American Airlines finally eliminates pesky close-in award ticketing fee

American Airlines has long imposed a $75 award close-in ticketing fee for non-elite members booking an award flight within 21 days of departure.  United Airlines was the only other carrier that imposed such a fee, but United eliminated it last November when they went to dynamic award pricing.  Delta never charged the fee, which left AA as the only airline to charge such a fee.  Finally and effective immediately, AA has eliminated the fee for all award bookings.  So you can now book "last minute" awards without the pesky $75 fee.


Quick thoughts

To AA's credit, they are the only U.S. legacy carrier to still have an award chart.  Fingers crossed on how long that will stand as they haven't underwent any recent devaluations and are likely primed for one in the not-too-distant future.  Whereas the elimination of the $75 close-in award ticketing fee would come as good news for non-elite members, elite members may not be as happy since they were always exempt, and this positive change could increase the demand for last-minute awards.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Park Hyatt Sydney review

Image
For our trip to Australia's east coast, we started off with a 4-night stay in Sydney.  We decided to stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney as it has been consistently rated as one of the best Hyatt luxury properties worldwide.  The hotel, located in the heart of Sydney Harbor at the Rocks, is famous for its stunning views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Price As a category 8 hotel, the Park Hyatt Sydney is Hyatt's most expensive award category ranging from 35k-45k points per night.  Fortunately, since we were traveling during Australia's "slower" winter season, we were able to get off-peak rates of 35k for most of our nights in a standard 1 King Bed room. Seeing how the hotel's standard rooms were over $700 a night during our stay, this was a pretty good redemption value at well over 2 cents per point.  This hotel is also known for releasing tons of free night award space, even during peak travel times.  This is atypical for many Hyatt top-tier hotels such as t...
Read more

Citi temporarily adds American Airlines as a mileage transfer partner!

Image
In a surprise move, Citi has added American Airlines as a transfer partner for their ThankYou Points (TYP) earning credit cards.  What's especially intriguing is that even no annual fee cards that normally don't offer transfers to loyalty programs are eligible for this new and temporary partnership, albeit at a lower transfer ratio.  Citi's premium line of cards, including the Prestige and the Premier, both have 1:1 transfer capability with AAdvantage miles (1,000 TYP = 1,000 AAdvantage miles).  Whereas no annual fee cards, including the ThankYou Preferred and the Rewards+, get a 2:1 transfer ratio (1,000 TYP = 500 AAdvantage miles).  This transfer partnership is valid from July 18 through November 13, though one could speculate that it could be extended. American Airlines AAdvantage program was the only loyalty program out of the three U.S. legacy carriers that didn't have a 1:1 transfer partner with any credit card accounts.  Delta has long been a transfer par...
Read more

Chase Freedom Q3 5x categories announced, plus get an extra 10% on Pay Youself Back feature

Image
Chase has announced their 3rd quarter (Q3) 5x categories for thee Freedom Flex and old Freedom cards: Grocery Stores (excluding Target® & Walmart®): Just in time for grilling season, Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cardmembers can earn 5% cash back on grocery store purchases to cook-up their favorite recipes all summer long. Select Streaming Services: Monthly music and TV streaming subscriptions can add up fast – this quarter, Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cardmembers can earn 5% cash back on individual purchases and subscriptions. Q3 runs from July 1 through September 30, 2021, and registration (required) is open today through September 14, 2021.  The 5x is limited to up to $1,500 in total purchases for the quarter.  But if you have both the Freedom Flex and the old Chase Freedom, you could purchase up to $1,500 per card for a total of $3,000. Activation link For many of us who signed up for the Freedom Flex when it was first released last year, the 5x grocery store cate...
Read more