Originally Posted by
Often1
AS can't force EK to open award space in J. Thus, you are stuck having to research everything yourself. If indeed your routing is SFO-MLE, consider every option from the US-MLE and then figure out how to get from SFO to that gateway. Maybe you will hit paydirt on the first try, but this can be a painstaking process.
But, you need to be prepared to do this over and over again and then face the possibility that things will change and you won't be allowed to travel at all.
I am sure I read somewhere a couple of days ago that EK has removed SFO from their entire winter schedule but I couldn't find the story.
Booking partner awards beyond 3 months is likely a "pipe dream," within 3 months a "wish list." The added difficulty will be finding saver connecting AS flights to/from whatever gateway might yield results.
I just canceled an EK award, just too many changes to salvage anything out of it but it was fun doing online changes with transcon backtracking, reversing to add on HI and then flying into YYZ with an international open jaw. EK in J on the 77W isn't an optimal redemption but the 772LR, without an F cabin, configured 2-2-2 J they are using to LAX is a J "upgrade" in the Boeing Line.
James