And depending on how you like to use your miles and points, you can get terrific deals booking Business and
First Class award seats worth thousands of dollars.
They generally only
release first class award seats to partner airlines within two weeks of travel, so your approach is probably similar to Cathay Pacific in terms of booking something else and then changing to Lufthansa.
Unfortunately, if you're looking to fly Air France First Class, you have no choice but to book these high rates through the Flying Blue program (since Air France makes
First Class award seats only available to Flying Blue elite members).
It's unfortunate that you can't
get first class award seats on any partner airline, but not being able to try Etihad's First Apartments is particularly disheartening.
Since first class award seats on Qantas between the U.S. and Australia are extremely hard to find, you may want to take advantage of this to snag one.
We are not including Delta here since its business class redemption levels become prohibitively expensive after October 1, and it does not
offer first class award seats.
If you are scrambling to lock in awards at old rates, you might be having trouble finding Etihad business /
first class award seats even though Etihad shows availability.
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.
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 post).
Twitter follower Patrick found four
Etihad First Class award seats this week on a flight from Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi and asked whether that was normal.
A first class award seat on Qantas isn't easy to find, but we'll show you how to give yourself the best chance and what to expect on this amazing flight.
Simply put, if you want to experience this product, there is no other way to get this award ticket, other than transferring your points to Singapore — because Singapore doesn't release
its first class award seats to its partners.
In fact, Lufthansa requires fewer miles than United to book the same business class and
first class award seats.
Let's try to find
a first class award seat on American between New York and Sao Paulo, Brazil sometime in May.
Finding
a first class award seat on Japan Airlines is not always easy, but if you're flexible with your travel dates you can put together an amazing trip.
Finding
a first class award seat isn't always easy, but you can find them if you book well in advance of your flight.
They regularly release one
first class award seat on their Airbus 380 flights between Singapore and Sydney / Melbourne.
Flying first class is a great way to begin your honeymoon, and several airline first class seats work very well with couples, even though it can be tough to get two
first class award seats on the bsame flight unless you plan far in advance.
Sure it's still tough to get 2
first class award seats on their A380 from US destinations to and from Asia.
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...
On the flights operated by the old configuration first class it's not unusual to see two to four
first class award seats, especially closer to departure.
If you find award availablity for two, however, it is a way to guarantee you'll both be flying in first class, as chances are that at least one if not both of
those first class award seats will disappear by the time AAdvantage and Dividend Miles are able to book them.
They previously operated the route without a first class cabin, and now that United operates the route with a three cabin aircraft, it's not unusual for them to release two
first class award seats.
Even then, I'm not seeing much more than seven / eight - ish days out of the month with
a First Class award seat through January 2018.
Most Korean flights will feature at least 2
first class award seats, but 3 and 4 is common on some routes..
You're much more likely to find 2
first class award seats than you are more than two, but close to departure it's definitely possible.
For example, on routes to Asia they often seem to have at least seven
first class award seats or no first class award seats, but rarely inbetween.
While they used to also release a lot of first class award space, that's no longer the case, though you can still occassionally find two
first class award seats.
It can be tough to find two
first class award seats on a single flight to Asia nowadays, let alone 4 - 5 seats, enough for a family.
Pulling up random dates ~ 10 months from now, most dates between Los Angeles and Seoul Incheon have ~ 8 - 10
first class award seats available.
Many days have four
First Class award seats.