The two challenges are that they're a member of Skyteam, so their partners aren't as good and don't often offer as
good award availability as some of their competitors, and also that you have to deal with the idiosyncrasies of Korean — rules like only redeeming your points for family members.
They tend to have among
the best award availability as well.
Not exact matches
While there have been no major recent scandals, the process by which the DOE
awards those contracts,
as well as the
availability of information about the contracts, continues to draw criticism.
As you point out earlier in the comments, close - in there is pretty
good award availability, and being willing to pay a change fee on an economy booking is a great way to get there.
If
availability for this flight were to dry up between now and when Elena books, looking at flights to JFK, MIA, DFW or ORD instead of all the way to MSP would again be a
good option, opting to pay a very small amount for a domestic one - way
as opposed to skipping out on the transatlantic
award altogether.
Even carriers that like to promote themselves
as having more
award availability than their competitors aren't necessarily promising a
good deal.
As a tip for U.S. - based travelers, the weekdays surrounding July 4 are often the cheapest summer dates to travel, and the ones with the
best award availability.
When searching, it's
best to select Business or First Class, even if you're primarily focused on Economy
availability,
as BA's
award engine.
Award availability at the Wyndham Viva all - inclusive properties isn't
as consistently
good as with Hyatt, but spending a flat 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points per night for two people to enjoy themselves at an all - inclusive resort is a very solid deal.
However, Air France / KLM's ability to search for SkyTeam partner
award space is
better as Delta sometimes doesn't show
availability when it actually exists.
Survey future
award availability as well.
United has made cuts there,
as well, making it harder for general members to access last - seat
availability, prevent their miles from expiring, and change their
award bookings with minimal fees.
This was too
good an opportunity to miss so,
as my Avios balance is held with British Airways, I headed over to BA.com to see what
award availability was like.
While
award availability is not phenomenal it's still
better than many of the other options for getting to Australia, so if you have Alaska miles then consider Cathay Pacific
as a primary choice.
Right now there's pretty
good award availability on this route
as flights have only recently been loaded.
When I saw the
award availability, temptation got the
better of me and,
as things stand, I'm booked to fly an epically long journey between London and Auckland connecting to the second ever service out of Doha:
I've had a quick look on BA.com and there seems to be a very
good amount of
availability (probably why this promotion is on in the first place) but, if you think would work for you don't wait too long to book
as there may be a lot of people after these
awards once the word is out.
Having the option to transfer points over to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is a nice bonus
as Singapore Airlines has a habit of offering
better award availability to its own rewards program members than it does to members of its airline partners» programs (United MileagePlus, Lufthansa Miles & More etc...)
These can be
as low
as 20,000 miles each way for a Super Saver
award, but you will find much
better availability at the Saver level for 30,000 miles.
Taking a few popular routes
as examples there seems to be a
good number of dates showing
award availability during the period covered by the offer.
Last week I posted about the first routes that Thai Airways A350 will be flying and I discussed how,
as things stand, there's some great
award availability for both the short crew orientation flights
as well as for the first international route on which Thai Airways will operate the A350 — Bangkok to Melbourne.
Details of the first routes you'll see the Thai Airways A350 operating
as well as a look at
award availability & news of the first international route too.
The ultimate winners could be travelers looking to burn their AAdvantage miles
as I can already see pretty
good award availability for next year... I'm even tempted to book an
award for myself
When both the Asia Miles website and British Airways sites show the same
availability, it's a pretty safe bet that American Airlines will be able to see those open
award seats
as well.
Some of the
best include the following: United Airlines, which opens up access to the huge Star Alliance network of carriers; British Airways, offering great value on short - haul nonstop flights due to their distance - based
award chart; Korean Airlines, with amazing
award availability in their first class cabins; and Hyatt, which is widely recognized
as offering some of the highest value point redemption opportunities of any hotel chain.
Virgin Australia offers the most
award availability in business class between the U.S. and Australia,
as well as the
best routing.
But there are some increases
as well, most of them targeting the MileSAAver
awards (which are subject to blackout dates and
availability limitations).
After we analyze the
best approach to take for booking your
award, we find the
award availability, assist you with transferring points
as necessary, and even help you make the actual
award booking.
Their
award availability is literally at least five times
as good as any other carrier to Australia, and they probably feature the
best product.
Delta seems to add some
as the schedule opens but their
best premium cabin international
award availability is much closer to departure, this is one of the reasons for the outcry over Delta's new 72 hour rule for changes / cancellations, since it prevents members from converting medium or high
availability to low
availability when low space opens at the last minute).
And Korean Air has access to Air France
award seats on the same level
as other partners, without blocking, which in my experience means
better availability than you can get using Delta SkyMiles.
As a rule of thumb, first class award availability is often better than business class award availability, as backwards as it may see
As a rule of thumb, first class
award availability is often
better than business class
award availability,
as backwards as it may see
as backwards
as it may see
as it may seem.
Use this tool to search for
award space
as well as availability of flight upgrades.
The
best way to search for
award availability is by using expert tools such
as Expert Flyer http://www.expertflyer.com/.
As well as my Platinum 50 Night benefit of 10 Suite Night Awards that I can use to confirm certain suites and premium rooms beginning 5 nights prior to arrival, subject to availabilit
As well as my Platinum 50 Night benefit of 10 Suite Night Awards that I can use to confirm certain suites and premium rooms beginning 5 nights prior to arrival, subject to availabilit
as my Platinum 50 Night benefit of 10 Suite Night
Awards that I can use to confirm certain suites and premium rooms beginning 5 nights prior to arrival, subject to
availability.
French Polynesia because they partner with both airlines flying from the mainland US to Tahiti (Air Tahiti Nui and Air France) and Australia because they partner with Virgin Australia, Virgin Australia has the
best award availability to Australia especially on the Los Angeles — Brisbane route, because those seats are even available at Delta.com now, and because they've stopped charging fuel surcharges for those flights
as well.
In my experience, customer service agents are not very
good at searching partner
award availability so you want to rely on your own searches for this to make the process
as smooth
as painless
as possible.
Award availability became really outstanding when they put an Airbus A380 on the route, and the aircraft has a pretty
good business class product
as well.
And here's some advance
award availability for Etihad First Apartment on the A380 (
as well as 777 - 300ER and A340) flights from Abu Dhabi to London:
I was curious to see what
award availability is like on these transcon routes, and
as an example, looked into Seattle - Newark (SEA - EWR) flights in July and there is surprisingly a
good amount of
availability in coach and first class.
Anyway, if there is no saver
award space on AA and if you can not find
availability on partner airlines, you're
better off saving your miles than using twice
as many for an AAnytime ticket.
I was technically all set, but I figured that I might
as well keep checking
award availability to see if a seat opened up on one of the two daily FRA - LAX flights.
So a trick you can do is to search for
award availability on your route on a day you know BA doesn't have any
availability, and the site will ask you if you want to search BA's partners
as well.