Well, I did book my trip ... on AA.
The RN availability on UA was ridiculously low during my travel window: ZERO to be more precise. I tried all possible permutations between all gateways on the US side (IAH, DEN, ORD, IAD, EWR, JFK) and the the four airports that are connected to Bruxelles directly by train (AMS, CDG, FRA, BRU). Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Decent discount BF fares around $2,500 were available on UA, but they required 10 day minimum stay, or (in the case of still tolerable fares around $3,500), a Sunday stay. I could not meet these requirements so the only fares available for my travel dates were about $5K to $6K.
I then went to EF and within five minutes I found availability on AA from DFW to FRA, returning CDG-DFW. I hate to not be loyal to UA, but in this case I had no choice.
Apart from the inconvenience that I have to fly out of DFW on AA, I am most concerned with what appears to be a disturbing trend here -- all RN availability appears to be zeroed out on international flights.
Can anyone explain the wisdom of this new UA strategy of not releasing R inventory?
I don't understand why you think this is new.
First, CO eliminated RN availability when they took over. R=RN, which means there is no advantage to having status.
Second, I have been monitoring R space regularly since the takeover.
Before 3/3, what I found was that R space did not exist on any flight I checked if it was an sCO flight, but R space was normal on sUA flights.
Soon after 3/3, R space dropped a bit on sUA flights, and remained at zero for sCO flights.
About 2-3 months after 3/3, R space completely disappeared from sUA flights.
Comments above pertain to specific routes that I monitor, which include various flights from SFO to Europe and Asia.
This is nothing new. People are just starting to figure this out now?
I subscribe to First Class Flyer (FCF)
http://www.firstclassflyer.com/first...lyer/newsroom/.
The author of that newsletter, Matt, does a good job at tracking these fares for his subscribers and issues first/business class fare alerts almost on a daily basis. I have been happy with that publication.
Incidentally, Matt @ FCF did change my perception about how to view loyalty programs. Matt believes that loyalty programs are no longer about rewarding loyalty. He taught me to view loyalty program miles as alternative currencies that I can use when purchasing a trip. Matt believes that premium flyers are better off if they chose an airline based on whoever offers the best possible deal for their specific trip rather than being "loyal" to their airline.
I have come to embrace Matt's philosophy over the years, and my recent booking on AA is a perfect example. I had 50K miles seating in my AA account and did not think twice about taking the AA deal to Europe
even if it meant the difference between silver and gold in terms of my UA status.
This is very helpful. I'm going to look at his newsletter.
I'd ignored it in the past because I was 100% loyal to UA, so I didn't need to learn about premium travel opportunities on other carriers.
$mi$ek has broken that habit for me.
Thanks for sharing it.
One of the things I've realized through this process is that I spent more money than necessary to stick with UA and retain 1K status. By giving up on that, I can use the savings to fly a bit less, but pay more when I fly. And, if I can consistently get these $2000-3000 fares for long haul flights, I'll end up spending less overall that I spent to maintain 1K status with UA.
But, for this to work, I'll have to get up to speed on how to find these deals with other carriers.