AS Award Travel

Old Dec 8, 2018, 7:52 am
  #16  
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I think you are a bit late to the gate here.... award seats are loading already into Nov of 2019....a lot of us that were trying to find Europe award seats summer of 2019 found them 4 months ago. I am not surprised just the dregs are left at this time.
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Old Dec 14, 2018, 9:57 pm
  #17  
 
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I have to say that this is the first time that I've had so much trouble finding seats on AA in J to LHR (it's been my "go to" because I can usually book the morning flight from either ORD or JFK and then use Avios the next morning to wherever). And I'm looking for September or October! I'll widen the net and start searching from other gateways but it's slightly unsettling to be on the other side of the "I can't find seats" discussion. Also, the false showings in the First Class column when it's really Economy for the TATL sector is really annoying me.

That is all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I see kids on my lawn...
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Old Dec 14, 2018, 10:22 pm
  #18  
 
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look for DE gateways including LAS, PHX, FAI. Once you get your TATL flight, add an AS segment.
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Old Dec 15, 2018, 11:08 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by Deltahater
look for DE gateways including LAS, PHX, FAI. Once you get your TATL flight, add an AS segment.
I changed tactic today and decided to look for the unicorns of Finnair J and I found them from LAX. A couple days stopover and then onwards to my other city for 70K + $34.
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Old Dec 15, 2018, 11:26 am
  #20  
 
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I travel to Europe each summer, and no longer rely on Alaska miles for my trip.

This year, I booked the aer Lingus flight SEA-DUB-SEA. J Award availability using Aer Lingus Avios was decent with 11 months notice. Most flights were loaded with three J seats, one of which was bookable by partners. Once Alaska allows Aer Lingus redemptions this will become an option with Alaska miles, although I expect seats on the SEA flight will be booked quickly. 😀
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Old Dec 15, 2018, 4:45 pm
  #21  
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I ended up using UR points on Virgin Atlantic to get me home...
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 6:16 pm
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by lhiltz
I ended up using UR points on Virgin Atlantic to get me home...
Oh no. Can I ask how much was the surcharge on VS?
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 7:35 pm
  #23  
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MAN/ATL in Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic was 318 pounds or about $400 I decided the nonstop and daytime flight was worth it - but not good at getting no miles benefit and then I will overnight in ATL and take a flight to PDX on AS next day - some miles at least!

Last edited by lhiltz; Dec 16, 2018 at 7:36 pm Reason: added info
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 9:01 pm
  #24  
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I was shopping for premium cabin flights to/fro Europe (FRA, but would have accepted others) for March 2019 yesterday and found nothing useful on AS. Just Iceland - that would have been okay if I wanted to stop for a few days in Iceland, but it would be me in trouble with my wife since she isn’t able to come along.

I am not interested in paying 45k AS miles for an extra legroom “Premium Economy” seat when I can get it for a lot less on UA and fly as a *G. I have done DE PE and it really isn’t any better than UA E+ (at least on aircraft with reasonable seat width).

I eventually found an AA flight from DFW to FRA in J, with an AS feeder. 57.5k AA miles. The same flight combo didn’t come up on AS.com - are AA flights Saver flights not all available to AS?

AA is getting a lot of flak for having made redemptions harder, but I actually have had stood luck in recent months with my redemptions.
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Old Sep 21, 2021, 11:39 am
  #25  
 
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I just booked award travel for three people in SAN-LHR on 8/10/22. For main cabin, the majority of the options involved BA and their pricey fees (32.5k miles + $243). However, there was one SAN-SEA-LHR AS/AA option for 30k + $19. I booked this.

AS currently has 10 SAN-SEA n/s scheduled on on 8/10/22. However, the only flight available for main cabin award booking with the AA SEA-LHR flight was a morning flight that arrives in SEA at 11:55a, more than 7 hours before the 7:20p SEA-LHR flight. Personally, I could probably spend 7 hours eating and drinking at the N lounge, but that is less enjoyable with two kids. So, I would like a later SAN-SEA flight.

Per Expertflyer, the 8/10 SAN-SEA flight I booked (AS 1137) appears to be the ONLY SAN-SEA flight within three days of 8/10 that has T fare availability. This seems odd, and I assume it was loaded by mistake. The AS phone lady claimed otherwise, but she didn't provide a credible explanation how this flight had 7 seats in T and NONE of the other 60+ flights within three days had any.

Regardless, I am assuming T availability on other 8/10 flights will open up at some point in the future, and I have an ExpertFlyer alert set for that. Is there anything else I can/should do? Am I missing something?
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Old Sep 21, 2021, 12:38 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Sandonkey
I just booked award travel for three people in SAN-LHR on 8/10/22. For main cabin, the majority of the options involved BA and their pricey fees (32.5k miles + $243). However, there was one SAN-SEA-LHR AS/AA option for 30k + $19. I booked this.

AS currently has 10 SAN-SEA n/s scheduled on on 8/10/22. However, the only flight available for main cabin award booking with the AA SEA-LHR flight was a morning flight that arrives in SEA at 11:55a, more than 7 hours before the 7:20p SEA-LHR flight. Personally, I could probably spend 7 hours eating and drinking at the N lounge, but that is less enjoyable with two kids. So, I would like a later SAN-SEA flight.

Per Expertflyer, the 8/10 SAN-SEA flight I booked (AS 1137) appears to be the ONLY SAN-SEA flight within three days of 8/10 that has T fare availability. This seems odd, and I assume it was loaded by mistake. The AS phone lady claimed otherwise, but she didn't provide a credible explanation how this flight had 7 seats in T and NONE of the other 60+ flights within three days had any.

Regardless, I am assuming T availability on other 8/10 flights will open up at some point in the future, and I have an ExpertFlyer alert set for that. Is there anything else I can/should do? Am I missing something?
That the AS schedule isnt exactly written in stone for 11 months out, so there will inevitably be multiple schedule changes you can use to be put into different flights to shrink your SEA layover.
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Old Sep 21, 2021, 12:42 pm
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by Sandonkey
I just booked award travel for three people in SAN-LHR on 8/10/22. For main cabin, the majority of the options involved BA and their pricey fees (32.5k miles + $243). However, there was one SAN-SEA-LHR AS/AA option for 30k + $19. I booked this.

AS currently has 10 SAN-SEA n/s scheduled on on 8/10/22. However, the only flight available for main cabin award booking with the AA SEA-LHR flight was a morning flight that arrives in SEA at 11:55a, more than 7 hours before the 7:20p SEA-LHR flight. Personally, I could probably spend 7 hours eating and drinking at the N lounge, but that is less enjoyable with two kids. So, I would like a later SAN-SEA flight.

Per Expertflyer, the 8/10 SAN-SEA flight I booked (AS 1137) appears to be the ONLY SAN-SEA flight within three days of 8/10 that has T fare availability. This seems odd, and I assume it was loaded by mistake. The AS phone lady claimed otherwise, but she didn't provide a credible explanation how this flight had 7 seats in T and NONE of the other 60+ flights within three days had any.

Regardless, I am assuming T availability on other 8/10 flights will open up at some point in the future, and I have an ExpertFlyer alert set for that. Is there anything else I can/should do? Am I missing something?
I'm in a very similar situation with an award I booked for four people next May to Europe (SJC-SEA-DUB.) There is a single SJC-SEA flight that day with a bunch of T availability and several other flights with none. The flight with T availability results in a ~9 hour layover which works but isn't really ideal. I also set up some alerts assuming the other flights would probably open up at some point, but not really sure. Interested if others have any insight
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Old Sep 21, 2021, 1:40 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by evilluc
I'm in a very similar situation with an award I booked for four people next May to Europe (SJC-SEA-DUB.) There is a single SJC-SEA flight that day with a bunch of T availability and several other flights with none. The flight with T availability results in a ~9 hour layover which works but isn't really ideal. I also set up some alerts assuming the other flights would probably open up at some point, but not really sure. Interested if others have any insight
There will be schedule changes. I always grab the seat, and hope for schedule changes. So long as you are ticketed SJC/DUB, you should be taken care of one way or the other. I've already had an 8 hour December connection become a 6 hour connection.
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