Originally Posted by
dgcpaphd
I wish I had the same observation as you.
I am checking international. Perhaps your experience is for domestic?
I have checked for business class or first saver awards close-in and for months up until AA chart stops next year, without success.
AA displays an entire month, month by month, if you select that choice. You will see that there are usually no business or first class saver awards available.
Occasionally, but rarely, I found that AA has one saver award sprinkled between blocked off saver awards.
When you click on the supposed premium saver award, you will see that the business or first award that is offered is either at a remote airport or that the domestic portion is in coach while the international portion is in business or first. This was never the case until the past several months since AA decided to devalue its loyalty program and also decided that AA's customer base should be treated with disdain.
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I meant that UA and AA both have limited saver availability 6-months out on domestic flights. The difference being that UA appears to free some up close in. I guess AA has decided that giving an upgrade to an elite is more valuable than "selling" a saver award ticket.
International is much more of a crap shoot on UA and AA metal in my experience. There are AA dumps that appear to happen randomly. Outside of that if you're using the search tool on AA I look for hub to non-hub routes on international. MIA-CDG or MIA-MXP, etc. The domestic stuff is pretty brutal. I usually end up just booking WN to a hub city.
Oneworld is pretty terrible for award redemptions in my experience unless you want to connect through HKG, DOH, or pay BA/IB surcharges. Star Alliance in general just seems to have much, much more space across partners which makes UA more valuable to me for international.