Originally Posted by
rumble
I have found Star Alliance award availability in long-haul business to be very good. Last year I had to change a flight twice very close to departure and got new bookings with no trouble each time. I even changed airlines, no problem. All by calling the Eurobonus line.
As long as you are flexible with airline and somewhat flexible with departure and changeover details, there should be something available.
In fact, today I just booked a one-way business class *A award from Sweden to Tokyo with Eurobonus points, with departure one month from today. I got exactly the flight I wanted. A very nice person at Eurobonus helped me and it was done in a matter of minutes.
SAS award availability is another matter though!
As in line with good SAS traditions, it depends a lot on who you're talking to, is my experience. But you're right, if you talk to the right people, it's very well possible to book *A awards with SAS. I've done that a few times now and found that, in the end, you usually get done what you want to, given that there is availability.
@cphkid: I bet they end up agreeing that everyone will have those high taxes on *A reward tickets....
Anyway, you're right about LH availability. LH, like a lot of *A carriers, open up award space based on booking prognosis, which means that at the end of the day they only release award space just a few weeks before departure.