Thanks first...
Firstly, thanks to those that replied to the first post on here or via PMs and to
Goldcircle & OxonFlyer for some last minute tips.
So, secondly, after a few weeks of research I managed to figure it out (well as much as I could anyway)..... the results are below.
What is this all about again?
So if you have ever wanted to know
'as much as' how far ahead you can book award seats via Diamond Club for travel on 'bmi' and on the Star Alliance partners & the DC non-Star partners (namely when each partner usually releases their first tranche of award inventory), or
how to be able to see award inventory beyond ANA's 330 day limit, or wanted to know
does DC get a 'jump' on other airlines' frequent flyers, this will help and keep reading on.
Why would I want to know?
Curiousity maybe ....
BUT seriously, it should help in the few instances
you are looking to book beyond an assumed 'industry standard' of 330 days, maybe for that special trip you want planned and booked early, or those hard to get seats on very popular routes (for me it is helped get hard to get biz and first class trans-pacific flights on the nicer airlines) before the big USA based programme members get their hands on the inventory too.
And you never know, as the world economy keeps picking up and airline consolidation continues there might well be less and less award inventory out there so the early bird and all that .... and then the day will come when the German's will fold us into 'M&M' and you might just feel a sudden need to get all those fancy trips booked as far ahead with DC as you can and burn your miles up with one of the best frequent flyer programmes ever!
The link to the info ...
The results are all tabulated and in a spreadsheet along with accompanying notes, the methodology and further links so you can research yourself -
click on this link to access -> http://ftjonnyboy.yolasite.com/
Caveat emptor - and be kind to me!
Be warned though that things change and it is only up to date to 29 September 2010; I can't face doing the same exercise again for at least a year - what started as an hour or two try to be helpful thing has taken me about 7 evenings and a few days to pull together*. And so you know I am no technical or booking system whizz so do accept it as the best a layman can do, remembering it is been done in the spirit of trying to give something back for all the times I have managed to learn from posts on here to make my destination miles go further and by and large to where I want.
That said, highlighting any glaring errors, constructive feedback, along with anything you think could be useful to put in the notes sections is of course welcome and I will update the spreadsheet. And if you can fill in the few blanks for me on how far own members flying own metal can book award seats on Air China, Aegean, EgyptAir, Spanair or Transaero Airlines would much appreciate it so I can get the satisfaction of a complete job done! Also if you know the 'official' TAM rules then please let me know that too - I think I have got TAM right but aren't 100% sure on what happens with the booking class on Domestic/South America awards at the less than 90 day window for TAM members and more importantly for 'bmi' DC members booking awards on TAM. PMs probably better than loads of posts on here.
* FYI - the date of this post has been changed by the way so this now appears as post#2 in the list - it was added on 24 Sept 10 at 4pm just in case you wonder what TEX277 at post#11 and anyone after him are on about, or indeed any of the posters post#3 to #10 who were replying to post#1 not post#2
I don't want to click to the link - summary it on here please...
OK ... here goes ...
Key - Airline/How far ahead DC book (days)?/What's the furthest ahead I can see easily and usually for free please*(days)?/By what method?
'bmi'
'bmi'/361/355/Aeroplan and sometimes 'bmi'
Star Alliance Airlines
Adria/361/359/M&M
Aegean/184/184/ANA or ANA via KVS or Aeroplan or Continental or Expert Flyer
Air Canada/355/355/Aeroplan or Expert Flyer
Air China/361/363/Expert Flyer
Air New Zealand/354/355/Expert Flyer
ANA/355/355/ANA or Aeroplan
Asiana/351/351/Aeroplan
Austrian/361/359/M&M
blue 1/330/330/ANA or ANA via KVS or Aeroplan or Continental
brussels airlines/340/341/Aeroplan
Continental Airlines/336/337/Aeroplan or Continental
Croatia Airlines/361/359/M&M
EgyptAir/355/355/Aeroplan
LOT Polish Airlines/361/359/M&M
Lufthansa/361/359/M&M
SAS Scandanavian Airlines/330/330/ANA or ANA via KVS or Aeroplan or Continental
Singapore Airlines/354/354/Aeroplan
South African Airways/355/355/SAA Voyager
Spanair/361/339/Aeroplan
Swiss/338/339/Aeroplan
TAM/184Intercontinental+3monthsSouthAm&Domestic/184Intercontinental only/ANA or ANA via KVS
TAP Portugal/361/355/Aeroplan
Thai/340/339/Aeroplan
Turkish Airlines/354/355/Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
United/331/336/Continental
US Airways/331/334/US Airways Dividend Miles
'bmi' 'Partner' Airlines
bmibaby/368/NA/NA
Jet Airways/holding space - details updated once they join Oct 11th 2010
Qatar/361/334/Qatar Privilege Clyb
Transaero Airlines/11 months/NA/NA
Virgin Atlantic/336/336/Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
* For details of the 'easy access' methods click the link http://ftjonnyboy.yolasite.com/ and open the spreadsheet. All methods are free, excepting ANA via KVS (subscription but service is very quick for checking availability for less than 330 days) and Expert Flyer (but you can get a once only free 5 day trial). For sub 330 day bookings I have found ANA and ANA via KVS the easiest to use, with ANA via KVS the quickest but you pay for it; for 330 days+ then Aeroplan seemed to work best for me and often finds creative routes, but it is a little slow (the few times Aeroplan isn't recommended the other method has a jump by usually only a few days). There is another method called 'awardnexus' which meshes together a few search methods into one and by all accounts is very good - not used it but link here if you want to try http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ard-nexus.html . M&M method is via JetFriends for the under 18s - takes 2-3 weeks to get credentials so plenty of planning ahead needed!
So with Diamond Club do we get the 'jump' on others?
Oh yep - if you take the 'industry standard' of 330 days Diamond Club is ahead of them all excepting Aegean and TAM who don't release at the 330 day window anyway, and to be honest I really couldn't figure out what is going on with Transaero Airlines as it looks to be a very 'Soviet' way of getting a 'freebie' with them!
And even ahead of own members booking via their own programmes on their own airline metal - on Adria, Austrian, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar, Singapore, TAM, TAP & Thai when booking via the web.
BUT a bit behind on ANA, Asiana, Turkish Airlines and US Airways, and if someone can fill in the gaps mentioned above I will update to tell you about those too.
Doesn't 'bmi' Diamond Club have an 11 month ahead rule?
They do yes but it isn't very well defined and they will go as far as 361 days ahead, even further ahead with bmibaby. Further details in the link -
http://ftjonnyboy.yolasite.com/
OK, that's it!
Hope you find helpful. Thanks again for the help so far in bringing this together, and for the help and top tips I have received from this forum over the years - much appreciated!
Cheers
Jonny
PS - one thing I have remembered from this is really just how good Diamond Club is for redemptions compared to other offerings out there - you could be posting award requests to the EgyptAir office, earning and burning at rubbish rates with others, being forced to book returns or having no flexibility once booked to cancel or change like some do - I will miss it when it is gone. What else do I miss ... I just so wish they would fly from Leeds Bradford again back to London and then I could use them more often for my connections (it was busy once until they set out to kill it off), and whilst we are on it I still do miss the MAN-ORD 'the business' service, and for what it is worth now it is all Lufty anyway, just bite the bullet and please do a hub and spoke into FRA or MUC from more UK stations a la KLM (Leeds please so I can avoid KLM 
) .... still, what do I know ... farewell DC