Originally Posted by
Flying for Fun
I will look closer at itineraries in the fall and test my idea.
James
My idea was to locate another date with a stopover that had Flagship J on the MIA-LAX segment, purchase that itinerary and then see if I could "date" change the MIA-LAX segment to the desired date hoping Flagship J was available.
SJU-MIA is an International flight & AS allows a stopover on International Partner flights at the gateway. However, it appears this route is not eligible for a stopover. Quasi-International.
It does appear to be a married segment issue. When searching on AS with multi-segment and the inability to add a stopover on the route the search is resolved to a simple SJU-LAX one-way. Inventory on the through fare isn't available in Business even though each segment has availability independently.
On 10/16, I am seeing SJU-MIA availability in Y only while AA1454 MIA-LAX does have Business availability on the through fare.
If I look on AA for the same award booked in AAdvantage, the rate is 97.5K miles in all Business which indicates there is no sAAver space on the through fare which would be required for AS to book. The route is, however, also available in an all Business itinerary as an AA Web Special for 22.5K. Of course, that isn't available to book in Mileage Plan.
If 10/16 is your desired date, I would book AA1720 9:19-12:00 blocked at 2:41 in Y. You should get MCE on the strength of the Business award redemption if you don't otherwise have a fee waiver and connect to AA1454 in Business.
I should also point out that a revenue through fare, all Business Itinerary with Flagship, on those same flights is $303, just in case you don't want to redeem miles. It would earn 5072 EQM in MP and up to 8,748 RDM.
At that price, your AS redemption would be 1.11 cpm. If we add in the lost RDM opportunity that would have been earned on a revenue itinerary, the redemption for no status, MVP, MVPG & MVPG75K would 0.92, 0.88, 0.84 & 0.82 cpp. You may want to consider a revenue ticket and save the AS RDM for a better value redemptuon. For comparison, Flagship Business, LAX-MIA is $544 on 10/16. For 25K that redemption is 2.18 cpm; an excellent value.
James