the train to Florence to meet up with friends in Florence to cycle for six days through the Chianti region. We will finish up in Lucca (near Pisa). 

Trip Two: Cycling Sparta, Monemvasia, & the Peloponnesian Peninsula (October/November)

To avoid crowds I'm traveling well out of the normal tourist season. There will be a brief pre-trip in Athens and then on to another week of sunshine, good cycling, and great food.

Expect lots more on those trips later.

However, while planning those trips I encountered lots of interesting oddities in the current frequent flier redemption marketplace. It is frankly a bit wild out there.

 

Collecting Points and Earning Elite Status

First off, many airlines are offering very generous point incentives if you open branded credit cards and make a minimum spend. Yet experience shows they then take steps to make it increasingly difficult achieve elite status. Today, elite status is all about how much you spend, not how often (or how far) you fly. 

And once your frequent flier points begin to pile up you may notice that airlines raise the redemption levels needed to use them. Similarly, when you reach a top elite status level, the airlines simply add new, even higher, status plateaus. 

Remember how Lucy always moved the football?

Thankfully, I have lifetime elite status with multiple hotels and airlines. However, I secured my lifetime status under the old points systems. Road warriors of today don't have it so easy. 

 

Spending Your Points.....

First, if you are like me and use your frequent flier points to offset the cost of annual personal travel, I strongly advise you to plan ahead and then remain flexible. 

The days when redemption values were fixed have long since disappeared. Now the airlines post ever changing daily redemption rates; mostly up, sometimes down.

And the airline you choose makes a big difference too. Although Delta is a wonderful airline, it has redemption rates that are typically much higher than rates on the other legacy carriers. And all of the major airlines have priced redemption levels for Premium Economy and Business Class cabins well out of reach for most of us. I used to routinely fly my family of four to Europe and Asia in business class for about 53K per person each way. Now business class can run 400K per person each way. 

But, with a little shopping, you can still do very well flying coach (particularly on American where a flight to Europe can frequently be redeemed for 30K each way).  Update September 2024: Over the summer American has blown away its consistent 30K International rewards. Now you can almost never redeem any AA 30K's. Instead now for low priced redemption flights they push you to codeshares like Finnair,  Iberia or British. And the British Air redemptions come with stiff fees. AA FF deals do exist. But you are going to have to search a lot harder to find them these days. 

Also don't get fixated on flying to a specific destination. So what if you are going to Italy? It may well be more advantageous to first fly to a city like Madrid as your gateway. Shop around and once you get to Europe, buying a connecting toyour final destination by train or on regional air carrier may be pretty inexpensive. 

For my Greek trip I found AA service from Athens to be spotty. So I priced other gateways for my return home. My favorite European gateways are typically London and Madrid (I love Madrid's Barajas Airport). Amsterdam is also a good choice. In a pinch I'll shop Paris, Frankfurt and Barcelona too.

We began our trip to Vietnam last fall by flying to Thailand. After a few days in Bangkok we connected to Hanoi on a very inexpensive commuter flight.

Once you've booked a flight on points check back now and then. If redemption rates drop, consider canceling your booking and getting your points reinstated. Then re-book at the lower rate. I recently did this on a flight from Boston to London next October. The original booking was 30K. The new booking was 19K for the same flight. And since I cancelled the old one first, I still got my favorite bulkhead seat.

Searching for my return flight from Athens I'd initially hoped to return via London (on my favorite AA flight 195), but I forgot how ridiculous the fees are on flights originating at Heathrow. The fees going to London are cheap. The fees coming home suck.

And when I went to check AA initially posted high redemption points too. This led me to switch to a flight returning home from Amsterdam. That routing saved me 21,000 points and $150 in fees. And the redemption rate for my Amsterdam flight has since dropped three times. First it was 30K, then it was 27K, now it is 19K. 

So I'll take an extra day and fly Aegean to Schipol, check into the airport Hilton or Sheraton (you can walk to the gates from these hotels), then spend a day exploring the Rijksmuseum. 

The next morning I'll walk to my gate and fly home to Phoenix a lot more rested. 

Phoenix / Airline Desert

I love living in Phoenix, with our warm, sunny climate and amazing Sky Harbor Airport. Yet, we suffer from crappy international air service. Despite being the fifth largest metro area in the US we only have two, count 'em two, daily flights to Europe and both of them go to the same place. We have no international flights to Asia at all. strip away our Canada and Mexico flights and Phoenix is an international airline desert. 

Just before covid hit American added a daily non-stop flight from Sky Harbor to London (joining British Air whose daily flight to London had been our only direct flight to Europe for decades). Now, perhaps due to the pressure of the new-ish AA flight, British Air has downsized the aircraft they operate for their PHX flight.

Seasonally, Condor flies a few days a week from Phoenix to Germany and Air France recently announced they will soon offer seasonal service from Phoenix to Paris.

I find it bizarre how grossly underserved Phoenix is especially when I compare offerings from highly weather impacted hubs like Denver, Dallas, and Salt Lake City.

IMHO the situation has steadily gotten worse after American's consolidation. Once the merger moratorium on abandoning hubs dropped off AA started reducing non-stop services to/from Phoenix. Aa and Delta have poured (literally) billions of dollars into LAX and DFW, while methodically redeploying Phoenix based flight crews.

When we fly globally anywhere (except London) Phoenicians have to fly through ATL, DFW, JFK, ORD, or LAX. Now, if I were to ask you to name the most universally despised airports in North America, wouldn't all of those airports make your list?

to me they are all poorly designed aviation relics continuously undergoing expensive and superficial upgrading.

Another oddity I've noticed is how AA sometimes leverages it's FF redemption strategy to nudge fliers into cashing in AA points on competitor's flights. For example when I checked into using AA points to fly non-stop from LHR to PHX on one day / one-way rate was:

AA: 59.5K points + $190 taxes / fees 

However, using the same AA points on the BA flight was only 22.5K points + $384 taxes / fees one way

Low points / high fees. The AA flight that day required 2-1/2 times the points of the BA flight (but came with those crazy high LHR fees). Fees are reasonable flying to LHR, but dreadfully high flying from LHR. 

Initially I speculated the point discrepancy might be AA's way of driving non-rev passengers to code share partners in order to keep their own seats open and available for more profitable fare paying passengers.

But a few weeks later the discrepancy vanished and, in fact, it reversed. 

LHR to PHX a few weeks back = 59K

The same LHR to PHX flight a few weeks later and AA's same flight cost = 19K

The moral of the story; be flexible, book your flights then check back now and then. 

So to recap, find a good rate and book it. Don't procrastinate. If rates goes up, no worries, you are protected. If rates goes down, you can cancel and re-book. 

You just might save enough miles for another trip.

Roadboy's Travels © 2024