If you're flexible with dates and can stomach possibly getting your second first
class award seat just in the week prior to when you fly, I'd recommend American miles, which you can earn cheaply with Citi AAdvantage credit card signup bonuses and / or BankDirect.
Not exact matches
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....
Less Business
Class and Premium Economy
seating is never a good thing at it
just makes finding
award seats all that more difficult.
This allows you to book
award seats on Delta for
just 25,000 SkyPass miles round - trip in economy, and a mere 45,000 miles in first
class.
Under this type of program, Cathay would only
award status - earning points to travellers who purchase premium cabin
seats or the most expensive economy
class seats (which are often
just as expensive as the cheapest premium cabin
seats).
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.
You can often find several business
class seats available for
award bookings
just days prior to departure.
On the negative side the aircraft swap will see the route go from having 53 premium cabin
seats (16 First
Class and 37 Business
Class) to
just 30 Business
Class seats — not good news for upgrades or
awards.
After keeping a diligent eye on
award availability, I found us three business -
class seats on the same flight, departing
just three days after our preferred date.
The problem Cathay Pacific is experiencing is high demand for its first
class award seats from those with AAdvantage miles, with these
seats often booked soon after the
award calendar opens, leaving no
award availability for its own Asia Miles frequent flyer members who may seek to book
just a few months before the date of departure.
He doesn't make it super-clear, but he actually tells you how to use AAdvantage miles to book those 2 first
class award seats on the A380... you
just need to have miles in another program, too, like Avios...
Awards are now available, although first
class and to a lesser extent business
class space is very limited — on many dates, there are no first
class and business
class award seats, or
just 1 first
class and / or 1 business
class award seat is available.
I've come up with as many as four business
class award seats on the same Los Angeles — Brisbane flights during Christmas and New Years which isn't
just high season it's the peak of peak high season.