Last year, a bunch of business availability for mid-summer ‘25 opened up in September ‘24 — about a month after the dates became bookable. That is why I am in Europe now - found 4 x J LAX-DFW-CDG for 54k/seat without having to do a double red-eye.

To add a data point for last minute availability, we had a medical issue during this trip and looked at coming home early from AMS, BRU, CDG, or FRA. Did find pretty good availability at 57k x 4 seats but they all had 2 stops (BA to LHR and then AA metal somewhere like PHL or ORD before a domestic segment to LAX). So we decided to stick with our existing return on AF which is non-stop. But there were awards to be booked.

Have also booked half of next year’s summer vacation — LAX-MAD-LIN on Iberia mid July ‘26 using Avios (had a bunch to use + recent credit card transfer bonuses made it a good redemption). There was good IB availability that will probably be gone by the time you can book IB with AA miles. But sometimes if you play around with the connections you can shake lose lower award level availability with IB (I.e. last year I got home MUC-MAD-LAX x4 at 57k and reasonable taxes — I think maybe something to do with routes they compete with Lufthansa).