I agree. Award availability comes and goes but I'm used to seeing some availability to South America - a few days per month at least. I've done a U-class booking to GRU before on exactly the days I wanted at about three months notice. Currently I'm seeing absolutely zero availability for the entire year.

This doesn't just affect South America. Redemption availability (particularly U-class) has greatly decreased to many destinations, and this has been true for a few months now

BA do seem to be making miles much harder to use. There are quite a few threads about this. Maybe there should be a MASTER whine?