American Airlines joins the dynamic pricing club... Plus, get a sweet deal on Best Western stays and the Swiss one-up themselves on the train front.
December 20th, 2022 Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 57 seconds
Good morning from Toronto... I was supposed to fly down to Cuba today, but unfortunately, I have come down with a sickness (not to be confused with coming down with the sickness) and decided to cancel my trip at the last minute. So sadly, I will have to hold off on riding around in old cars and smoking cigars until next year... Anyway, I have some good news, bad news, and exciting train facts to share today. Which one do you want to hear first? Let's be honest; it's always the bad news...
- ✈️ American Airlines goes dynamic
- 🏨 Get $50 toward your next Best Western hotel stay
- 🚊 Switzerland one-ups their already-innovative train tech
✈️ American Airlines goes dynamic
Great news! American Airlines recently announced some changes to its program planned for early 2023! That's right - they're removing the cap for mileage earnings, allowing you to use your miles to book different experiences, and completely devaluing their entire program, rendering your hard-earned miles useless. Isn't that great?? 😁
Yea... Basically, they slipped in this "minor update" between other unexciting pieces of news, hoping we would all just gloss over it... Let me explain: In the olden days, airlines used to have charts that determined how much a flight would cost. If the flight were x miles, it would cost y price. It was so simple. Sadly, most airlines have scrapped that way of doing things and moved on to what's called "dynamic pricing."
Dynamic pricing means that the flight price in points is tied to the cash price of the same flight. In the past, a flight would cost the same number of points, whether on the slowest day of the year or Christmas Day. Now, if a flight is really expensive (like on Christmas Day, for example), that flight will cost a LOT more points than average. It's a clear-cut devaluation of the program. As we've seen from other programs that have made the same move, dynamic pricing works in the airline's favor and never in the consumer's. As a result, the prices will likely be far higher than the old award chart and never lower than the old award chart. This means that American Airlines' miles will become less valuable over time. My favorite part about this announcement is how they tried to present it by saying that these new dynamic awards are great because the award chart is now "simplified." That's like someone selling you a car with no brakes and claiming it's in your best interest because the car is more "simplified." The award chart is simplified because it will cease to exist... Basically, American Airlines is being... dumb. And bad. Pardon my French; I get a little flustered over these things... So how can you mitigate these new changes? 1. Pick a different airline to be loyal to. American Airlines isn't the only player in town that has shifted toward dynamic pricing. In fact, most airlines do already. The issue is that American's Award chart is what made it stand out from the others. Without it, American isn't quite up to snuff with the other programs, in my opinion. 2. Don't use your miles on American Airlines flights. Like most airlines with dynamic pricing, American will likely be keeping its award chart for partner airlines. That means that the award chart (or some shell of an award chart) will still exist when using your AA miles to book flights with airlines like British Airways or Qatar. If you live outside the U.S., AA miles could still be very helpful for this reason. 3. Use your miles before things switch over. Right now, everything is business as usual. If you want to book a flight on American Airlines using the current award chart, I'd do it sooner rather than later. You might end up salvaging your miles after all! Overall, it's a dark day for us travel hackers and for any diehard American Airlines loyalists. We should see more specifics about these changes being announced in the next couple of weeks. For now, I'll continue my mourning until further notice.
🏨 How to get $50 toward your next Best Western hotel stay
On a brighter note, I learned a cool magic trick today. It's pretty awesome. I learned how to turn $200 into $250 of travel. Pretty cool, eh? It's actually not magic at all. It's just the latest Best Western promotion to earn a 25% bonus when you buy a $200 gift card before the end of this year.
I know, I know, you're thinking, 'Who gets excited about buying a gift card for a hotel chain?' But hear me out. This could be a game-changer. The real value of this offer comes from the fact that you can use this deal up to five times for a potential bonus of $250. Because Best Westerns are easy to come by, using that amount of money shouldn't be difficult. The bonus alone could pretty easily unlock some free hotel nights for you. For example, this hotel in Barcelona only costs about $120 per night.
That means your $250 gift card bonus could get you two free nights at a nice hotel in a pretty expensive European city. But here's where things get even more interesting... When you pay for a hotel stay with a gift card, it's treated as a cash booking. That means that stays paid for with gift cards are eligible to earn points, elite nights, and count toward promotions. Best Western is currently offering a promotion to earn up to 20,000 bonus points after completing four stays. So now those free nights you've unlocked with the bonus are now earning you tens of thousands of points, which can be used for... drum roll, please... even MORE free nights. Now are you excited about gift cards?
Theoretically, you could also have multiple people in your household take advantage of the same offer if you wanted to save even more money, but that's a pretty massive upfront investment. At that point, you might as well just go buy Best Western stock and hope for the best. But seriously, gift cards are not the worst thing to have lying around. Since you don't need to use them all for the same stay, you could take advantage of this deal and have a little stockpile of Best Western credit for whenever you decide to take a trip. You never know when you might need to escape the chaos of daily life and hide out in a cozy hotel room with a minibar and fluffy robes. Plus, with that extra 25% bonus, you'll have even more excuses to treat yourself to a little luxury.
🚊 The Swiss launch their innovative "track-jumping" train cars
Switzerland is just good at everything. Languages, fondue, chocolate, mountains, and of course, trains. Even though Swiss trains were already the pinnacle of train travel, they've found a way to push the limits even further with a piece of groundbreaking technology over 100 years in the making. Allow me to introduce the GoldenPass Express.
This train connects Montreaux, Interlaken, and Gstaad on one single rail line. This is more exciting than it might sound. Here's why: For over a hundred years, the Swiss have wanted to connect these regions by rail. The problem is that different sections of railways use different gauge tracks, some of which even vary in height. That's why passengers have always needed to switch trains to make a journey like this. After all, a train can't change the width of its axles and the height of its wheels... right? Wrong! This new train can "jump" tracks with ease, adjusting the gauge and height as needed to travel on different types of tracks. It's hard to imagine exactly what this looks like, so here's a video that shows this in action. It's pretty amazing to watch, honestly.
To make things even better, these new trains also feature panoramic windows and more comfortable seats so passengers can enjoy the scenic views in luxury. In a world dominated by high-tech planes and electric cars, it's nice to see that such massive technological strides are still being made with other types of transportation.
That's all for today! I'm going to drink some more cough syrup and try to shake this cold, or whatever it is... being sick is the worst... Would you still stay loyal to American Airlines after this announcement? What is the best train ride you've ever had? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media. Have a great Tuesday, Mike Dodge Head Writer, The Daily Drop
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