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.
Your best bet for securing
Lufthansa first class award space in advance, and at lower award prices than the devalued United award chart, is to use Lufthansa Miles & More miles.
Beyond this week, there are three other days in the next three weeks
with First Class award space between Washington and Abu Dhabi, March 27 - 29.
This is a useful explanation for why award space isn't available — it would not be worth spending time to repeat this search later because you'll never find
first class award space on that flight.
I would aim for flying ANA, though they only typically release
first class award space between late January and mid March for most routes, at least in advance.
The program of Air France and Flying Blue offer some awesome perks such as the only airline program that can
book first class award space on Air France!
But fortunately today it's again possible to reserve Etihad First Apartment award space (mainly on the route between Sydney and Abu Dhabi) and
Etihad First Class award space.
Since then Lufthansa has full - on stopped releasing
first class award space more than a couple of weeks before departure, eliminating quite a few redemption opportunities in advance.
Etihad
A380 First Class Award Space is now available to Australia, via Ben, which means you can use AAdvantage miles to fly in an Etihad A380 First Class Apartment from Abu Dhabi to Sydney starting in June 2015.
From Abu Dhabi to Washington, we see the same pattern,
excellent First Class award space — denoted by dates that say «Miles 114640» below — within one week of departure.
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.
While I'd rather pay an extra 12,500 miles for first class over business class, the reality is that Cathay Pacific is quite stingy
with first class award space in advance nowadays.
So far I have not come across an instance where ANA actually displayed business or
first class award space on one of these flights.
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.
United miles are still more valuable for travel to Europe, though not by a huge margin anymore, ever since Lufthansa stopped releasing
first class award space in advance.
One important point to remember when using United miles to book this flight is that Lufthansa only
releases first class award space to its Star Alliance partners 14 days before departure.
While business and
first class award space are often sparse, it's definitely worth booking if you can snag it.
While business and
first class award space are often sparse, it's definitely worth booking if you can snag it.
Unlike Lufthansa
first class award space, which is only released to partners about 2 weeks prior to departure, business class is available long before that.
If you are more flexible and using a partner program to book, start looking for Lufthansa
first class award space 15 days prior to your departure.
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.
First class award space isn't always easy to find, but you have plenty of options to book thanks to many partner programs.
Cathay Pacific often releases
a first class award space to partners around 331 days prior to departure.
I set out to determine which cities I should focus on for my search to find either business or
first class award space.
Right at the end of last month American Airlines opened up a surprising amount of Business Class award space for flights between the US and various European cities - award space which, by and large, is still available - and now
some First Class award space appears to have opened up as well.