Many have complained about the lack of business
class award seats open on Finnair, so the offerings in J class may not be as solid as I first imagined.
Not exact matches
Lufthansa generally only releases
award seats to partners within a week or so of departure, so you can book business
class and change to first -
class if availability
opens up.
OneMileAtATime has noticed that
award availability on this new route appears to be wide
open with as many as 6 Business
Class seats available on some flights.
... sadly, either British Airways haven't loaded the
awards for the new flights or they're being stubbornly stingy — there isn't a date with 2
open business
class seat anywhere in the summer calendar.
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.
The airline has
opened up a surprising number of Business
Class Miles SAAver
award seats for travel between the US and Europe (both directions) in the first 5 months of 2017.
Air New Zealand transpacific business
class cabins feature very comfortable lie - flat
seats, good food and exceptional service, and the airline has recently begun
opening up its business
class award availability.
Booking directly with Miles & More
award miles is the easiest way to get in Lufthansa's coveted first
class cabin, for which
seats only
open for partner airlines» frequent flyer bookings two weeks before departure, and SWISS first
class, which is only
open to Miles & More members.
I think for many routes Qatar
opens up four business
class seats for
awards but even with this limitation, I found plenty of flights with
open seats between American cities and DOH and between DOH and JNB.
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.
Meanwhile Cathay Pacific is really generous with business
class award space in advance, often releasing up to five
seats per flight when the schedule
opens.
AA had a glitch last year where all their longhaul international first
class seats were
open to
awards.
If by the time the trip starts and a first
class award seat hasn't
opened up so my partner can be with me in first, I'm SOL, right?
But space does
open up before that as well — typically about one to two weeks out, Cathay Pacific will
open all but three first
class seats for
awards.
The first leg was in United economy as there was no domestic First
Class award seat available (I monitored award space but it never opened up — more on that in the Anatomy of an Award p
award seat available (I monitored
award space but it never opened up — more on that in the Anatomy of an Award p
award space but it never
opened up — more on that in the Anatomy of an
Award p
Award post).