It seems all the airlines are offering these «deals» to buy miles as they continue to claw back program benefits and
award space availability.
But ThankYou points are going to get you more rewards faster without worrying about
award space availability.
Not exact matches
The Sundance Film Festival
Awards Party requires a TICKET for access, based on
space availability.
ANA releases
award space nearly a year prior to departure — 355 days — and you can even find
availability up to 96 hours from departure.
If you can find
award availability space on any specific flight, you can use that as part of your itinerary
Trying to book multiples may jack up rates or cause an
award query to return with no
space if you are on a threshold between different
availability buckets.
However, Air France / KLM's ability to search for SkyTeam partner
award space is better as Delta sometimes doesn't show
availability when it actually exists.
Trying to predict
availability is impossible because Etihad
award space doesn't match AA, BA, Qantas, or even Expert Flyer
availability.
I wanted to get a sense of what
award availability looked like from BOS — MUC in summer months for * next * year so I'd been keeping an eye on
award space to Europe on Lufthansa * this * year.
I kept monitoring it to see how it trended as the dates got closer and although economy
award space still hasn't opened up I suddenly saw wide open
availability to Europe at saver levels the entire months of July and August: All summer!
Award space is subject to
availability and capacity - control restrictions apply.
Search for
award availability on the available carriers and if there is
space available, determine the cost.
EXPERT FLYER LOSES STAR ALLIANCE
AWARD DATA…ExpertFlyer.com, a popular tool used to research flight availability and search for award seat space, has lost the ability to access award space data to Star Alliance carr
AWARD DATA…ExpertFlyer.com, a popular tool used to research flight
availability and search for
award seat space, has lost the ability to access award space data to Star Alliance carr
award seat
space, has lost the ability to access
award space data to Star Alliance carr
award space data to Star Alliance carriers.
With Ft. Lauderdale's proximity to Miami and most other things South Florida offers this route is a nice bonus for Avios collectors — we suddenly have a lot more premium cabin
space flying in / out of the Miami metropolitan area and that should be good for fares and
award availability (hopefully!)
ANA releases
award space nearly a year prior to departure — 355 days — and you can even find
availability up to 96 hours from departure.
Etihad
award space is available on its own website; look for «Guest Seat»
availability to find
award space made available to partners.
Business class
award availability on Qantas is very difficult to find, but not quite as difficult as first class
award space.
You can also look for
award space on Korean Air's Asian partners for additional
availability, especially during peak periods when
awards on Korean Air increase in price.
The only problem is that I never double checked the
availability with the British Airways Avios search engine and American is known to show phantom
award space for Finnair.
Before moving points you should consider three factors: the number of miles charged for an
award, the fees and surcharges added to the cost, and the
availability of
award space.
There's always a risk the
award availability could disappear while you wait as business class
space is a hot commodity.
With United's great direct
award availability to Tokyo and decent
award space between various cities in Asia and Australia, this became a great routing option for us.
I tracked
award space on British Airways and seat
availability in business class (thanks, ExpertFlyer).
In another update on
award space, American is featuring
award availability on their newly announced European routes.
They charge 12,500 each way and their
award -
space availability is very good.
You can search one way or round trip, and don't forget to use their useful «View Calendar of BA
Availability» button to search for the
award space you need.
Recent example, I was searching LAN
availability on BA and got no
availability for months because no flights were bookable with avios, but
award space was wide open on LAN searching directly on their website.
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 out.
There's
availability through Singapore's own KrisFlyer program, though, so it's clear that the airline is restricting partner access rather than pulling
award space on the route entirely.
Delta seems to add some as the schedule opens but their best premium cabin international
award availability is much closer to departure, this is one of the reasons for the outcry over Delta's new 72 hour rule for changes / cancellations, since it prevents members from converting medium or high
availability to low
availability when low
space opens at the last minute).
Hi, I was looking for
award space on Air New Zealand form either SYD or AKL to NAN — but united.com isn't showing any
availability at all.
If many
awards cost more miles, do you think that people with lots of miles (like you) will have better chances of finding
space since some people won't be able to afford the new rates with the same
availability?
Historically business class
award availability on Fiji Airways isn't especially good, though I've seen a good amount of
space lately, especially if booking in advance.
If you see «Guest First»
availability, you'll be able to call American AAdvantage and book the
awards (assuming no one else grabs the
space first!)
I find British Airways
award availability to be wildly inconsistent, though they're typically very good about releasing
award space on their flights from the east coast to London.
With great
availability, little competition, and so many flights you can usually find Korean Air
award space.
Singapore Airlines releases very little
award space to Star Alliance partners, but due to upgrading their computer systems, saver
award availability that is normally only available to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members is now available to United and other Star Alliance partners.
Use this tool to search for
award space as well as
availability of flight upgrades.
The
award space in business class on Skyteam members Saudia (from Washington DC or New York, through Riyadh and Jeddah) and Aeroflot (a much better airline than you think, and with great
availability out of New York and DC through Moscow) is better than on almost any airline.
There's Lufthansa first class and business class
award space to Europe next summer, thanks to
availability on the new Toronto to Munich route.
@ Lun — I'd use the JAL website to double check
availability, as Qantas and BA do often show «phantom»
award space.
At the time there was very little
availability on AA metal, and I felt lucky to find the premium saver
award space on the 777 - 200 departing JFK at 7:55 p.m. Generally, though, I prefer taking the latest possible trans - Atlantic flight so that I can get more sleep.
Anyway, if there is no saver
award space on AA and if you can not find
availability on partner airlines, you're better off saving your miles than using twice as many for an AAnytime ticket.
While economy
award space on American Airlines is still pretty good for many different routes, there has been a lot of grief lately over business class
availability at the SAAver level.
* You can also use Delta's website to search for
availability but keep in mind that in order to book a Delta flight with either of the Ultimate Rewards Skyteam partners, there must be
award space available at the saver level on Delta.
Abu Dhabi to London (below) shows similar patterns of
award space inclduing the wide open
availability in mid-November on tons of flights.
While
award space was available enough to make the trip work with some flexibility in economy, there was no
availability at this time in business.