When using your points and miles to redeem an award flight, there is really only two systems that airlines use, traditional award charts and dynamic award pricing. So which is better?
Traditional award charts are bit more of a rarity these days as more and more airlines have shifted to dynamic award pricing. Cebu Pacific currently uses dynamic award pricing on the GetGo website while you can find the traditional domestic and international award charts for Philippine Airlines in the Mabuhay Miles website.
Pros and Cons
A lot of people will say that award charts are more passenger friendly especially if you're trying to reach a goal and earn a certain amount of points and miles for a trip. You can plan and strategize on how you can go about your spending to meet the required number of points to book that trip.
With dynamic award pricing it's a bit tougher to really plan since you'll never know how many points you'll need to book the trip and would rely heavily on passenger demand and availability when booking. It's basically what you see is what you get.
So let's say you wanna redeem and book a flight to Tokyo from Manila. On Philippine Airlines that would cost you 14,500 Mabuhay miles regardless of the date(be aware of blackout dates though). On Cebu Pacific it would depend, it go as high as 20,000 points and as low as 6,000 points all depending on what the passenger demand is for that flight and what the computers deem as the right price.
This does however allow airlines such as Cebu Pacific that use dynamic award pricing to offer redemption seat sales, which we actually see quite often especially these days where the pandemic is keeping travel demand low.
The reason why most airlines have shifted to dynamic award pricing is because it just gives them more control. Not great for the member, but definitely better for the loyalty program. Loyalty goes both ways. Frequent flyers need to be able to trust the airline in order to invest their time and money with the airline. You would'nt want to invest your time and energy on someone you don't trust now would you?. #Hugot
Bottom Line
Traditional award charts are predictable and easy to plan which is why they are generally preferred. But if you've got a bunch of points and miles just chilling in your account and you've got an eye for promos like by checking The Points Society regularly then you could grab a really good redemption deal lol
I personally don't prefer one particular award redemption system as I use both. Sometimes I see a deal thats too good to pass on and just book it and most of the time I grind for my points and plan them for a future trip. Which do you prefer?
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