American Airlines Has The Most Generous Rewards Program In The US
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jimntx
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Well, obviously the article was written by a Communist since it did not single out Delta's Skymiles as the only perfect program, and the only one worth having. Having "confused" call center operators was a strategic decision.
La Li Lu Le Lo
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American Airlines Has The Most Generous Rewards Program In The US (subsidized by the employees)
WorldTraveler
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the real question that should be asked is why AA needs to give away so much of its product and still come up with revenue per seat mile that is lower than other US airlines.
and conversely how other airlines can be so "stingy" and yet have revenue premiums to the industry.
the overarching goal is to maximize returns for the shareholders, the owners of the company.
AdAstraPerAspera
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That's not the real question, but it might be the answer to why AA's corporate sales team is the most productive and lucrative in the industry
I hope the US award processing fee, $25.00 per ticket domestic and $50.00 international fades away when both programs are merged. When in the past I have searched for award seats checking AA,UA and US, AA was able to offer seats when the others could not.
For me, AA has always given the best results for award tickets for domestic and Caribbean flights.
For me, AA has always given the best results for award tickets for domestic and Caribbean flights.
"According to a new analysis from travel site Mighty Travels, some programs are stingier than others."
It took an analysis to determine this??
Ok, where to begin.
Did they search just on US/DL/AA/UA metal, or did they search partner awards? Because, IMO, partners not having availability does not make the redeeming partner carrier stingy. If this was done to determine availability metrics, they should have stuck with flights on the actual carriers in the "analysis".
They used as their benchmark "JFK to 11 international destinations", checking AA, UA, DL and US. Well, UA doesn't serve any intl. destinations from JFK. So, they presumably were either relying on connections via ORD, or perhaps searched from EWR?
Ditto for US. If they wanted to stay on US metal, they would have to route through CLT. There isn't even connecting service to PHL from JFK.
"If you're going to fly American or US Airways, Mighty Travels recommends doing it soon. "Both loyalty programs will likely be merged into one by the end of 2014," they write, "and more changes to redemption rates might happen."
False. It's been reported numerous times that the programs won't be merged until early 2015.
" Delta Skymiles, which Mighty Travels says has "high redemption rates, fuel surcharges on many SkyTeam partners".
Have they tried to book an AA award on their partners like BA, IB, AY? The fuel surcharges are not restricted to SkyTeam. But back to my initial point - this whole analysis is flawed if they're trying to see which airline has more seats to offer in their respective programs.
It looks more to me like they put 4 people in a room for an hour and had them do some cursory mock award bookings. Weak, weak "analysis".
It took an analysis to determine this??
Ok, where to begin.
Did they search just on US/DL/AA/UA metal, or did they search partner awards? Because, IMO, partners not having availability does not make the redeeming partner carrier stingy. If this was done to determine availability metrics, they should have stuck with flights on the actual carriers in the "analysis".
They used as their benchmark "JFK to 11 international destinations", checking AA, UA, DL and US. Well, UA doesn't serve any intl. destinations from JFK. So, they presumably were either relying on connections via ORD, or perhaps searched from EWR?
Ditto for US. If they wanted to stay on US metal, they would have to route through CLT. There isn't even connecting service to PHL from JFK.
"If you're going to fly American or US Airways, Mighty Travels recommends doing it soon. "Both loyalty programs will likely be merged into one by the end of 2014," they write, "and more changes to redemption rates might happen."
False. It's been reported numerous times that the programs won't be merged until early 2015.
" Delta Skymiles, which Mighty Travels says has "high redemption rates, fuel surcharges on many SkyTeam partners".
Have they tried to book an AA award on their partners like BA, IB, AY? The fuel surcharges are not restricted to SkyTeam. But back to my initial point - this whole analysis is flawed if they're trying to see which airline has more seats to offer in their respective programs.
It looks more to me like they put 4 people in a room for an hour and had them do some cursory mock award bookings. Weak, weak "analysis".
