@redpat wrote:AA is making some big changes in how everyone will book and earn miles.
I could see others doing the same, each having their own reward ecosystem.
https://thepointsguy.com/news/american-airlines-mile-changes-bag-fees/
they havent put the list of which ones will count yet They wont be putting that list out till april.
@Anonymous wrote:If (today) you transfer UR/MR etc to book an award flight, doesn't that already not earn points? (I assume upgrades do, but talking about a basic flight). I guess people also use the portals for purchasing flights to get the enhanced multipliers so that could be impacted if the portals are not "preferred"
You can't currently transfer to AA from those programs (I mean you can indirectly through Marriott as a 3rd party, but that would be an abysmal exchange rate), but if you were to transfer points to Delta or United miles, you do earn frequent flyer credit but not miles. (Note that with United it has to be flown on United metal, while Delta recently expanded that to all award tickets that are ticketed with SkyMiles. United followed Delta's lead on earning with award flights, but since they don't even award million miler credit for partner flights it's iffy if they will also expand that to partners.)
This is a HUGE change for the airline industry. Unlike hotels where status perks and points earnings have long been discarded when booking through an OTA, this is a first for airlines. So booking through an OTA would no longer count for frequent flyer credit or for earning miles, unless it was a preferred partner or a corporate partner (them keeping the latter is not surprising as an enormous block of business travel has to be booked through a few providers). As it stands right now, all airlines treat OTA purchases the same as cash fares but that will soon change with American. I really hope Delta and United don't follow suit; for now I am sticking with the former but may elect to change to the latter (or one of their partners such as Lufthansa or Avianca).
im guessing its not the big OTA's that are going to be affected, its gonna be the small sketchy ones like uncle bobs discount vacation.
Also its likely they are forcing OTA's to use NDC https://navan.com/blog/news-updates-us/american-airlines-mileage-program-changes
Navan iirc is one of the larger corporate travel OTA's so they likely know what is going on. They also have a explination page about NDC vs the old system EDIFACT that every one used to use and most big airlines are trying to move away from. https://engage.navan.com/ndc-vs-edifact
edit here is a blog that has supposed more info https://viewfromthewing.com/every-6-months-the-list-of-travel-agencies-whose-tickets-still-earn-amer...
There is also a big discussion on the forum Flyertalk in the AA section about it, where people with way more knowledge of the airline industry have been talking about it.