Originally Posted by Gardyloo
One thing I assume will be the case is that getting eVIPs confirmed early on for NRT is going to be tough. I tried this afternoon to see if I could confirm U/Gs for son and soon-daughter-in-law's honeymoon LAX-NRT-LAX for various dates in Dec/Jan and while the EXP person didn't laugh outright, she said words to the effect of "lots of luck." Nothing via ORD, DFW, or to KIX... I didn't ask about JFK because that seems a bit out of the way and a longshot indeed. Plus the Y (L actually) fares are not all that groovy.
So now I'm looking as AA and AS J awards (they're going to Vietnam) and noting that AS wants 90K mi for J USA <> HKG/SGN and AA wants 110K mi. Feh.
What exactly IS AA's west coast strategy?
I'm not sure this is west coast stuff. This might be simply the wrong time to look for confirmed upgrades or sale fares.
First of all, AA hasn't decided what they're going to do with that "plane", so they don't know yet whether they'll have diminished capacity (or just shifted capacity) to NRT come Dec/Jan.
Second, it's neither 328 days out nor 3 months out nor 3 days out. I'm not sure how many overseas routes to ANYWHERE from ANYWHERE in the US you can find confirmed upgrades for Dec/Jan right now.
OTOH, I had no problems in Feb getting confirmed upgrades on LAX-NRT in late April. C5/C6/C7 on many flights.
But now is not the time I'd expect to much C inventory anywhere open, even when J is pretty empty.