{"id":102977,"date":"2023-05-05T21:00:08","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/?p=102977"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:46:27","slug":"dynamic-pricing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/airlines\/american-aadvantage\/dynamic-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"AA Introduces Dynamic Pricing, Eliminates Saver and Award Charts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In one of the least surprising moves in aviation, American Airlines recently eliminated its Saver and Award charts. In turn, AA has shifted its awards to a dynamic pricing model. While many recent devaluations were a sudden surprise, that is not the case here. AA gave its members a heads-up late last year. So, while the news is disheartening, it was expected.<\/p>\n<p>Here's what you should know about these changes.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"What_Are_the_New_Changes\">What Are the New Changes?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The main change is how AA prices and names its awards. Here's a summary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically, AA had four price bands for each award: MileSAAver Off Peak, MileSAAver, AAnytime Level 1, and AAnytime Level 2. These tiers are consigned to the aviation dustbin of history, replaced with a single award price.<\/li>\n<li>AA used to offer dynamically priced awards called \u201cWeb Special\u201d awards. Although the &#8220;Web Special&#8221; name has been retired, these are now the standard awards on American Airlines.<\/li>\n<li>When you search for an award on a given day, you only have one pricing option.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How the new Flight Award price is calculated is unclear and likely includes various factors. In a nutshell, AA has shifted entirely to dynamic award pricing on its own aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>The big question now is whether AA miles will maintain their worth. Perhaps AA will follow Delta's lead, <a href=\"\/airlines\/delta-skymiles\/how-many-delta-miles-for-a-flight\/#Updates_to_Delta_SkyMiles_Award_Chart_Since_April_2017\">stripping the value from its mileage program one devaluation at a time<\/a>. Or perhaps this is just a change in name only and Flight Awards will continue to provide modest value.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"AA_New_Flight_Awards_Chart_with_Dynamic_Pricing\">AA New Flight Awards Chart with Dynamic Pricing<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>AA launched a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com\/i18n\/aadvantage-program\/miles\/redeem\/award-travel\/flight-award-chart.jsp\" rel=\"noopener\">new award chart<\/a> to accompany the new Flight Awards. However, since AA is moving to dynamic pricing, the new chart only lists a starting price. How often we see these starting prices will vary considerably. They may end up being a rarity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<table id=\"tablepress-456\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-456 tablepress-responsive\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1 odd\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Region<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">Main Cabin Starting Price<\/th><th class=\"column-3\">Premium Economy Starting Price<\/th><th class=\"column-4\">Business \/ First Starting Price<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Contiguous U.S. and Canada<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">7,500<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">-<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">15,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Mexico, Caribbean, and Central America<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">10,000<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">-<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">20,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">South America \u2014 Short-Haul<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">15,000<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">-<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">30,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Hawaii and Alaska<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">20,000<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">40,000<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">60,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Europe<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">25,000<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">50,000<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">75,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">South America \u2014 Long-Haul<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">30,000<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">60,000<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">90,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Asia, Middle East, and South Pacific<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">35,000<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">60,000<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">95,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n<p>When comparing the old and new award charts, the changes don't seem overly negative. However, some routes have taken a massive hit, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Flights between the U.S. and Europe now start at 25,000 miles one way in economy \u2014 instead of 22,500 for off-peak awards.<\/li>\n<li>Business and first class flights between the U.S. and Europe now start at 75,000 miles \u2014 up from the previous 57,500.<\/li>\n<li>U.S. to South America Region 2 starts at 90,000 miles in business and first class \u2014 a huge increase from 57,500.<\/li>\n<li>U.S. to\u00a0Mexico and the Caribbean in business and first now starts at 20,000 miles \u2014 a 20% <strong>decrease<\/strong> from the previous price of 25,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While some changes are positive, the overwhelming majority are negative. However, keep in mind that these new prices are a \u201cstarting from\u201d price. Will we see these prices, or will the actual prices be much higher? Only time will tell.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Partner_Awards_Are_Safe_For_Now\">Partner Awards Are Safe \u2014 For Now<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While the American Airlines award chart changes eliminate one of <a href=\"\/airlines\/american-aadvantage\/best-ways-to-use-american-miles\/\">AA's better sweet spots<\/a>, all is not lost. For now, AA partner award pricing isn't going dynamic. You can still leverage your miles for some great redemptions, including these one-way options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. to the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East for 70,000 miles plus taxes and fees in <a href=\"\/airlines\/qatar-avios-award-chart\/\">Qatar Airways' awesome QSuite<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>U.S. to Japan and South Korea for 60,000 miles in business or 80,000 miles in first class &#8212; both on Japan Airlines (JAL).<\/li>\n<li>Domestic Australian flights for 10,000 miles in economy and 20,000 miles in business\/first class with Qantas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can check out our comprehensive guide to the <a href=\"\/airlines\/american-aadvantage\/best-ways-to-use-american-miles\/\">best uses of AA miles<\/a> to get the best value from your miles.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Our_Take\">Our Take<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The truth is that &#8220;dynamic pricing&#8221; is code for a devaluation \u2014 with AA or anyone else. Plus, as we've seen with other programs, eliminating award charts often leads to an ongoing and constant devaluation.<\/p>\n<p>The catch here is that American Airlines had already effectively switched to dynamic pricing through its &#8220;Web Special&#8221; awards. Rarely did travelers actually pay the award rates published in AA's now-eliminated award chart.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that &#8212; for now &#8212; you can still get excellent value using your AA miles for awards on partner airlines. Hopefully that won't change anytime soon.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ftoc\"><div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_light_blue no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Page Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#What_Are_the_New_Changes\">What Are the New Changes?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#AA_New_Flight_Awards_Chart_with_Dynamic_Pricing\">AA New Flight Awards Chart with Dynamic Pricing<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Partner_Awards_Are_Safe_For_Now\">Partner Awards Are Safe \u2014 For Now<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Our_Take\">Our Take<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Airlines recently announced a move to a dynamic award pricing model, eliminating its MileSAAver Off Peak, MileSAAver, AAnutime Level 1, and AAnytime Level 2 awards and rebranding its Web Specials as simply Flight Awards. Here&#8217;s what these changes actually mean for travelers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":103254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12068],"tags":[12679,12776,12036],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-102977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-award-programs","tag-american-airlines","tag-american-aadvantage","tag-major-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102977"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255866,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102977\/revisions\/255866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102977"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=102977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}