Not exact matches
Finding award space a few months
before departure to Australia / New Zealand during the holiday season is difficult as it's a very popular time to travel.
For this reason, your best bet is to book this
award for a solo trip; see whether you can
find space on the day
before or after if you want a friend or family member to join you in Australia.
You can estimate the surcharge
before looking for
award space by using ITA Matrix to
find the same itinerary as a paid (or revenue) ticket.
Finding award space a few months
before departure to Australia / New Zealand during the holiday season is difficult as it's a very popular time to travel.
Travel on British Airways carries some hefty fees, and the best Cathay Pacific
award space will be
found in the last few weeks
before departure.
There's absolutely no guarantee that saver
awards space will become easier to
find and there's no guarantee that American won't devalue its
award charts
before you get a chance to use the miles.
Before the March devaluations AAdvantage had, without question, the most generous
award charts and, as long as you could
find award space, the pickings could be rich.
You can generally
find award space online using a different website
before you call the agent to complete the booking.
You might be able to
find space many months prior to departure, but Japan Airlines might not release
award space until days
before you want to depart.
This means that AAdvantage members who
find and book
award space before this deadline could save thousands of miles, especially for business - and first - class travel.
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.
Just over a month ago, I set off on a trip to Thessaloniki, Calais, and London booked with points and miles after
finding business class
award space on AirBerlin a few days
before departure.
There's no doubt it's tougher to
find award space than
before, but at the same time we're also redeeming miles for better first class products than ever
before.
If you can not search on aa.com, note the date, flight number, and cabin of the
award space you
find before calling American Airlines at 800-882-8880 and feeding the agent the flights one at a time.