Hey folks!
This is more of a teach-me-to-fish (search) strategy question... I've read the Wiki, several of its child pages, and most of the 54 pages to date here, and am looking for your recommendations for prioritizing my searching time. Flexibility in travel plans is creating MANY combinations and making it challenging for this new user to plan award travel!
Goal: Italy in the Fall 2020
We two hope to take a two-or-three week honeymoon vacation flying First/Business class in the Fall 2020. We want to see Italy, but are flexible in arrival/departure cities. Being based out of San Diego, we can get to LAX easily, or to other hubs if need be, to support amazing awards. I'll have around 400k AAdvantage miles to spend on two people's travel, a premium EF subscription, and minimum PlatPro status in 2020 (possibly EXP, but mostly domestic work travel, so that bump to $15k might get me).
Planning: Identify best potential options
From reading the Wiki, since it's more than ~330 days out yet from a Sept-Nov 2020 time-frame departure... I can't check for awards in the time window yet, but I would like to get my ducks in a row for which Hubs/Routes are typically best for award travel.
Here are the routes I was planning to search:
Departure Locations (SAN, LAX, SFO, DFW, IAH, JFK, PHL, ORD, MIA, ?)
Arrival Locations (FCO, MXP, VCE, BGY, ?)
Carriers (AA, BA, IB, ?)
Execution: Woof, that's a lot... where to begin?
Across months of time, carriers, locations, and routings, the possible combinations seem endless! Can you advise on suggested days/routes/carriers to spend my time (and 200 EF standing queries) on, based on common successes or tacit knowledge of the routes? Or even better, take a generalist approach and describe how you'd go about searching, given the above goal - I'm happy to do the leg work with a bit of guidance.
Appreciate your time and insights,
Mike