theboss7593

Hi all,

I'm in a bit of a dilemma, I transferred points over to Alaska from AMEX (as you know it can take a week plus for a batch to clear) and there is now only 1 seat available at the set amount of points that I transferred over for a AS flight. (I'm guessing that is what the A or P inventory is about)

However there is also U inventory so I was thinking of using miles for the award ticket in J and then paying cash for a coach ticket and applying an GGU to the reservation.

The flight is currently F4 D4 P2 I0 U1 A1.

My question is if I purchase the award ticket first with points will the U inventory disappear? Or because the U inventory is solely upgrades it is not affected by an award or cash ticket purchased in J.

Thanks (and mods I'm sorry to have started a new thread, wasn't really sure which thread to post this)

beckoa

Maybe.

It used to be A seemed to be a subset of U. But a year or two ago, A started to be released without U opening (at least that I noticed).

Now I'm finding A lots of times with no U. The opposite happens too, with U but no A. No discernable pattern has emerged that I can identify- but with F4, that's getting pretty low...

be_rettSEA

I would guess that with current inventory you're seeing, snagging that A space would also eliminate U. I'm not sure fully what the relationship is between U and A availability, but in my experience, there is some relation between them. I do imagine AS wants to make sure a few F seats remain available for cash purchase..

jinglish

Since when is AS an Amex transfer partner?

eponymous_coward

rune87

I was about to ask...how does that Amex to AS work...they aren't transfer partners, unless you are mixing AS with AA.

jinglish

I was assuming this was about booking a partner award, so the U space was needed for a positioning flight where A isn't open.

theboss7593

Sorry it was 4am when I was typing this. I meant to say from Marriott to Alaska. My SPG or now Bonvoy lets you transfer to Alaska.

You are misinterpreting this, Alaska has (A) space that is used to redeem rewards. I.E. The booking that I am looking at is being redeemed thru Alaska but is a 2 leg trip with the 2nd leg being on AA. From what I have fooled around with on Expert Flyer In order to book one of these AS to AA flights when using Alaska Mileage Plan there needs to be A fare availability.

Mentioning J was me simply referring to Business Class because after all Domestic First is Business Class..... I'm sorry for the confusion it was 4am and I hadn't gone to sleep yet, late night working.... I'm not an A student in FT lingo

eddiehuang97

In my experience, YES. If the A is gone, U is gone. If U is gone, A is gone.

eponymous_coward

beckoa

Family member just booked yesterday. Went from F7U3A3 to F7U3A2. The two are not as linked as they used to be. Something has changed.

Again with F4, space is getting tight and I'm not sure how systems will behave.

CDKing

I'm pretty sure A is still a subset of U though so U1 A1 = only 1 F seat available for award or upgrade. For all we know an additional U seat was released. I've never seen A1 U0

OP's least risky option is to pay cash vs tempting fate with space still being available when points post. That or chance it

beckoa

Recently I've seen lots of A1 or higher with U0.

It's no longer a subset that I can tell. RM has revised the rules.

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CDKing

wow its about time. I was tired of being on mixed cabin award and I lose out to a bunch of U seats. good way to get some points off the books over giving it away for free.

UserMark

In my experience the two are independent. When I see something like A1U1 and I grab the U seat, it goes to A1U0.