BrlDsguise, thanks for the PM earlier today as that made me remember to follow up on this post. We moved the trip up to mid-May, so I've got the airfare booked and now I'm waiting for some of the Greek hotels to open up availability for next May (Starwood).

To address the earlier posts (and some blog articles) regarding the use of US Airways for international reservations "as they open up," my personal experience with this reservation has taught me something QUITE different. While this is not published or promoted, US Airways can place a special courtesy hold on an international legs for award booking for up to 30 days rather than the standard 72 hours. I am not sure if this extends to partner airlines or not, as my entire itinerary was on US Airways. I would imagine that it would not extend, but I didn't really know that the 30-day hold was possible until I called in...

When my departure leg opened, I contacted the US Airways reservations line. There was a rain delay the night before, so I was on hold for around an hour before I finally reached someone (and that was only after 45 minutes of trying to get to a hold queue, as they were forcibly disconnecting calls due to the call volume). They transferred me to DMCS, who answered immediately (really wish there was a direct line). I asked the rep what she could do for my situation and I carefully explained everything to her (booking the departure legs while they were available at 50,000 miles, not wanting to pay a high change fee for simply adding a return leg after booking a one-way leg, not wanting to wait until the return legs were available before attempting to book the departures as they would no longer be available at the "Low" fare, etc.). She placed me on hold and got multiple confirmations that in this specific situation (booking an international reservation as the legs opened up), a courtesy hold could be configured for 30 days in their system. I checked the confirmation number later that day and confirmed it was showing as "Active" on the webpage. At the 72-hour mark, I checked again and noticed it showed it was in a "Canceled" state, so I called back in and spoke to a gentleman with DMCS. He investigated and informed me that it had been entered incorrectly and that he had corrected it, stating that it would still be valid for 30 days (which would be in 2 days from today). Eight days after that call, I contacted DMCS to complete my reservation with both legs for both of our tickets. It was 200,000 total miles and $264 out of pocket ($82 each for taxes/fees and $50 each for the award redemption). I did not have to call in multiple times to have the courtesy hold extended. I did not have to pay any change fees. I did not have to take any extra risks of waiting for the return leg to open up. Heck, I didn't even have to pay a phone reservation fee.

I could consider this to be a YMMV situation, but I had two reps confirm this information to me during my reservation. Honestly, it was the best news I've ever received from any sort of customer service line ... to the point that I told the lady I loved her! LOL!

My experience is documented on FTG by my friend Howie:
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/2014/...s-airways.html