But while Air France business
class award space does now exist for Delta Skymiles members it is not at all the same as what's offered to Air France's own Flying Blue members.
Not exact matches
Deric was holding out hope that
award space in Qantas business
class would open up last minute, but unfortunately, it didn't.
But Lufthansa doesn't release
award space to partners further than 2 weeks in advance (at least that seems to be the pattern the last few years) so there were no other viable First
Class options.
Nevertheless, British Airways
does have great first and business
class products as well as generally decent
award space from the U.S. to Europe, as long as you are willing to pay the surcharges.
While this is more of an issue with first
class award space, you should also note that the Asia Miles program
does have increased access to
award space for business
class.
Singapore Airlines
does not release much (if any) business
class award space to partners.
Emirates
does not have a regular schedule for releasing business
class award space to their partner airlines.
Although some carriers don't release a lot of business or first
class award space in advance, they usually release at least a few seats.
It used to cost 70,000 miles for a one - way First
Class award from the US to Korea (and other parts of Asia), so I booked the
space for the first week of March — if I needed to cancel or change my booking, I could
do so for free as a Premier Platinum.
It
does have more reasonable business
class rates to French Polynesia (150,000 per round trip), but finding
award space at this rate is nearly impossible.
In fact, the last time I remember seeing it was when Singapore Airlines
did a... [Read more...] about Finally Some Singapore Airlines A380 Business
Class Award Space on United.com!
Though Delta isn't known for offering a generous amount of
award space to its partners, I was able to find four first -
class award seats available in August from Denver to Maui via Los Angeles and Seattle using the online
award search engine for Alaska Airlines, which you don't even need an account to use.
Unlike airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa, Emirates
does not have a regular schedule for releasing first
class award space to their partner airlines.
As of yet Singapore hasn't opened up first
class award space to their partner airlines, though only time will tell if they
do.
@ eponymous coward — My biggest fear with airlines eliminating first
class is that for the most part, airlines don't release as much business
class award space as they release first
class award space, since they actually sell business
class.
That means 40 days in the next two months
do have
award space for two people in Business
Class direct from Newark to Hamburg.
I'd recommend using United miles to book Lufthansa first
class — you avoid the higher surcharges that are now charged with Aeroplan
awards, you don't face Starnet blocking as you
do with US Airways (more about that below) and you use a lot fewer miles than you would with Miles & More miles, although it's true that only Lufthansa's Miles & More members get advance access to first
class award space.
Note that first
class award space may continue to be released as it gets closer to the flight, so don't give up after you've checked 14 - 17 days out.
This of course
does not mean there will be any Lufthansa First
Class award space for the particular flight you want, just that you won't be able to book it, if available, further in advance than that.
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.
Abu Dhabi to London didn't show much First
Class award space over the next three weeks.