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.
Not exact matches
Since business travel plummets during holiday weeks, airlines often make
first -
class awards available at the saver
award level
even when economy
seats are selling like hotcakes.
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.
In some limited circumstances, it might make sense to book an
award seat on a Star Alliance partner in business or
even first class.
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.
While airlines are raising the price of their
first class award redemptions (United announced a recent hike from 160,000 to a whopping 280,000 miles for
first class from the US to the Middle East on its partners, and Delta will not
even allow fliers to cash in miles for international
first class seats), there are still some good deals out there.
If I can get a
first class award on United,
even without
first class seats for US to Australia (perhaps using a three - cabin
first class flight domestically, or because
first class was available in one direction) then I can waitlist for the segments I don't have in
first.
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.
When January rolled around, I saw on united.com that United had released a good amount of non-stop LAX and San Francisco to Sydney / Melbourne
award seats, so I decided to rebook in
first class,
even though it required 30,000 additional miles.
A related risk,
even if you do have some date flexibility, is finding a future date when there are two Lufthansa
First Class award seats.
Even on dates with 5
award seats on Etihad's Jet Airways configured 777 - 300ER flights (which are a rather poor
first class product, hence the lower demand for them) there's no A380
award availability.