ryandc99

With the elimination of change fees, is it safe to assume that if you were to book Y award tickets and then want to change to J award tickets after the space opens at 60 days before departure that would now not be a fee to do so?

Previously when I was MVPG this was a simple phone call, but I am wondering now with this new policy that this would be possible?

Thanks!

dayone

Restarting service to ORD and LAX and increasing service to JFK.

Finnair to resume flights to Chicago and Los Angeles – Business Traveller

stephem

I was able to book LHR-HEL-NAP w a stopover in business for 20k miles. Not a great deal but cash flights are expensive from UK to Italy that time of summer and why not get a 2 day diversion to see Helsinki? LHR-HEL is scheduled also a A350 right now.

notquiteaff

Just cancelled a Finnair J award from LAX to HEL, on 9/18/2023. Seems to have gone back into inventory, so if anyone wants to grab it... 70k miles + $19

scubadu

Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately, it appears that Finnair now only releases one award on a flight which makes it challenging for those of us requiring two!

Can't remember the last time I found a AY award with more than one seat available...

Regards

Mister P.

Hi, trying to book award tickets on AY ICN-HEL for next Spring in J. I can see availability (U) through AA, BA and AY but nothing is showing up on Alaska. I have also called but the agent can’t find anything either. Any tips/ suggestions?

Mods, feel free to move the post to the most appropriate thread. Thanks

VegasGambler

Does AS allow Asia-EU awards on AY metal? I know that previously there were a lot of rules about certain awards needing to have an endpoint in North America. I'm not sure how many of those they got rid of; the website does not have any details other than "try to book it and see how many miles it costs" for awards that don't touch North America.

If you can't see it on the website it's almost certainly not bookable. The only real question here is whether that's due to policy or IT issue.

Having miles in more than one program is highly recommended...

notquiteaff

Right, I don’t see Y awards either, just




#NotQuiteOneWorld

Flying for Fun

UK & Europe (including Iceland) to Asia is a permitted routing on AY. You can fly KEF-HEL-SIN on a single award, for instance. It is now also permitted on JL. BA awards no longer need to touch North America.

I have seen some interesting award routings such as EU-LHR-NAS-LAX.

I do keep a small amount of AAdvantage miles from CC SUBs. They can come in handy for repositioning flights where there are no AS choices and revenue flights are too restrictive for changes/cancellations. Outside of SUBs they are just too costly to aquire.

James

VegasGambler

So then, is this an IT issue? Partner space available and bookable on other partners but not AS?

RE:AA miles, you're active enough on the AA forums to know what they are extremely cheap to acquire (much cheaper than AS miles), though not by flying AA. I haven't churned CCs in years.

minz56

It could be a case that AY is not making the same availabity to AS as it does to other partners. IIRC AY became an AS partner before AS joined OW so it wouldn't surprise me if they offered inferior availability when they became a partner and that has never changed. Just my thoughts ....

VegasGambler

That seems unlikely. Most airlines have one booking code per class of service that they use for partner awards, and it's the same for all partners. Either there is availability or there isn't.

I've never seen a mismatch between AA and AS for AY awards before.

Flying for Fun

I tend to lean towards IT. These are routes that I have easily found in past serches, although I haven't been actively looking as of late. Periodically, I do also see SQ awards (not to/from NA) available, even J. There will be a whole raft of them. 5 minutes later, the same search returns nothing.

AA miles may seem cheap from the perspective of an AAdvantage Elite with an AA credit card, many of whom refuse to acknowledge lost opportunity cost. Not everyone is elite, not everyone can open an AA cobranded CC accout, and not everyone is interested in gaming. The house always wins. That initial 40K is quite the uphill battle. I don't care about LPs, The AA forum is quite entertaining though. I am not sure where the CC churing is coming from. I have never churned CCs. I still have my first Visa account I opened in 1981.

James

Flying for Fun

I have seen more availability on JL for AA than AS, QF & BA, post oneworld. It was commonly known that AS had access to less inventory for CX awards than AA, BA, & QF before oneworld. QF & CX have yet to see changes like JL since oneworld. I am guessing here, but perhaps QF & CX are still operating on their Partnerships with AS and have not yet been brought into the oneworld fold.

James

minz56

This isn't quite true. While there is only one booking code, airlines can restrict availability using dynamic availability options, eg restricting by point of sale. Here's a link to what Amadeus offer. I believe that Sabre has the same kind of options.

https://amadeus.com/en/portfolio/air...c-availability

Whether this is the reason for the discrepancy between AY availability I don't know. It could be IT related.