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It seems to be open season on award pricing at the moment. Program after program are instituting award redemption increases with no notice, with Dan’s Deals noticing that Qatar Airways is the latest one to join the (saddest) party.
If you’ve been enjoying taking advantage of its sweet spots for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, your enjoyment has come to an abrupt halt as they’ve greatly increased how many Avios now need to be redeemed.
Booking partner awards on American and Alaska using Qatar Airways Avios was one of the few remaining domestic sweet spots when using Avios since British Airways bumped up their pricing some time ago. That’s because for short-haul flights of up to 650 miles you previously only had to redeem 6,000 Avios one-way.
The increases by Qatar Airways aren’t paltry either. Here’s what Dan’s Deals found:
Economy pricing
- 1-650 miles
- Was 6,000 Avios
- Now 9,500 Avios (58.33% increase)
- 651-1,151 miles
- Was 9,000 Avios
- Now 13,000 Avios (44.44% increase)
- 1,152-2,000 miles
- Was 11,000 Avios
- Now 14,500 Avios (31.81% increase)
- 2,001-3,000 miles
- Was 13,000 Avios
- Now 16,000 Avios (23.08% increase)
- 3,001+ miles
- Unchanged
Business class pricing
- 1-650 miles
- Was 12,500 Avios
- Now 20,000 Avios (60% increase)
- 651-1,151 miles
- Was 16,500 Avios
- Now 27,000 Avios (63.63% increase)
- 1,152-2,000 miles
- Was 22,000 Avios
- Now 34,000 Avios (54.55% increase)
- 2,001-3,000 miles
- Was 38,750 Avios
- Now 43,000 Avios (10.97% increase)
- 3,001+ miles
- Unchanged
As you can see, the hardest hit economy awards are those where the route is 1-650 miles, with the increase being over 50%. The 651-1,151 mile band is painful too, with an increase of almost 45%.
As for business class, some of the increases are even larger, with award rates going up by almost two-thirds in some cases.
These changes are very disappointing to see, especially seeing as this was yet another no-notice change by an award program.
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Not to forget, the taxes that used to be about $10 for the short haul flights are now $100+ !
I’m still seeing $10.10 for domestic flights
Essentially, the strategy of using Avios to book cheap domestic AA awards is dead. They cut it off with BA, and now QR.
Can you book a connecting AA flight via Qatar Avios? I have been trying to book ATL – NAS via MIA but it does not show up Qatar’s website but the individual flights like ATL – MIA and then MIA – NAS do. Do I have to call them and book the connecting flight?
CLT – BWI on AA for 4,500 AS
CLT – DCA on AA for 4,500 AS
Lots of availability.
This is the way.
New to this. Are you saying just to book directly with American Airlines using miles?
No. Alaska airlines. they have the best points redemption on AA metal for short haul . 9k points RT and $38
Okay thank you. Guess I need to start building Alaska miles 🙂
When are people in the points community going to realize that the tides have possibly already turned to make “points” a losing proposition. I still use them and get value from them, but it is getting so much harder to find anything of “outsized” value.
All of these blogs are seriously just ridiculous at this point. They just keep posting click bait of unicorn awards that one on a million can get with outsized value in their attempts to keep their profit machines going as a website. I’m sorry but yes of course you can find great bookings when you have last minute challenges. Either book 11 months out or less than 24 hours in advance. This is not the norm of how the vast majority of people travel. All of these points blogs give the false illusions that they are and that these huge value awards still exist with somewhat regularity.
Back to my original point, I won’t ever stop using points, well not until I burn them up at least, but it’s just not what it used to be. I am starting to shift my strategy though, and I am definitely onboard with the churn and burn mentality. Holding points is like investing in Venezuela’s currency. The glory days are mostly behind us and I think the sooner the points community realizes that the better.
I would agree that there are many frustrations in the hobby . . . including and especially devaluations. The FM team has openly shared their own frustrations. Just ask Greg about American Airlines and he will respond, “American Airlines!!! Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch . . .” (If you’re old, you’ll get the joke.) Ask Nick about Turkish or Avianca customer service.
What I’ve found about redemptions is that it’s a matter of move / counter-move. The game is not static and you have to adapt. Greg talked about this in his Hilton piece (I think). An opportunity closes or there’s a devaluation but another opportunity opens or there’s a revaluation. You have to acknowledge that a given point currency no longer delivers superior value if used in a particular way . . . so, you have to search for the new way that the given point currency will deliver superior value.
You gotta climb the mountain if you want to enjoy the view. I don’t think the FM team is trying to convey that the game is a cake walk. I think the FM team identifies that something exists . . . but, you will likely have to see whether it works for you . . . and, it might well take some hard work to get it. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. Ooh-rah.
One domestic airline currency (no names) is widely recognized as having little value. But, people who conclude that are applying that currency in a particular way — a rotten way. I don’t use that currency in that particular way. I use that currency in a different way and I’m getting 2.5 to 3.5cpp. Same thing with one hotel’s currency — not Hyatt — and I’m getting about 1.8cpp. And, I do this with “normal people” lead times.
I’ll just leave it to say that if an idiot like me can do this, a smart guy like you certainly can.
PS – Strategies to achieve superior valuation are probably best not discussed in public forums. The loyalty programs read the blogs and Reddit and FlyerTalk and I’ll guess they close the opportunities they find. Part of that move / counter-move. I’d suggest to all readers that they consider joining a private forum such as FM’s Facebook group. There, members might be more willing to share strategies.
“Niagara Falls!” Nice homage…
Inflation cuts two ways. Devaluations sting of course, but did anyone think we’d start seeing 200k SUB offers with regularity? MEAB did great analysis on the Alaska devaluation. They showed that in relation to the increased offers on the BofA cards it really wasn’t much of a devaluation at all.
Speaking for myself I’ll miss those sweet spots, but I have so many more points to throw around it doesn’t hurt so much.
I’ve been hearing comments like this for years, yet people keep finding awards..
Yes. Loads of economy tickets make no sense to book with points, and between points increases for F and J and the dollar prices of lots of F/J tickets dropping quite a bit or other methods to upgrade to F/J it’s hard to see the deals as such even if you’d have paid for F/J.
I have been able to generally get 1.6-1.8+ cpp for most redemptions on Amex/Citi with transfer bonuses, and that’s OK, but it’s also not worth signing up for card to get 100k+ miles when I don’t really have a plan to use.
But, it’s not as if AA releases transcon premium inventory to partners in the first place. At least, other than super early morning or late night flight times. Quite disappointing.
Ugh! Well… back to Qantas. Here’s hoping they don’t catch the same bug!
Yup….
Where’s the Qantas sweet spot? IE ORD to GCM, was 11K Qatar. Now 14.5K Qatar. Same flight 18K BA and also 18K Qantas.
Short flights up to 600 miles are 8k with Qantas and (now) 9.5k Qatar.
How in the world can you search these partner flights online? I have tried for hours and can’t figure it out. I finally called last week and they booked me.
AwardTool
I haven’t been able to on their website, but their app works.
Bless your heart that worked!
No luck on their app for me
Any remaining domestic sweet spots?
Hawai’i and Alaska can still be a good deal, especially from the Midwest and East Coast because QR doesn’t price connecting legs individually. Finnair will be even better, but it seems like quite a few folks are having issues booking AA/AS with them.
I like your Hawai’i spelling. Very nice!
Finnair requires a horribly lengthy wait on the webchat. And then you can’t put a flight on hold, so you’d have to avios transfer during the chat and try to dance around with the agent so he doesn’t hang up. I’ll do it, but it’s not easy.
After accounting for all these negative changes, which program would you guys recommend to book AA/AL flights with Avios, British Airways or Qatar?
Under 651 – Qatar is still best.
For all other flights, Finnair will have the best pricing, however it seems like some folks are still running into issues with ticketing. It sounds like using the chat function works better than calling in those instances.
If it’s simply a choice between BA and Qatar, QR will have better pricing on anything 3,000 miles or under.
For the last minute, there is still Etihad as well on the super short stuff. But I know that cancellation policy is a big problem for folks.