American Further Devalues AAdvantage Awards Routed via Hawaii
Although American's award redemption amounts are quite reasonable compared with Delta and United's, the airline isn't known for its generous routing rules. Earlier this year, American announced that it would no longer offer award tickets between the US mainland and Hawaii on Hawaiian airlines, but in its latest changes to multi-region award travel, flyers will now have to change their award-ticket strategy when connecting in Honolulu.
As of September 1, it's no longer possible to combine American and Hawaiian flights on a single award ticket — meaning if you're flying to a destination in Asia or the South Pacific (or elsewhere) and you stop in Honolulu, you must book the trip as two separate awards. In other words, you'll pay many more miles than you would have just a few weeks ago.
For example, if you were to book an award ticket departing from Los Angeles (LAX) to Brisbane, Australia (BNE) with a connection in Honolulu (HNL), that trip would usually cost 62,500 miles on a business saver award ticket. Following this change, however, that flight now costs 100,000 miles — 37,500 miles from Los Angeles to Honolulu and 62,500 miles from HNL to Brisbane (or another destination in Australia).
If you're planning a trip to Australia, or another country that this change may effect, you can still fly nonstop and avoid shelling out the extra miles. For example, American is launching nonstop service between Los Angeles and Sydney later this year, which will be one of the cheapest ways to get to Australia on an award ticket — if you're able to find availability, that is. Rather than shelling out the 100,000 miles that the two flights demand, you'll pay 62,500 each way for a business saver award ticket on that nonstop flight, including connections from elsewhere in the US.
Ultimately, this isn't a significant program devaluation, although this specific change wasn't communicated when AA announced that it would be discontinuing awards on Hawaiian Air from the continental US. Still, connecting in Hawaii had been a useful way to get from the United States to Australia and New Zealand, with decent availability and the ability to stop in Honolulu (for up to 23 hours and 59 minutes) en-route to the South Pacific.
H/T: BoardingArea
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The Capital One Venture X Business Card has all the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has to offer and more. It offers an incredible welcome bonus and requires an equally impressive spend to qualify. In addition, the card comes with premium travel perks like annual travel credit. (Partner offer)Pros
- The Capital One Venture X business card has a very lucrative welcome offer.
- In addition, the card comes with many premium travel perks such as an annual $300 credit for bookings through Capital One Business Travel.
- Business owners are also able to add employee cards for free.
Cons
- The card requires significant spending to earn the welcome offer.
- Another drawback is that the annual travel credit can only be used on bookings made through Capital One Business Travel.
- LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn up to 400K bonus miles: 200K miles when you spend $30K in the first 3 months, and an additional 200k miles when you spend $150k in the first 6 months
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, everywhere—with no limits or category restrictions
- Earn 10X miles on hotels and rental cars and 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Business Travel
- With no preset spending limit, enjoy big purchasing power that adapts so you can spend more and earn more rewards
- Empower your teams to make business purchases while earning rewards on their transactions, with free employee and virtual cards. Plus, automatically sync your transaction data with your accounting software and pay your vendors with ease
- Redeem your miles on flights, hotels and more. Plus, transfer your miles to any of the 15+ travel loyalty programs
- Every year, you'll get 10,000 bonus miles after your account anniversary date. Plus, receive an annual $300 credit for bookings made through Capital One Business Travel
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Enjoy access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and Priority Pass™ lounges, after enrollment
- Enjoy a $100 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Premier Collection
- This is a pay-in-full card, so your balance is due in full every month