mroseman13

Based in SEA, I want to fly to BCN for a week in the first half of November. I have never flown int'l business/first and have enough points to give it a try, at least one-way. I'm avoiding BA for their fuel surcharges and see that AA is 50k on the award chart. All 50k point awards I've found show only the domestic Alaska connecting flight as first class and the transatlantic flight as coach. Is this typical? Am I searching for award availability incorrectly?

Andyman61

Don't do it. There are plenty of other choices. Good for you for catching that.

eponymous_coward

Not actually unusual. AA only serves BCN from two destinations, MIA and JFK. They also do some seasonal reductions around Thanksgiving to Europe. If the award availability is gone it's gone. Nothing AS can do about it, those aren't AS planes.

If you use the calendar to search JFK or MIA to BCN, business class only, if there's a 50k option, that will be AA. There isn't one in November 2016. You'll find this to be true on 1/22/17 and 1/26/17 from JFK. Then you can see about connecting flights to JFK.

Most of those other choices involve BA. KL/AF availability isn't good at all. DL cannot be booked as a one-way (must be booked round-trip, or else you pay double).

solewalker

AA generally has poor saver award availability. I searched about 6 months worth for business saver award to Asia (before giving up), and found nothing.

There is a way you can also get around the poor award availability. Try searching from BCN to different parts of the US (not SEA). In July, I couldn't find saver business flights from GIG to SEA, but there was availability from GIG to LAX. After I booked GIG to LAX, I called up Alaska, and added the LAX - SEA segment at no extra charge.

Alternatively, AA also opens up saver awards at the last minute from time to time. But you might not want to leave your trip to the last minute.

mroseman13

It looks like I can book one-way Delta One awards by transferring 62.5k Amex points to Delta. Perhaps I'll to do that on the way there and find an Alaska 20k return with AA in coach. I could also use 30k United miles and book Lufthansa for a direction.

thegingninj

I'll preface this by saying I've never flown Delta One, but if I were booking a business class ticket for the experience, I'd book on a foreign airline, even if that means ending the trip in their hub city and buying a cash ticket from there to BCN. Intra-european flights are generally inexpensive and the difference in soft and hard products could be worth it. Just my .02

SFO777

AA is virtually useless for J/F saver awards to just about anywhere these days.

mroseman13

Any particular routing/airline you recommend? I've got some Alaska and Amex points, but don't want to spend my whole bank.

eponymous_coward

I flew Swiss and American recently in J. The hard and soft products were not massively different. They're not handing out caviar and Krug in J either.

Also, most of the relevant European carriers are available on AS, so if OP can't find KL/AF there may not be any to be found. The exception are some Star carriers like LH. LH is not ZOMG BEST BUSINESS CLASS EVER. Maybe you could get OS or TK except for someone based in SEA you are now talking a SEA-LAX-VIE/IST-BCN routing. That is a lot of backtracking for a good soft product. Delta One is not such a miserable experience that I would add eight hours of travel to avoid it. It seems like a pretty decent one, actually.

craigthemif

It's worth mentioning that a one-way FROM Barcelona to the U.S. on British Airways with AS miles is going to have lower surcharges than the opposite direction. It's still not great to pay $200-300 (I can't recall the exact amount), but I'd rather pay those than end up flying in DL or AA economy...

I think somebody already mentioned it, but you should also try looking at most of the AA destinations in Europe. It might be worth your while to book an AA Business Class award to DUS, CDG, MXP, wherever... then pay for a separate ticket to Barcelona on Vueling or another carrier.

3Cforme

I read that as you're traveling round trip, but are interested in using miles for Business in one direction but could be satisfied in coach for the other.

I don't know how AS prices a Delta mixed-class award itinerary. Delta (with its own miles) let's you do it but it can't be booked online as an r/t. (Given the international origin surcharge by DL on Europe-originating itins, you wouldn't want to book that as two one-ways with DL miles.)

All widebody Delta aircraft in a long-haul international Business config have lie-flat seats with aisle access. You won't find that on AA (or AF or KL, either).

The test would be finding lowest-level DL award inventory, because that's all one can get with AS miles. If you look on delta.com, that's coach at 30K miles or business at 62,500 in each direction for travel before 1/1/17. Then try those dates with Alaska, online or by phone.

WillTravel4Food

As an AA refugee I'm familiar with your plight. Most AA members get a BA Executive Club account to do searches on One World partners that don't show up on AA.com award searches. The BA issue is well known and there are plenty of people who do a lot of work to find options to avoid those flights. The best I can recommend is to search segment by segment to construct the desired routing. For example, you might be able to find an AA flight from one of its gateways to Europe then connect on from there (possibly in Y). If need be, get to LHR on AA then pay the BA extortion for the short haul LHR-BCN. Doing it that way will cost you a nominal YQ fee typically under $100 (I think around $50-$70). I don't know the AS rules, but AA allows up to 24 hours for connections on int'l trips. That might help you find something.

eponymous_coward

This is not how it works on AS. AS does not allow a mix/match of partners like that. If you fly AA TATL, that's the only partner you're going to get on that award. The only way to get BA on a shorthaul segment for an AS award is to fly BA TATL. (For the purposes of AS awards, AF/KL are considered a single partner, but that's the only exception to that rule.)

Using a separate award is possible, but given how cheap European shorthaul is, it may not be a good use of additional miles (and the number of AS partners that cover intra-Europe awards does not include BA- just AF/KL).

WillTravel4Food

Good to know. Well then, I'm thinking the OP is attached to another object by an incline plane wrapped helically around an axis. Getting to Europe then using a purchased LCA ticket to the final destination sounds like the better solution.

mroseman13

My head is a spinning with all these options, award charts to remember, and many Chrome tabs open...trying to fly with points is rough! I called Alitalia and Etihad to see their partner availability, but nothing matching my desired dates (ideally 4-13). Alitalia would be great with their 80k RT business awards, but none anytime in Nov.

Delta has a 62.5k business award for 11/3 which I can transfer amex points for, but that's another day out of work which might not be worth the American product. There's solid Lufthansa availability for economy flights back BCN-SEA at 30k with my small stock of UA points. Alaska & partners are getting less and less available