AA international premium cabin redemption
 

I fly often betwn West coast and Jpn. I'm primarily Star Alliance, but I do have some Alaska miles that I haven't been able to use because a).DL's TPAC business class redemption is poor value; b).AA never seems to have anything available in premium cabin.

Is it even possible to redeem AS miles for AA premium seats on TPAC flights? Could it be that it doesn't come up on AS website but maybe there're some available if you call the Partners Desk?

Also a side question: How easy is it to redeem AS miles for Cathay premium economy or business? Cathay doesn't come up on AS' online engine.

Thank you!

I think your best bet would be to call and ask about availability on Cathay assuming you have some dates in mind. There is no other way to find out that I know of. As for other Alaska Partners if it is available it should show up when you search.

I have experienced instances where the phone agent couldn't see avaiability that showed up online although I could have been looking at seats that really didn't exist.

You might want to check out this thread in case you already haven't

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...ility-f-j.html

If you're a gambler, CX sometimes adds premium award availability within a week of departure if paid bookings are light.

With Cathay, I figured as much. No specific dates in mind. I've already booked my tix for this year's trip to HKG, so this was just a general question for future purpose and was just wondering what people's experiences were.

I'm more concerned with AA to Jpn.

Okay that's good to know, although that won't work for us in most instances .

AA to Japan is really hard to find, if only because so many of their west coast flights are JL codeshares. I think your only AA-metal option is from Los Angeles, so there's not going to be much availability on that one single route even at the best of times. Maybe a little better if you start from further east, but I don't think that SEA-JFK-NRT (for example) is a valid award routing.

Korean's another option for AS miles but they've got a ton of blackout dates. Not easy to work with.

From both SEA and LAX, there're at least 3 options on AA metal to TYO: via LAX, ORD and DFW. (SEA-JFK-NRT is definitely a valid award routing on DL, btw. Not sure about AA.) 1st class is readily avail on the domestic portion, but I've never seen J/F available on the TPAC segment whether it's from LAX, ORD or DFW. AS award seats are easy to get on DL J, but I'd hate to throw down 70k miles each way.

Nevermind. Thinking of AS-Partner connection

I flew AA NRT-LAX in F recently using AS miles. I had no trouble finding dates but I did book pretty far out. Has something changed?

I checked DFW-NRT for premium cabins for November and Saver J was available on at least 5 days each way. No Saver F.

I've redeemed several AA flights to NRT in business and first. Like any redemption, timing is everything. But I don't consider it a difficult award to find.

Really? I'm looking into heading back to Jpn early Nov. Trying few different dates, I'm seeing nothing on AA J/F heading out from either SEA or LAX. Am I not looking right? We're talking AS miles here. I do see a fair amount of DL J seats available... mostly HND flights but you still do see some availability on their NRT flights here and there. Again, don't want to throw down 70k each way on DL. I've taken 3 trips to Jpn this past year and going again this Dec... I couldn't find any AA J/F award seats for any TPAC segment of any of those trips.

It is good to know AA is a viable alternative to get reward tix on TPAC flights. I am flying F on AA this coming week to YYZ on reward tix, and will find out how it goes. First time on AA F.

Okay, thanks. If it's available on only 5 days out of 30, then that's always going to be a problem. My job just isn't that flexible. But it's at least encouraging to know that AA trans-Pac J/F seats redeemable with AS miles do actually exist and that it's not just a phantom. I'll keep an eye out for another trip next spring.