I've long written that Korean Air has the easiest first
class award availability in the world.
Korean has the best first
class award availability in the industry.
Those of you who don't know why the excitement — there hasn't been a Star Alliance Air New Zealand business
class award availability in years.
Back then, there was excellent non-stop business
class award availability in the summer 2015 for two people in both directions to the following cities:
Not exact matches
While
award availability in economy
class has generally improved on American Airlines and its partners over the last few years, you will have more options when you can choose any airline to fly to your destination.
After confirming Saver
class availability for each flight segment by searching them as one - way flights, I now stitched them all together
in United's multi-destination
award search tool, making certain to choose the specific flight numbers I'd confirmed
availability on during my one - way searches.
If there is no
award availability in economy, then redeeming your miles for a business
class ticket still makes economic sense.
It looks to me like Lufthansa has just recently released quite a bit of partner
award availability for travel from the US to Europe this summer
in Business
Class.
A lot of people prefer the
in - air product of Jet Blue over Southwest for longer flights since it has tv's, free wifi, more leg room, business / first
class «Mint» cabins, allows you to pick your seat, etc. but both airlines constantly rate among the best for
award availability, making them both solid choices for getting around the country,
in terms of finding
award seats.
The biggest problem that almost everybody will tell you is that SAAver
award availability in business
class to Europe usually is not good at all.
Delta has excellent
award availability that often surpasses both American and United, even
in business
class for more than one passenger.
AAdvantage offers the best value for flights to Maui and Kauai
in all
classes, and it usually has the best
award seat
availability among the three.
A huge caveat, however, is
award availability, which is much harder to find
in premium
classes than an economy seat.
They don't let you book First
Class awards with partners at all, they rarely have low - level
award availability (and I think this might get worse after the recent devaluation), you can only redeem round trip flights (one - ways are coming
in 2015 though), and
in general their miles are much harder to use than those of other programs.
Availability in the other direction (Auckland to Doha) is pretty good do and,
in this case, there are actually 4 Business
Class awards available on the very first Qatar Airways non-stop flight between Auckland and Doha:
If you're looking for summer
award availability to Europe
in business
class you may want to check out this United route.
When I flew to Tokyo
in January I had to position from London to Frankfurt to catch a JAL Business
Class award flight on the 787 Dreamliner and when I had wanted to try out Cathay Pacific First
Class last year I had to position from London to Zurich to catch that
award flight — London isn't exactly awash with
award availability.
British Airways guarantees that it will release at least 2 Business
Class seats on every flight so, as this route has just be loaded
in the past few hours,
award availability should be plentiful right now....
In order to upgrade using Avios there simply has to be Business Class award availability on the flight in question..
In order to upgrade using Avios there simply has to be Business
Class award availability on the flight
in question..
in question....
Chicago actually has even better
availability than Los Angeles because Business
Class awards are also available
in January.
Thanks to tons of last - minute
award availability, United miles are a great bet for spur - of - the - moment domestic trips
in economy
class.
The aircraft also offers a Premium Economy cabin which, considering how little seat - width the seats
in Economy
Class offer, may be a good compromise if Business
Class is expensive or if Business
Class award availability is non-existent.
American Airlines appears to be more interested
in discounting its Business
Class cabins (often to a great extent) than it is
in opening up
award availability on a number of its routes....
The 777 - 300 offers 52 Business
Class seats while the Dreamliner has just 28 so, not only is the route losing First
Class, it will also see a significant drop
in Business
Class capacity from 15 December — that's not good for prices or for
award availability.
Because it's not that rare to find Business
Class flights between the US and London coming
in at under $ 2,000 and, on top of that, if you're booking an
award you still have the issue of finding
availability... and that hasn't been easy
in recent years.
As stated,
award availability for (saver) business
class to New Zealand on United is not great and you'll need to book far
in advance if you want to even have a chance to snag redemptions with business
class seats between the US and Australia / New Zealand.
I was doing some research for another blog post I have
in mind and I came across a discrepancy between the British Airways website and Iberia's website when it comes to Business
Class award availability.
So basically I was able to book 3 First
Class cabins, get the amazing Thai First
Class ground experience
in Bangkok, get the First
Class Terminal
in Frankfurt, and get to my actual final destination because I planned ahead and continued to check
award availability.
Secondly, this sees a significant decrease
in the number of Business
Class seats available on the route and that's not going to be good for upgrades or the already pathetic
award availability.
American Airlines charges 57,500 miles
in each direction for a Business
Class award on airberlin (taxes and fees come to under $ 100) and, unlike not too long ago, you can now search for airberlin
award availability on AA.com.
It would be good news for some if the airline was to price Premium Economy closer to Economy
Class than to Business
Class (
in terms of miles needed for an
award) but it may be bad need for Business
Class award availability if Emirates shrinks Business
Class cabins to accommodate the new product.
Yes, you still have to pay fees with Iberia, and they're much more than those typically tied to United
award flights, but if there's no
availability in business
class through other alliances, it might be worth it to you to pay the fee to get your business
class saver tickets.
I tracked
award space on British Airways and seat
availability in business
class (thanks, ExpertFlyer).
There's plenty of
award availability, even
in business and first
class.
I found that the flights out of San Francisco has plenty of
award availability in Business and First
Class.
For those of us on the West Coast, you can often find a more efficient routing with another airline, though many people still opt to fly Etihad if they can find
award availability in Etihad's The Residence or First
Class Apartments.
If you are scrambling to lock
in awards at old rates, you might be having trouble finding Etihad business / first
class award seats even though Etihad shows
availability.
Some of the best include the following: United Airlines, which opens up access to the huge Star Alliance network of carriers; British Airways, offering great value on short - haul nonstop flights due to their distance - based
award chart; Korean Airlines, with amazing
award availability in their first
class cabins; and Hyatt, which is widely recognized as offering some of the highest value point redemption opportunities of any hotel chain.
If you are rebooked within the same alliance you could be unfortunate enough to be rebooked on another flight that had
award availability at the last minute, which means that if the agent takes the time to rebook you properly, you may remain
in an
award fare
class and not earn miles.
Getting two nonstop business or first
class seats on a non-stop flight to Paris during warm weather would not normally be an easy proposition, but the born - again Delta Airlines
award chart still shows awesome
availability to Paris and other European cities
in the late summer 2015.
There is excellent non-stop business
class award availability for two people
in both directions to the following cities:
Virgin Australia offers the most
award availability in business
class between the U.S. and Australia, as well as the best routing.
Korean Air offers excellent business
class and first
class award availability, and the service
in those cabins is exemplary.
There appears to be a very poor Delta business
class, nonstop
award availability in Europe from Seattle.
On the redemption side, the
award chart to / from Europe isn't too bad (62,500 miles for a transatlantic one - way
in business
class) and you get access to much better
availability on AF / KL's own flights that when booking with Delta.
And since I was having a tough time finding Lufthansa first
class availability out of NYC on my required date, I fortunately found what I needed out of Washington DC Dulles (IAD), on the A340 - 300, and I was able to book this Lufthansa first
class award 15 days
in advance.
Given the high fuel surcharges on British Airways, the main other competing product for first
class that actually offers
award availability, Lufthansa first
class remains the one to beat
in terms of overall value, when it comes to
award bookings to Europe.
Availability: Typically Singapore only releases 1 suites
class award seat
in advance, although occasionally you'll see 2
award seats available close to the date of departure.
There's also been some great business -
class award availability from the west coast to Europe, and some new routes from the US to the UK will be opening up
in the coming months.
In the past 6 months they've added excellent transfer partners in Korean Air (cheap transatlantic Skyteam awards, cheap Hawaii awards, and awesome first class award availability) and Aegean (cheap Star Alliance business class awards
In the past 6 months they've added excellent transfer partners
in Korean Air (cheap transatlantic Skyteam awards, cheap Hawaii awards, and awesome first class award availability) and Aegean (cheap Star Alliance business class awards
in Korean Air (cheap transatlantic Skyteam
awards, cheap Hawaii
awards, and awesome first
class award availability) and Aegean (cheap Star Alliance business
class awards).