Most of the time, the agents ca
n't find any availability at all, and there seemed to be much debate as to whether these agents even know what they're doing.
If you frequently find yourself in positions where you're attending events last minute and struggling to
find availability at hotels, the guaranteed room benefits can be invaluable.
Although we did
find that availability of so many sugar babies to be pretty impressive, a clearer picture of just how many members there are would have been welcome.
Or when I
do find availability the flight times change beneath me and changing the flights becomes difficult.
For that reason, you will often need to
find availability using other search engines first, and then call an agent to feed them the flights you found / want.
If the agent has trouble finding the same itinerary, you can suggest an earlier agent
already found some availability and provide the individual flight numbers.
Further, this award is notorious for being difficult to land because phone agents can
rarely find availability to score this golden ticket.
This 1.5 cents per point rate often makes booking economy flights a better deal than transferring points and makes it much easier to
find availability since you're not restricted to award inventory.
Some flights are harder than others to
ever find availability for — especially during peak seasons when you want to go the most.
Next time you are looking to book an award ticket and you ca
n't find availability, use this technique and you may end up finding a flight you like.
Finding availability at a property worth redeeming may require a lot of flexibility or a fair amount of planning ahead so just be mindful of that.
I give a good overview of
finding availability in my answer to a question on traveling between Vancouver and Portland here.
If you can
find availability with Delta to get to Europe, the fees will be very manageable, and maybe around $ 130.
ANA releases award space nearly a year prior to departure — 355 days — and you can even
find availability up to 96 hours from departure.
For flights to Europe, you might
only find availability on a partner airline that adds huge carrier surcharges (fees charged on top of the base fare), such as British Airways.
As long as you plan well in advance, you shouldn't encounter many
issues finding availability on airlines like Qatar and Etihad, two quality airlines that require you to pay only modest fees.
After you've
found availability call 888 -8-ETIHAD and give the agent all the information about the flight — the airline, the flight number, the airport, and the time.
Thus, I'd probably try to use Alaskan miles on American to get to Europe, and
although finding availability in business class can be difficult, that off - peak 40,000 redemption in AA economy is very nice.
When you have
difficulty finding availability for a domestic Saver award on Delta, consider using another program or paying cash and saving the miles for your next international trip instead.
With American
miles finding availability on Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong proved too difficult with our dates so we settled on Bali.
If you're on the East Coast, maybe you can
find availability more easily, but I still wonder if business class is necessary.
I checked favorite destinations like Hawaii, California or ski resorts — and didn't
find any availability during peak season at many properties.
Once you're able to search for seats, you'll
probably find availability for business class seats to JNB to be pretty good, especially if you're looking to book several months in advance.