Iberia Airlines Iberia Plus - TATL Business Award Availability

I'm having trouble finding _any_ business availability on IB's transatlantic routes. Does anyone know which routes would be best to look at? If someone could point out some examples of availability that would be especially useful, as that'll give me a starting point for trying to find patterns. I would _love_ to fly business LAX-MAD, but that one seems especially unlikely to have seats.

Thanks!

Do you have the flexibility (and the sangfroid) to wait and book at the last minute? I recently flew (with a friend) in J from BOS-MAD and then back from MAD-LAX. But we booked each of these segments just a couple of days before departure. In each case, I know the availability had just opened up, because I'd been watching it. We talked to others on both flights who had also booked very late.

I think they are very conservative about holding these seats for potential revenue bookings until the last minute. But in my (limited but recent) experience, they do open them up a couple of days before departure if they haven't sold them.

Whose miles are you redeeming? I don't know every program's rules, but AA allows changes of carrier and routing on booked awards, as long as origin and destination stay the same. So you can book a trip to Europe on other airlines/routes and keep watching the IB flight you want to see if it opens up.

I'm using AA miles. That's a good idea. So I could book a business class ticket on AA, and then switch to IB at a later date without fee. Is that correct?

I'm using AA miles. That's a good idea. So I could book a business class ticket on AA, and then switch to IB at a later date without fee. Is that correct?

Yes. You might have to pay the $25 per ticket phone booking fee if you did not book your original ticket by phone; I am not sure. But there would be no other fees.

For example, I was recently headed from BOS to IST. When I booked, all I could get was BOS-LHR on BA, LHR-MAD on BA, MAD-IST on IB. But I kept watching, and the day before departure IB opened up 2 seats on the BOS-MAD nonstop. Not only was there no fee to make the change, but I got back the BA "fuel surcharge," which represented 90% of the "taxes and fees" on the original booking. (This did not require any sort of refund application; the money was credited back to my AmEx immediately.)

For example, I was recently headed from BOS to IST. When I booked, all I could get was BOS-LHR on BA, LHR-MAD on BA, MAD-IST on IB. But I kept watching, and the day before departure IB opened up 2 seats on the BOS-MAD nonstop. Not only was there no fee to make the change, but I got back the BA "fuel surcharge," which represented 90% of the "taxes and fees" on the original booking. (This did not require any sort of refund application; the money was credited back to my AmEx immediately.)

Pardon my curiosity but why would you effectively double back (I exaggerate a tad) by flying LHR > MAD > IST when you could fly direct LHR > IST with BA? :confused:

Pardon my curiosity but why would you effectively double back (I exaggerate a tad) by flying LHR > MAD > IST when you could fly direct LHR > IST with BA? :confused:

As I wrote, it was all I could get. Beggars can't be choosers when booking award travel three days before departure.