I am looking to use some miles I'm getting from my new Barclay's Aviator card (just make a purchase, pay the $95 annual fee and bingo! 70k AA miles). I had previously flown DFW - GRU with some AA miles a few years back and noticed that seats were available on just about any day, when you are were paying with miles. However, I am looking at DFW- BKK in January and it seems availability is a moving target. Seats are limited to a handful of dates in January. But every other day I look at the options in January and they are different. I'm guessing this is because these flights have at least one leg operated by a partner? And I'm guessing that availability of seats with their partners is the factor in play. Can someone explain what I need to be looking for, other than to book ASAP? Can I expect inventory in the AAdvantage program to open up as a date comes closer? Or is this going to be unpredictable.
I also looked at my options in the MileagePlus portal.There is a constant, daily availability of seats under the MileagePlus program for the same trip with United. But there are more options for flights (even though their partners also handle most of the flying.) Is this an "advantage" (pun intended) of United's program, or do they just have a better network for this route?Thanks for your input.