American Airlines Adds Online Award Booking for 20th Partner Airline
Over the past few years, American Airlines has added new partners, strengthened partnerships with existing partners, and made it easier to search and book awards online. On Wednesday afternoon, American Airlines added the ability to book award flights online for yet another partner. You can now search and book awards for 20 different partner airlines on AA’s website.
IHG Rewards Launches Dynamic Award Pricing in the U.S. and Beyond
After testing dynamic award pricing with a small set of hotels earlier this year, IHG Rewards confirmed to AwardWallet this morning that it has expanded dynamic award pricing to more hotels around the world—including many regions here in the United States. Dynamic award pricing is usually bad news, but we are surprised to be finding some great deals using your IHG Rewards points now!
American Express Membership Rewards (Temporarily) Loses a Transfer Partner
American Express Membership Rewards is widely regarded as one of the most-valuable transferrable currencies thanks to having over 20 transfer partners and lucrative transfer bonuses. However, the program just lost a little luster with the loss of one of its airline transfer partners.
American Airlines Increases Checked Baggage Fees in the Midst of COVID-19
Less than a week after announcing $5.8 billion in emergency aid from the U.S. Treasury, American Airlines has increased bag fees by $15 each way on certain routes. The change is effective immediately for new tickets issued as of April 21, 2020.
Citi ThankYou Points Adds Emirates as 16th Airline Partner
While Citi ThankYou Points isn’t known for being the most valuable transferrable currency, it just added its 16th airline transfer partner: Emirates Skywards. This new partnership means you can now book Emirates’ legendary first-class product to Europe for just 135,000 Citi ThankYou Points round-trip, or fly to Europe in Emirates business class for 90,000 points round-trip.
British Airways Devalues Short-Haul Award Flights (Again!)
In under a month, British Airways devalued its short-haul award chart twice. Award flights that used to cost just 4,000 Avios now start at 9,250 Avios. The short-haul devaluations have gotten so bad that it now fewer Avios to book a 3,000-mile award flight than a 651-mile award flight. In this AwardWallet scoop, we show you the drastic changes and the new British Airways short-haul award chart.