Originally Posted by
maverikbc
Are you sure saver space exists the day you want to fly SEA (or possibly PDX) -YVR? That saver space is often rarer than JL F itself.
You wrote to YVR and to YLW, there are a ton of award seats. Where do you see them?
Is there a way to determine whether an award is "saver space"?
I scrubbed through the monthly calendars for NRT-SEA-YVR and there is a bit of availability from mid-Sept to mid-Oct. Literally zero results in any class Feb 2023-Jan 2024 outside of that window in Sep/Oct.
To give a concrete example, there is an award available Oct 1 NRT-SEA-YVR. The AS flight is 2075. If I search just SEA-YVR, 2075 on Oct 1 comes up with a cost of 10k points. Scrubbing through the calendars there are 10k options SEA-YVR available the vast majority of days throughout 2023. Anything special about the award on AS2075 on Oct 1 that would make it bookable versus the hundreds of other SEA-YVR flights in 2023 that are priced the same?
I know award availability can be spotty, but the fact that there are literally zero options available NRT-YVR (rather than the spotty but consistent availability available to all other AS served cities) aside from the direct flight (and some connecting flights during a single 5 week window) makes it look like there is a deliberate policy (or a bug) involving JL awards to YVR that maybe someone knows about.
Mostly just curious at this point! I switched from collecting Avios to Alaska miles on my relatively large non-bonus, non-Amex card spending because of the ability to access JL award flights to multiple US gateways and then get myself back to YVR for "free" (compared to BA awards). But getting to SEA or PAE or BLI is close enough really.