Originally Posted by
Carolina2Cali
I've got one SWU expiring in about 8 days. I am a digital nomad and can work from anywhere. I have to go to Paris for the Olympics in July/August and see my sister in Bali in the fall/early winter. But, not finding anything confirmable to Doha, Tokyo, or Paris or even Nice during those date ranges. I even checked LAX-SYD for Christmas time. Anyone see any confirmable international routes lately, starting out from anywhere in the USA? Or actually I am fine with it being TO the USA as I could book it as the return.
Ideally avoiding South America, just spent 6 weeks there. Do love it though.
P.S. Aware I could donate it and aware if I change my mind later it'll go up in smoke, but alas.
AA typically never releases upgrade space in advance on any of those routes you mention. France in the summer, during the Olympics, haha. Doha and Tokyo are equally as tough now regardless of timing. And Sydney at Christmas time, come on.
If you want to hope to grab anything in advance you're going to have to be more flexible than just shooting for peak routes and peak peak times.
AA actually has some semi-decent one-way fares to Europe at the moment, so if it were me, I would just book a one-way sometime next winter to confirm the SWU so it doesn't go to waste. Then just change your ticket at a later date once availability opens up in the later summer and fall time.
For example, not sure where you're starting from, but you can book LGA-CLT-FRA for $561 in mid-January 2025, with confirmable SWU space on CLT-FRA. LGA-PHL-AMS is $460 with upgrade space open on PHL-AMS. Just park it somewhere.