Aeroplan was showing
First Class award availability on SWISS but United was not (neither was LifeMiles but that didn't surprise me).
First class award availability on Qantas is notoriously difficult to find.
Not exact matches
Here we had a stroke of luck, depending
on how you look at it: while the direct service flight from Los Angeles did not show
availability for a Business
Class or First Class Saver Award on most dates, a mixed class award connecting through San Francisco was avail
Class or
First Class Saver Award on most dates, a mixed class award connecting through San Francisco was avail
Class Saver
Award on most dates, a mixed class award connecting through San Francisco was avail
Award on most dates, a mixed
class award connecting through San Francisco was avail
class award connecting through San Francisco was avail
award connecting through San Francisco was available.
When searching, it's best to select Business or
First Class, even if you're primarily focused
on Economy
availability, as BA's
award engine.
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:
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.
If you search for economy
class by default
on a carrier that has four cabins, you will not see
first class award availability.
Business
class award availability on Qantas is very difficult to find, but not quite as difficult as
first class award space.
Korean Air has very popular
First and Business
Class products and finding
award availability on Korean isn't nearly as challenging as it can be
on its transpacific competitors.
While I wouldn't call
award availability on Thai's
first international A350 route «wide open» it's definitely reasonably easy to find Business
Class award seats.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's worth noting that it's tougher than ever before to find
first class Star Alliance award space on Lufthansa and Swiss (see How to Deal with No More Lufthansa Advance First Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up award space no more than three weeks
first class Star Alliance award space on Lufthansa and Swiss (see How to Deal with No More Lufthansa Advance First Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up award space no more than three weeks
class Star Alliance
award space
on Lufthansa and Swiss (see How to Deal with No More Lufthansa Advance
First Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up award space no more than three weeks
First Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up award space no more than three weeks
Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up
award space no more than three weeks out.
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.
Unfortunately, you can't find Korean Air
first -
class award availability on Delta.com since you can only redeem Delta miles for economy and business -
class awards on partners, and Alaska does not let you redeem its miles for
first -
class awards on Korean.
You'll want to book back - up flights, either using United but booking
on United or other Star Alliance partners that do offer advance
availability (or even Lufthansa Business
class awards for the flights you hope to get
first class on) OR use American AAdvantage or other miles to book backup flights.
American has excellent
award availability to London
on most of their routes, both in
first and business
class.
So, while I don't expect to see
award availability * ever * for The Residence, and probably not for a long time for Etihad
First Apartments (see FAQ below) it's nonetheless fascinating to see these wholly new first class products introduced on a commercial airc
First Apartments (see FAQ below) it's nonetheless fascinating to see these wholly new
first class products introduced on a commercial airc
first class products introduced
on a commercial aircraft.
- Cathay
First class award availability is excellent, and it gets progressively better closer to the day of the flight, so keep
on checking!
There's Lufthansa
first class and business
class award space to Europe next summer, thanks to
availability on the new Toronto to Munich route.
Even
on dates with 5
award seats
on Etihad's Jet Airways configured 777 - 300ER flights (which are a rather poor
first class product, hence the lower demand for them) there's no A380
award availability.
- Miles & More offers expanded
award availability on Lufthansa and Swiss business and
first class.
I was curious to see what
award availability is like
on these transcon routes, and as an example, looked into Seattle - Newark (SEA - EWR) flights in July and there is surprisingly a good amount of
availability in coach and
first class.
Unlike with Delta, you can book
first -
class partner
awards, and
availability on Korean Air flights tends to be very good.
Sometimes, a business /
first class award only has
availability on one segment with the rest in economy.
For example, even though I used American Airlines miles to book Cathay Pacific
first class flights, I didn't search for
award availability on the AA website.
Delta SkyMiles have long been derisively referred to as «SkyPesos» due to their many limitations, including terrible domestic
award availability and the inability to redeem them for
first -
class seats
on partner airlines.