Originally Posted by WillTravel4Food

I can't speak for all the airlines, but yes this is quite common. You'll need to look at booking right when availability comes online for the preferred dates. As for AY, AFAIK they rarely make J available for partners. EI is just a joke. AA can be found, but it's not easy and will usually require connecting somewhere. Searching segment by segment is the recommended approach. IB is a new one and I don't have any intel on them.

Some people will say AS negotiated a bad deal with each airline and hence the poor availability. To me it seems more like all airlines are stingy with opening up premium seats for partners.