Flights American Airlines opens Premium Economy awards

[Andrew]

View from the Wing article: today American Airlines published frequent flyer award charts including Premium Economy (PEY), which more or less is domestic first class seats for international travel. The SAAver award price isn't bad, at 40,000 miles one-way U.S.-Europe, compared to 30K in the Main Cabin for most of the year. It could be a challenge to find SAAver award availability, and many of the aircraft that go U.S.-Italy don't have a PEY section.

 

[Cameron]

Last week, I booked my AA ff tickets -- After selecting Economy, I was offered the chance to get a premium seat for $89 each way, on a 30,000 mile ticket. Is the 40,000 offer equal to buying the extra 10,000 miles?

 

[Andrew]

An actual purchase of 10,000 miles would be over $300 (but members have different bonuses targeted to them). When people estimate a value for AA miles, it's usually in the range of 1.2 to 1.4 cents per mile. I have a credit card grandfathered in from US Airways, which gives 10,000 miles on the account anniversary with an annual fee of $89; for a couple of years I was able to get the fee waived, but not this past year.

And was this offer indeed for Premium Economy rather than Main Cabin Extra, which is economy with extra legroom? When I've gotten MCE on transatlantic flights, the fee for a seat assignment in that section was around $130.

 

[Cameron]

You’re right. I looked at my receipt and it’s MCE. I get group 1 boarding and a few extra perks with that.

I have Elite Gold status, but didn’t like those seats.

 

[Cameron]

I called American, and on my popular Raleigh to London flight, there are no premium economy seats offered for the days that I'll be flying -- not even a few days prior, which I'm flexible in doing. Oh well!

There's nothing for my September trip either (same route), tickets are on hold for that one.