Originally Posted by
ctdubl07
Appreciate the sleuthing AZT.
I did call the EP desk and got a fairly disenthused agent response that he had no alternative ways to search on BA award availability and that "awards are subject to supply/demand...blah, blah, blah" and he had no contact person to check with. I couldn't even get him to engage in any level of conjecture that the scenario does seem odd...that multiple flights with multiple BC and PE seat availability for weeks would seemingly get sold out in 24 hours.
Don't discuss what you are seeing and how strange things might be. That's not what the agent is there for. If you ask questions like that they are going to read you the company line.
Find the flights you want. Call, tell them you are treating to book an award, and give date, origin, and final destination (not connecting cities). If they don't offer you what you want, feed them flight numbers. If they say it's not available, it's not available. They can definitely see things that aren't visible on the website, but if they can't see it they can't book it.
They do not know or care which flights BA makes available to them, or what tech issues might prevent them from showing up. That's an IT issue.
FWIW there are complaints in the AS forum about the same thing so I suspect that the issue is either on BA's end, or with whatever system AA and AS use to read the award availability. But it's still worthwhile to call and make sure that the agent also can't see them.