Of course you'll first have to find Delta
saver class availability as described above, but once you do you can go to fantastic Buenos Aires or breathtaking Iguazu Falls, Macchu Picchu, or Rio de Janeiro on the cheap.
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.
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
class award connecting through San Francisco was available.
At the time of this article, April 2017 had one of the best months for
availability and for
Saver business
class seats and you can see how limited it was to Sydney in April / May in the image below.
Deltas
Saver award
availability to Rome is not bad at all, and its Business Elite
class is excellent with flat - bed seats and extensive entertainment choices.
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.
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.
If I want to fly business
class to London from New York on August 3rd and come back August 17th — two days I can find
saver availability on American Airlines metal, I can do the trip with miles for 115,000 miles + $ 291.16 USD (taxes fees).
American has had really poor
saver award
availability recently, especially for international premium
classes, which means British Airways is often the only transatlantic award option.
XN is an economy
saver award for elites and provides additional
availability over fare
class X which is the economy
saver award for non-elites.
At the time, there was a single date in all of 2014 with first or business
class award
availability at the
saver level.
The catch to the above is you have to find
saver availability, which can be difficult and often requires flexibility and planning ahead, particularly for first and business
class.