Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
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.
Originally Posted by
enviroian
I've seen Frankfurt flights open up in C but never AMS from Philly. I prefer JFK anyway. PHL and CLT are ghost towns come 9 pm and JFK has great lounges to support the what seems to be hourly evening flights up until midnight to London.
As pointed out above LGA-PHL-AMS for next winter has space available now, and the ticket with the SWU can changed later if a better route opens up. Frankly surprised that LGA-PHL-AMS is available for January, as PHL-AMS usually only opens within 24 hours of flight. (It does open.) AMS-PHL is a much easier SWU to confirm, for some reason (daytime flight I guess).