American Airlines changes traditional frequent flyer award chart in dynamic pricing shift

American Airlines has announced that it is abandoning its traditional frequent flyer award chart, as it moves towards dynamic pricing for mileage redemptions, in its AAdvantage loyalty program.

The carrier will release reference guides that show starting levels of the required frequent flyer miles for redemption tickets in certain regions, which will fluctuate based on demand.

The new redemption level will be called “Flight Awards”, after the previous categories, MileSAAver and AAnytime awards, which had set minimum rates, were eliminated in December.

For example, it cost 126,000 frequent flyer miles for a roundtrip ticket in standard economy on American between New York and Rome between June 1 and June 8, during the high season, but only 89,500 miles from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, during the lower-demand season.

American introduced dynamic pricing for award tickets in 2019, which has since become a popular option for customers. According to the airline, the new Flight Awards system will be more accurately aligned with American’s current operations.