Objective: 3 tickets from SYD to IAD on OW in BC leaving anytime between 3/7 and 3/11; or 3/12 if its a more direct routing.
I've been searching, but I need a little help wrapping my head around what I'm seeing award wise vs what's actually bookable.
Over the past week, I've been searching BA and QF for flights. Frequently BA showed multiple flights with as many as 7 award seats available in BC. When I cross checked with the QF site and searched the same route for 3 tickets in BC, it too yielded positive results. Great! I found three different flights all of which had at least 3 seats and called AA. When the agent looked up the first flight and they told me there were only 2 seats available. I had them look up the second and the third flight but they told me the same thing. (For what its worth, it was the most important, and longest, leg that only 2 seats.) Perplexed, I hung up and went back to the drawing board.
I went back to the drawing board trying several permutations over a 5 day span (3/7 - 3/11) to find availability; I'm even looking at going the opposite direction which will result in either a second award or revenue booking:
- SYD|MEL|BNE - HKG|SNG|HND|NRT - LHR|SFO|LAX|DFW|IAD|JFK|LGA|PHL
- SYD|MEL|BNE - BKK - HKG|SNG|NRT - LHR|SFO|LAX|DFW|IAD|JFK|LGA|PHL
- SYD|MEL|BNE - DOH - LHR - IAD|DCA|JFK|LGA|PHL
- SYD|MEL|BNE - DOH - MXP - IAD|DCA|JFK|LGA|PHL
- SYD|MEL|BNE - DOH - MXP - LHR - IAD|DCA|JFK|LGA|PHL
- SYD|MEL|BNE - DOH - MUC - IAD|DCA|JFK|LGA|PHL
- SYD|MEL|BNE - DOH - MUC - LHR - IAD|DCA|JFK|LGA|PHL
- AKL - SLC - MIA|DFW - IAD|DCA|JFK|LGA|PHL
- Any other combinations?
I found several flights according to the BA and QF sites, selected my top 5, called AA and for every one they said there were only 2 seats available.
I'm a 'wannabe amature traveler' at best, so I'm hoping someone can help me make sense of the above.
Some examples of what I'm seeing on BA that AA tells me only has 2 seats:
