It is solely been a couple of days since American Airways launched the primary real-life photographs of its new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners that includes its novel Flagship Suites idea. Now, these seats are on sale — and we’re seeing some fairly engaging award house in its new business-class cabin for as little as 55,000 miles one-way.
As TPG reported final week, American will launch service from Chicago’s O’Hare Worldwide Airport (ORD) to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) starting June 5. On Aug. 6, the airline will add service from Philadelphia Worldwide Airport (PHL) to LHR.
American can even debut the jet — and the Flagship Suites idea — on its flights between Dallas Fort Price Worldwide Airport (DFW) and Brisbane, Australia, come late October.
Excessive demand for American Airways’ new Flagship Suites
As you would possibly count on, these planes — and particularly the brand new suites, full with American’s first-ever sliding privateness doorways — are in excessive demand.
Coach seats on the June 5 inaugural worldwide flight from O’Hare to Heathrow are already bought out, per American’s reserving platform. For those who decide to e book one of many snazzy new suites, it would run you north of $6,000.
Utilizing AAdvantage miles does not look rather more interesting, at almost 300,000 miles one-way. Based on TPG’s Might 2025 valuations, American miles are value 1.65 cents every. Whereas this award provides you a powerful redemption worth of two cents per mile, not many individuals could have 300,000 AA miles of their account.
And whereas there’s loads of summer season economic system award house by AAdvantage at 27,000 miles one-way, business-class redemptions look fairly expensive by June and July, with award tickets operating north of 100,000 miles and even 200,000 miles, in some circumstances.
Be aware that premium economic system tickets for 47,000 American miles is a very good award deal, providing you with a price of about 8.6 cents per mile. Nonetheless, chances are you’ll wish to maintain off on reserving these premium economic system seats when you possibly can e book an opulent business-class seat for only a few extra miles.
E-book American Flagship Suites by Alaska Mileage Plan
However there’s an attractive work-around: E-book by one among American’s Oneworld alliance companions — particularly, Alaska Airways’ Mileage Plan program.
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As View from the Wing’s Gary Leff was the first to report, Alaska has opened up new Flagship Suite award redemptions beginning at simply 55,000 miles one-way (plus taxes and costs). Alaska miles are value 1.5 cents apiece, per our Might 2025 valuations. Subsequently, this redemption would provide you with a price of 11 cents per mile. That’s an incredible deal!
Whereas there is not award house out there each day this summer season, it isn’t too tough to seek out.
To e book a Flagship Suite utilizing Alaska miles, you will wish to ensure you’re choosing a flight route that operates utilizing the brand new airplane. American designates its new 787-9s with the Flagship Suites (a whopping 51 of them, to be exact) as its “787-9P.”
In American’s reserving channels, search for flights that say “78P,” like on this instance for an ORD-LHR flight for July 18.
Reserving this flight by American for a business-class seat shouldn’t be a foul deal (I’ve seen a lot worse). However you possibly can be losing beneficial reward miles.
For those who simply go over to Alaska’s web site and run an award search for a similar flight, you will discover it out there (on this case) for 55,000 miles plus $19 in taxes and costs.
PHL-LHR
Here is an instance for the Philly flight on the brand new 787-9P on Aug. 13.
There’s truly some fairly first rate August award house on this route by AAdvantage at 62,000 miles one-way.
However once more, you will get it for 55,000 Alaska miles as an alternative.
Keep in mind, even when you do not have a stash of Alaska miles sitting round, you possibly can — a minimum of for now — switch American Specific Membership Rewards factors to its new sister airline, Hawaiian Airways, after which transfer these miles to Alaska (however chances are you’ll wish to act quickly). Be aware that Amex does cost a price (as much as $99) to switch factors to HawaiianMiles.
Additionally, if you’re a Bilt Rewards member, you possibly can switch Bilt Factors at a 1:1 ratio to Alaska Mileage Plan.
For those who’re not discovering appropriate award house by American or Alaska, you possibly can all the time attempt looking out by Oneworld alliance companions, such because the handful of carriers that use Avios as their award forex (reminiscent of British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways and Finnair) — or American’s Australian companion, Qantas.
You too can use a third-party device like Seats.aero, Level.me or Roame.journey to help you in looking for award house. Simply triple-check the plane kind on the route. It is doable a third-party device or companion (reminiscent of Alaska) will solely record the plane kind because the “787-9” — you will wish to be certain it is the “787-9P” or “78P” configuration.
As talked about, American’s new Dreamliners with the brand new configuration have 51 business-class suites, versus 30 on its current 787-9s.
