American Airlines Reward Flight News

Posted by Reward Flight Finder on April 30th, 2021

How the AA Summer 2021 Schedule Changes Will Affect Reward Flights

American Airlines reward flight availability is likely to increase on routes to destinations within the Americas this summer. However, those seeking to use American Airlines rewards on routes across the Atlantic or Pacific oceans may find things a little harder.

American Airlines (AA) operates a larger fleet than any other global airline, with around 900 aircraft currently in mainline operation. However, with most international long haul routes effectively closed to passenger flights, due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, AA has had to pivot its network planning for summer 2021 towards destinations within the Americas. In fact, only 3% of the airline’s seat capacity will be deployed on transatlantic and transpacific network routes this summer according to an announcement from, American Airlines President, Robert Isom.

AA estimates that demand for its international long haul flights will be 60% lower in July 2021, compared to 2019. However it believes that domestic demand will bounce back and that ticket-sales across short-haul international routes to Canada, Mexico, Carribean islands, Central America and northern South America, will be up 20% versus 2019.

Approximately 85% of AA’s summer 2021 flight operations will be focussed on domestic routes, with 110 new services being introduced. Latin American destinations will see more flights too, with new departures to Columbia and The Carribean, flying from Miami.

This all means American Airlines will need to reallocate large, widebody jets, from its long-haul fleet, to domestic and short-haul international flights. The good news is that larger aeroplanes, flying shorter routes and to new destinations, in a market with unpredictable demand, increases the likelihood of some interesting American Airlines rewards opportunities, for trips within the Americas, this summer.

American Airlines reward points are called “miles” and the AA loyalty programme is called AAdvantage. For anyone who travels regularly to or within the US, the American Airlines reward points system has several different types of reward flight redemptions available. AAnytime Awards are reward seats that can be booked on any flight with an available seat. However, you will need more miles to redeem AAnytime Awards, for the same routing, compared to MileSAAver and Web Special reward flight tickets. MileSAAver and Web Special deals may not be available on every flight. So, whilst AAnytime Awards cost more in points, they are easier to book, whereas MileSAAver and Web Special reward flights offer better value. Furthermore, with larger aircraft operating on many routes, there are likely to be more MileSAAver seats available this summer and a higher prospect of Web Special deals too. (It is worth noting that, like other US based carriers, AA uses the word “award” instead of “reward” when referring to points/miles being exchanged for flight tickets.)

MileSAAver reward (award) flight seats can also be booked through the reward flight schemes offered by American Airlines’ Oneworld alliance partners, including British Airways. In fact, this can often represent better value. For example US domestic award seats, on routes of 1,150 or less, only cost 9,000 Avios (BA’s reward point currency), but can cost up to 12,500 AAdvantage miles. These reward seats can be tricky to find, particularly on the British Airways website. So a tip is to search MileSAAver award seat availability on AA.com, or a reward flight tracker site such as Reward Flight Finder and then to use the British Airways Executive Club site, to make a “Book with Avios” reservation, for the same route and dates you discovered on the other website.

It’s hard to predict what travel restrictions will be in place in a few months time. However, for those able to travel within the Americas, there could well be some great reward flight deals available in Summer 2021 on American Airlines. For transatlantic or transpacific routes, availability is likely to be higher with other Oneworld partners such as British Airways and Cathay Pacific.

Original Link: https://rewardflightfinder.medium.com/american-airlines-reward-flight-availability-2021-204645e38df2