Originally Posted by
gnomey
How far out is the trip?
My trip is on June 1st, just changed my HKG-JNB segment to July 3rd from the 14th. I will have a 30 days stopover instead.
Originally Posted by
Happy
Do you realize BA is just a TOOL. Since neither AA nor AS would show CX availability online? Nobody would book thru BA due to the very high level of Avios needed.
BA, QF and JL are tools to use to search for CX availability which is not shown on either AA or AS sites.
BA is the easiest to use and has less phantom availability than QF. JL is the most reliable but is also the hardest to use tool. Instead of calling AS and asking the agent to look up and down for you, the better approach is to do the homework yourself, find the available seats then call AS to book it.
Plenty of J as up to 8 seats are seen at schedule opening. 1F no matter what.
CX releases awards 360 days out. Both BA and QF can book them. I once booked thru BA with Avios a day earlier than AA opened up the booking window during the pre-deval frenzy. So I took the inventory out before AA could access it. Then within the 24 hours free cancelation window I called BA to cancel - the inventory went right back to CX award inventory. I called AA to book that seat while nobody was looking (may be EF ALERT was not quick enough, lol.)
After AA deval now you can see inventory showing up randomly between the initial window and the departure time.
I have booked 2 x 1F for a HKG-LAX in late Dec last year for an early Sept travel this year., long pass the opening of the booking window.
For the record our travel date still see many J seats on the 4 flights, one flight had 5 and another flight had 3, with 1 and 2 on the remaining 2. Even 1F seat was seen on one flight. That is Sept travel - less than 7 months from now.
Close in openings are quite reliable if not during peak traveling time.
So instead of keeping asking others questions why dont you just go check BA site and see for yourself on the availability scenario?!
AS gets less space release from CX for certain route. One example is HKG-DPS, CX completely blocks space to AS, but shows availability on BA.
Originally Posted by
wco81
Oh I don't have any AS miles yet.
Thinking about signing up for SPG Amex and looking out for the AS miles sales.
Either that or use UR points to book on *A.
Just scouting.
You should get the BoA Visa if you are in the US, easy 25k miles!