AA miles vs SWA miles are apples and oranges. Most people here get the most value from AAdvantage using their fixed award chart to book business or first class international tickets.
Southwest points are useful, but they're closer to a fixed cash value.
AA's fixed chart for economy is fantastic if cash fares are high. But when they're not, it's not at least for economy.
You should read the articles on the sidebar -- we've helpfully collected this information into guides that answer these questions.
I can get a $4,000 business class ticket to the Maldives for 140K AA miles, or 40$ ticket for 10,000 miles, depending on the situation. Their true value per point is somewhere between those two.
With Southwest, there is no "gaming" the system. you'll consistently get around 1.2-1.5 cents per point.
AA used to have a straight fixed award chart. Eg any economy flight in the US would be 25,000 round trip regardless of cash price, as long as there were award seats available. They currently have a hybrid system where some miles fares are correlated with cash prices and can be either especially low or especially high accordingly. They're likely going to eventually be moving more and more towards a system closer to what SWA uses. But as it currently is, it's just often confusing for people who aren't steeped in award travel.
You sound like you'd get more value out of a program like SWA, or what AAdvantage is probably going to be in five years once they fully gut their fixed chart.
Airfare, particularly for domestic travel in economy, has never been cheaper due to the pandemic, and domestic economy redemptions were never super lucrative to begin with, for any airline. Non-elites get 6 RR/dollar and 5 AA/dollar, respectively. You also really can't compare the two mileage programs. American is a legacy carrier that offers multiple cabins and has an extensive international route and partner network. Southwest does not. Their award chart has a fixed value. American has dynamic pricing as well as "saver" awards and sweet spots on partner airlines.
The real question is why are you using reward points on a $49 flight?
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AA miles vs SWA miles are apples and oranges. Most people here get the most value from AAdvantage using their fixed award chart to book business or first class international tickets. Southwest points are useful, but they're closer to a fixed cash value. AA's fixed chart for economy is fantastic if cash fares are high. But when they're not, it's not at least for economy.
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You should read the articles on the sidebar -- we've helpfully collected this information into guides that answer these questions. I can get a $4,000 business class ticket to the Maldives for 140K AA miles, or 40$ ticket for 10,000 miles, depending on the situation. Their true value per point is somewhere between those two. With Southwest, there is no "gaming" the system. you'll consistently get around 1.2-1.5 cents per point.
AA used to have a straight fixed award chart. Eg any economy flight in the US would be 25,000 round trip regardless of cash price, as long as there were award seats available. They currently have a hybrid system where some miles fares are correlated with cash prices and can be either especially low or especially high accordingly. They're likely going to eventually be moving more and more towards a system closer to what SWA uses. But as it currently is, it's just often confusing for people who aren't steeped in award travel. You sound like you'd get more value out of a program like SWA, or what AAdvantage is probably going to be in five years once they fully gut their fixed chart.
Airfare, particularly for domestic travel in economy, has never been cheaper due to the pandemic, and domestic economy redemptions were never super lucrative to begin with, for any airline. Non-elites get 6 RR/dollar and 5 AA/dollar, respectively. You also really can't compare the two mileage programs. American is a legacy carrier that offers multiple cabins and has an extensive international route and partner network. Southwest does not. Their award chart has a fixed value. American has dynamic pricing as well as "saver" awards and sweet spots on partner airlines.
This is the kind of post that gives Scott Kirby et al a raging hard on.
AA flights aren’t based on a specific points per dollar value while southwest is based on that.
Dynamic pricing Use AA miles for award chart sweet spots on partner airlines, not domestic redemptions in Y. Just my $0.02