In the past few months -- week before Thanksgiving to this past Sunday -- I've been paying rather close attention to coach award availability for US-Buenos Aires flights operated by the same airline whose miles are being used for the US-EZE non-stop segment. I looked at award space availability for the two-month period beginning with the "following day" on just the US-EZE non-stop. This was looked at from an "elite" account standpoint and non-elite account standpoint with only 1 passenger redeeming miles.

What I found was that AA was consistently the easiest for US-EZE redemptions. United was second. Continental was third. And Delta was in last place. Those findings held true for each airline respectively regardless of status.

I am personally very disappointed in DL's being a award ticket miser on ATL-EZE coach tickets.

Any one here done something similar for business/businesselite/businessfirst class award space? What did you find?

In the past few months -- week before Thanksgiving to this past Sunday -- I've been paying rather close attention to coach award availability for US-Buenos Aires flights operated by the same airline whose miles are being used for the US-EZE non-stop segment. I looked at award space availability for the two-month period beginning with the "following day" on just the US-EZE non-stop. This was looked at from an "elite" account standpoint and non-elite account standpoint with only 1 passenger redeeming miles.

What I found was that AA was consistently the easiest for US-EZE redemptions. United was second. Continental was third. And Delta was in last place. Those findings held true for each airline respectively regardless of status.

I am personally very disappointed in DL's being a award ticket miser on ATL-EZE coach tickets.

Any one here done something similar for business/businesselite/businessfirst class award space? What did you find?

As an EXP I can get to EZE within 1 day of when I want on AA. This out status I'd be screwed. I cannot get any useful routings to EZE on UA (Premier Executive).

I'm talking MileSaver awards in Business. What are you talking about?

As an EXP I can get to EZE within 1 day of when I want on AA. This out status I'd be screwed. I cannot get any useful routings to EZE on UA (Premier Executive).

I'm talking MileSaver awards in Business. What are you talking about?

coach award availability for US-Buenos Aires flights operated by the same airline whose miles are being used for the US-EZE non-stop segment. I looked at award space availability for the two-month period beginning with the "following day" on just the US-EZE non-stop. This was looked at from an "elite" account standpoint and non-elite account standpoint with only 1 passenger redeeming miles.


.... at the the (cheaper) capacity-controlled award prices (e.g., non-AAnytime, non-SkyChoice, non-PerkPass, etc) where the mileage account holder was to be the passenger.

.....I am personally very disappointed in DL's being a award ticket miser on ATL-EZE coach tickets.

Any one here done something similar for business/businesselite/businessfirst class award space? What did you find?

Delta is "an award ticket miser" to all places ...
Wanted to go to Europe ... nothing during a time frame of couple of month. Got an award flight to Santiago .. and enjoyed it.

Regarding EZE. Last year I went with Delta Miles on Continental to EZE **). CO's business class was great, perfect service and very good food, and 2-1-2 seating on the 767.
**) or GRU, I totally forgot.

This is interesting, as a NW Plat using NW miles, my best option for getting to EZE seems to be Delta (standard award, Biz). I simply cannot get CO seats in Biz to EZE with WP miles. I will admit that I do the hunt and peck approach, find an outbound and then look for a return a week or so later. But I found several times over the next year where I would be able to get 2 Biz seats on DL. (Overall, my experiences as a NW WP member is that Delta availiability is quite good, but interestingly the Delta people claim availability is poor when redeeming Skymiles.) I was also able to find decent availability on UA (standard award, Biz) where I have no status.

This is interesting, as a NW Plat using NW miles, my best option for getting to EZE seems to be Delta (standard award, Biz). I simply cannot get CO seats in Biz to EZE with WP miles. I will admit that I do the hunt and peck approach, find an outbound and then look for a return a week or so later. But I found several times over the next year where I would be able to get 2 Biz seats on DL. (Overall, my experiences as a NW WP member is that Delta availiability is quite good, but interestingly the Delta people claim availability is poor when redeeming Skymiles.) I was also able to find decent availability on UA (standard award, Biz) where I have no status.

Per my above posts, the data was looking at coach award tickets, including using DL miles for DL flights in the manner stated in my prior posts. Biz cabin redemptions are another matter -- a matter upon which I have not commented in this thread, and a matter upon which I am not in a position to comment about currently. I would certainly not expect identical findings for premium cabins and coach cabin award ticket availability in the manner I specified. (I'd actually expect some differences, but I don't currently have findings from hard data on such availability and that's why I left biz redemptions at the "cheaper" level out.)

....interestingly the Delta people claim availability is poor when redeeming Skymiles.)...

It is almost impossible to book award flights on Delta. I often end up with one of their partner airlines...and I am extremely flexible regarding dates and even locations .... EZE, GRU in South America ... MUC, ZRH, FCO, BRU, any in middle/south Europe.
Actually, I believe the agents at the Delta "partner desk" are more knowledgeable.. I have flown SwissAir, Sabena, AirFrance, CO on Delta Miles, to name a few.

FWIW, I had no trouble booking coach award DCA-DFW-EZE-MIA (stopover)-DCA for November on AA. Almost every day I wanted was available. SCL was also available. I booked In January.

I no longer have AA status.

I was able to get three saver awards in F IAD-EZE-IAD-DEN-ANC on UA with three months notice.

I recently used a friends AA miles because UA/US had nothing good. AA was apiece of cake and only one connection

Hi, I have 77,000 AA miles and am trying to get to Buenos Aires in November. Do you recommend using the miles if possible for 1 free economy ticket, or is it a better value to use some miles for an upgrade. An economy ticket seems to be going for $950, or 100,000 miles. (Seems like no MileSaver awards available--are they ever??)

Remember the $250 copay with the 25K miles to upgrade on AA. Nov is still the off-peak time for economy tickets (40K vs 60K miles). I have found that getting the domestic award flight harder than the MIA-EZE flight. Check also from DFW and JFK if that is not too much out of the way.

Hi, I have 77,000 AA miles and am trying to get to Buenos Aires in November. Do you recommend using the miles if possible for 1 free economy ticket, or is it a better value to use some miles for an upgrade. An economy ticket seems to be going for $950, or 100,000 miles. (Seems like no MileSaver awards available--are they ever??)

If you are having trouble finding (AA) MileSAAver award space, also call up AA and have them look up availability via partner airlines like LAN, TAM, etc. The award costs in miles are the same whether you fly AA or AA and its partners or just stick to AA's partners. There may be a different cash component due to taxes, fees and surcharges, but the cost in miles is the same. [Upgrading on partner airlines using AA miles doesn't work here.]

looking to visit EZE over new years. flexible dates, mostly, would prefer 28 Dec - 7 Jan. happy to use miles, prefer coach. not really sure if it's too late or not to use miles to begin with.

can depart from most anywhere in the US, prefer WAS or PHX. have 250k NW miles, 75k on UA.

what's the best strategy? the non-stop iah-eze on CO looks nice, but i doubt i could get a seat.

looking to visit EZE over new years. flexible dates, mostly, would prefer 28 Dec - 7 Jan. happy to use miles, prefer coach. not really sure if it's too late or not to use miles to begin with.

can depart from most anywhere in the US, prefer WAS or PHX. have 250k NW miles, 75k on UA.

what's the best strategy? the non-stop iah-eze on CO looks nice, but i doubt i could get a seat.
DL ATL-EZE isn't bad

thanks, will keep trying that one. NW phone agents say there's nothing, but I don't think they're trying very hard..

thanks, will keep trying that one. NW phone agents say there's nothing, but I don't think they're trying very hard..


Any success on the EZE routing?

Very curious.

nothing at all.

UA is not looking good as of late. And AA has gotten a lot tougher than it has been before.

And the rest .... well, more of the same. :eek:

..... AA has gotten a lot tougher than it has been before....


I found and booked two seats MIA-EZE-MIA on AA ... only 40,000 miles each. I believe AA opens some seats for award booking, when they are not sold. Also, I recognized that AA has now two 777 MIA-EZE, some time ago only one 777 and one 767.

Just nailed down 2 business class awards in January using AA miles from SFO. Flying down AA thru MIA (in domestic first), then on LAN via LIM and SCL to EZE. Return is EZE-GRU-MIA-SFO on TAM and AA. All flights are day flights.

Not bad considering it's a month out and I'm flying at peak season. A little circuitous but will be nice to sample premium cabins on other airlines (have heard good things) and the view of the Andes on the way down should be nice.

I just scored a 90K Alaska Air business/first class redemption (with partner AA) EZE-MIA-SEA-ANC-ORD-MIA-EZE for late February '07

I scored 2 J/F awards JFK-GRU-EZE-JFK-BOS, TAM on the way down and AA F on the way back. Cost 125K, but worth it considering the dates, 12/26-1/2.

And there is a JFK-EZE Z class seat on 12/28 in case anyone wants a NYE trip

In the past few months -- week before Thanksgiving to this past Sunday -- I've been paying rather close attention to coach award availability for US-Buenos Aires flights operated by the same airline whose miles are being used for the US-EZE non-stop segment. I looked at award space availability for the two-month period beginning with the "following day" on just the US-EZE non-stop. This was looked at from an "elite" account standpoint and non-elite account standpoint with only 1 passenger redeeming miles.

What I found was that AA was consistently the easiest for US-EZE redemptions. United was second. Continental was third. And Delta was in last place. Those findings held true for each airline respectively regardless of status.

I am personally very disappointed in DL's being a award ticket miser on ATL-EZE coach tickets.

Any one here done something similar for business/businesselite/businessfirst class award space? What did you find?


I have two United biz awards coming up this March SFO/IAD/EZE and returning GIG/GRU/SFO. Catch? I had to book it in June of this year and I had to get standard awards. 300,000 miles. Ouch!

I have two United biz awards coming up this March SFO/IAD/EZE and returning GIG/GRU/SFO. Catch? I had to book it in June of this year and I had to get standard awards. 300,000 miles. Ouch!

I hope you have been looking for award space in the "saver category" frequently between when you made your booking and until actual date of travel. If space opens up (or had opened up), it would be worth the award ticket cancellation and new expedite/telephone award booking fees since you'd then save a good number of miles.

United has apparently become much more of a pain for EZE than it used to be 8-12 months ago. Last I inquired, the gap in award space availability between AA and UA has widened.

I hope you have been looking for award space in the "saver category" frequently between when you made your booking and until actual date of travel. If space opens up (or had opened up), it would be worth the award ticket cancellation and new expedite/telephone award booking fees since you'd then save a good number of miles.

United has apparently become much more of a pain for EZE than it used to be 8-12 months ago. Last I inquired, the gap in award space availability between AA and UA has widened.

For a couple of months I tried and sometimes they'd have one coach and one biz sometimes two coach, Sometimes I'd have to go on another date, sometimes two stops, sometimes change of planes with a short connection time etc. Finally I just became complacent figuring that you win some, lose some. Trying to find upgrades was (for me) nada. Hated to spend all those churned cc, financial stuff, mileage mall, HELOC, but...we wanted to go to Buenos Aires. Maybe the bonds and gift cards will come back.

For a couple of months I tried and sometimes they'd have one coach and one biz sometimes two coach, Sometimes I'd have to go on another date, sometimes two stops, sometimes change of planes with a short connection time etc. Finally I just became complacent figuring that you win some, lose some. Trying to find upgrades was (for me) nada. Hated to spend all those churned cc, financial stuff, mileage mall, HELOC, but...we wanted to go to Buenos Aires. Maybe the bonds and gift cards will come back.

I'd probably have tried a Coupon Connection-type transaction to get two biz class frequent flyer award tickets using miles from another program in exchange for award tickets from the UA account. Flying AA or LAN or TAM down there probably would have worked out cheaper with some kind of mutually beneficial miles savings possible.

I'd probably have tried a Coupon Connection-type transaction to get two biz class frequent flyer award tickets using miles from another program in exchange for award tickets from the UA account. Flying AA or LAN or TAM down there probably would have worked out cheaper with some kind of mutually beneficial miles savings possible.
I didn't have enough posts to use Coupon Connection but I suppose that if I waited I may have used fewer miles and gotten cheap tix. I forgot two of the big guidelines of FF. Research and patience.





















































































































































































































































































































































































ent and antsy. I forgot two of the major rules of FF. Research and patience. Next time.