So while there's
good award availability there's little opportunity for high leverage redemptions.
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.
For more options
there tends to be
good award availability Virgin Australia.
There's no hunting down the
best redemptions or
award availability.
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.
Availability in the other direction (Auckland to Doha) is pretty
good do and, in this case,
there are actually 4 Business Class
awards available on the very first Qatar Airways non-stop flight between Auckland and Doha:
BA.com showed Business Class
award availability on most Cathay Pacific flights between Tokyo and Hong Kong on my chosen date but, rather than just book the flight with the
best timings,
there was one last thing to take into consideration.
Right now
there's pretty
good award availability on this route as flights have only recently been loaded.
The only thing we can hope for is that it improves
award availability but, although
there was
good availability when the flights we're first loaded into the reservations system,
there doesn't seem to be that much out
there now.
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.
Most programs offer
better rates for flights between the U.S. and Israel, though it might make sense to purchase an
award ticket if
there's no
availability on other airlines.
In general,
award availability to Florence from the U.S. is
good when using American and United miles, but
there are fewer seats available when booking with Delta miles.
If you can see that
there's
award availability for a trip you'd like to take then that's a pretty
good reason to buy 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.
United Airlines may not have many cabins that one would call aspirational (The latest Polaris seats on the 777 - 300ER are nice but
there's hardly any of them in service) but it offers far
better award availability than American Airlines and requires considerably fewer miles for premium cabin
awards than Delta — that makes it a valuable transfer option to have.
When it comes to
award availability,
there is no doubt that SkyMiles is now
better than AAdvantage, and you'll have a
better experience flying Delta.
But
there are some increases as
well, most of them targeting the MileSAAver
awards (which are subject to blackout dates and
availability limitations).
Sometimes
there might be
better award availability closer to a flight's departure, but that makes it hard if you are trying to plan a big trip.
Often,
there is
better award availability on these types of direct flights making this a
good route to watch when it comes to redeeming miles.
Dan, is
there a
good way to check
availability of Alaskan
award tickets?
And
there's really one primary use of their miles — that's that Singapore offers much much much
better award availability on their own flights for their own members.
I've always found the most exotic destinations to have the
best award availability, so
there's plenty of potential here to travel off the beaten path.
Roundtrip coach
awards are 60,000 miles (not a bargain) while Upper Class
awards are 100,000 miles and, unlike flights from Newark to London on Continental,
there's actually really
good availability on Virgin in Upper Class.
Availability is still very
good, though typically
there are two first and two to four business class
award seats per flight.
Overall, this partnership is
good news because Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, so
there are now more options to book Delta flights without having SkyMiles (though partners like Virgin Atlantic only get access to low - level
awards, meaning
availability can be slim on certain routes).
BUT I'm really just being a whiner at this point because
there are
better ways to search for
award availability anyway.
Delta is actually the
best for booking Australia business class
awards, one of the toughest frequent flyer
awards out
there, because of their partnership with Virgin Australia (which has the
best availability non-stop between the U.S. and Australia, especially on their Los Angeles — Brisbane flight).
If your travel is to the Middle East, the Maldives, India, or a destination easily served by the UAE, a
good alternative if
there's
award availability for your dates is Emirates A380 First Class.
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.
While economy
award space on American Airlines is still pretty
good for many different routes,
there has been a lot of grief lately over business class
availability at the SAAver level.