Reader Barney wants to know why it’s gotten so hard to use his American Airlines AAdvantage miles to fly in premium cabins to Asia, or whether he’s imagining things? I’d say he’s right, and I think I know why.
In fact, I used to do it all the time myself with ease. One blogger used to say that I practically lived in Cathay Pacific first class.
And I used to redeem my American miles several times a year for Etihad first via the Mideast to Asia (places like Maldives, Sri Lanka, and India – or even Thailand as two separate awards).
Qantas first class crossings were doable for me too. Those are mostly out.
My wife and I travel to Southeast Asia every year since 2012. We never had a problem redeeming AA points for either first class or business class round trip originally at 70,000 points each. Several years ago business class jumped to 140,000 points each. We lived with that because we are fortunate to accumulate enough miles.
NOW, for the last 2 years we have not been able to redeem any miles to Asia for under 500,000 each and actually, there are never even any flight available using points. The same excuse is “They just haven’t released any flight yet.” I’m the type of person that checks regularly as well. We’ve back doored through Europe and paid from there. Not much different than a normal direct purchase.
My point, are you able to write an article on the decline of international points available using AA and their one world alliance? Is that really a thing or am I doing something amateur?
If possible, please advise if there is a better Credit Card for my wife and I to gain points towards Southeast Asia specifically. We use our credit card for our personal and business adding to quite a few points but hate that it’s gotten so ridiculous.
I’ve covered the issues with AA awards extensively, there are really several issues here with Asia. I’d note that American’s partner award pricing is still good! They haven’t devalued their partner award chart since October 2016. The problem is availability.
- American is reluctant to release space on its own flights, plus they don’t offer much Asia service to begin with (not a lot of seats total, paid or award). Their revenue management folks aren’t quite as bad as Delta’s, and it’s been a long-running trend since US Airways management took over, but it plays a role. Gradually the price of premium cabin awards has gone up on American metal for the most part.
- Their partners don’t release seats like they used to (Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific). Japan Airlines used to be reliable and on a schedule, but no longer, though occasionally there’s availability that comes and goes in waves.
- Cathay Pacific now reserves a lot of its award space for customers using their own Asia Miles and not partner program miles. This is a challenging issue that’s grown post-pandemic with many of American’s partners including Qantas, Qatar and Etihad.
- Asia flights have been full and selling at higher prices because there’s a lot less capacity between the US and Asia. That’s because US-China flying hasn’t recovered. Before the pandemic there was tons of excess capacity being sold at cheap prices on China routes, which made other flights cheaper, emptier, and available on points. This isn’t just an American/oneworld issue.
U.S. airlines have lobbied to block Chinese flights to the U.S. It used to be every Chinese carrier would jump into the U.S. market flying stupid routes because the Chinese government would only let one of its airlines fly each route. Carriers would squat on unprofitable routes with empty flights to be first into a market.
- Russian airspace restrictions. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. carriers have been unable to overfly Russian airspace. That’s made some routes impractical or impossible due to longer flying times, which results in less flying. And it means more demand for the remaining flights (and onward connections). This isn’t just an American/oneworld issue. Fewer flights and fewer seats, more demand, fewer seats going empty being dumped as award inventory.
- Plus Cathay Pacific was slow to rebuild its schedule after the pandemic, in part because there’s just less Hong Kong demand as that Chinese region has turned inward (Greater Bay Area), taken on a less prominent role in global business, and faced consequences of the crackdown on democracy.
American doesn’t fly enough to Asia and doesn’t have enough partners there! Star Alliance programs are better just because there are more options, but for credit card spend always best to earn points that transfer to a variety of different programs.
Star is no panacea! Award space on United to Asia isn’t good, it isn’t good on Air Canada or ANA and isn’t great on Singapore Airlines either although booking 10 months out or more can yield business class (the loss of Houston – Manchester – Singapore hurts here).
Asiana is tough. EVA Air space isn’t great either like it used to be, and space on Turkish going via Europe isn’t nearly so good. Air India is only good if you’re searching for one passenger. EVA Air does release far more award space to their own members, and Citi and Capital One (the latter at less than 1:1) do transfer to the EVA Air Infinity MileageLands program. Lufthansa via Europe is no longer good, either.
For SkyTeam, Korean Air used to be great, but the SkyPass program largely stopped having seats available much of the time which is a true shame. Try connecting on Saudia! Vietnam Airlines has been releasing more award space than it used to, so there’s that at least.
Emirates awards are expensive especially flying long distances but business class (or occasionally first class for one passenger, or redeem business then upgrade) can be doable.
What are your go-to strategies for Asia redemptions?
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