RetiredSFOATC

Hello - Apologies if there is a thread like this already up and running; I haven't been able to find it. But - per the topic, I'm trying to find AS/MP award space from pretty much any US city to pretty much any European city for late summer. The deal-breaker seems to be that I don't want coach on the long leg. I will get myself to wherever I have to go for that leg, but the AS search engine almost always wants me to break it into two or more legs, even when there is space available on the nonstop portion of the itinerary when searching from other cities. Example: If I search for SEA-FRA (DE), it won't give me nonstop availability in Business (routes me through PDX), but when I search for PDX-FRA, it wants to route me though SEA. So technically, the business seats from either PDX or SEA are available, but it just wants to make life difficult, I guess. Of course, AA has NO over-the-pond legs in first or business (it offers me those routes, but every one of them is a "mixed class" with the coach leg being the longhaul, and the big miles going toward the short F class flight - PHX-DFW, for example... seriously!), BA charging those monster taxes and 50-hour itineraries, even when the longhaul premium seat is not available, and DE (which I have flown and enjoyed) sending me to some other city to catch the longhaul flight (I don't mind a 2-leg itinerary, but I still have to get to that first leg from my PSP home airport, or somewhere around there). OK - enough whining from here.... is this just futile, or are there some tips anyone can share? Thank you!

RAD_PDX

This is a common complaint with AS award availability to Europe but it can be overcome with a little flexibility and advanced planning. When specifically are you looking? I just did some searches during the last week of July and found SEA-YVR-FRA where the SEA-YVR was AS Y and the YVR-FRA was Condor J.

KnownasEric

What I always do is look for the flight to Europe from whatever US gateways Condor or Icelandair have (or Finnair now, I suppose), and then work backwords to setup position flights on AS. Don't start out at your true origin or AS will continously throw weird routings at you.

PDXPremier

I almost exclusively use AA for Europe travel using AS miles and have found somewhat decent availability, particularly in Y. During the "off season", AA flights can be had for as little as 22.5K one-way and that includes a "free" stopover....speaking of stopovers....using other partners like Condor or Air France or even British Airways can sometimes limit your options for stopovers unless you're talking about stopping over in one of the partner airline's hub. I typically make my stopover my "home airport" to add an entirely new trip to my award. For example...if I turn-in miles for CDG-PDX (3 month stopover)-PVR, that's relatively easy to do using AA/AS, but if I use Air France or a non-AA partner for the CDG-PDX part of the trip, I'm not allowed to use AA for the add-on PDX-PVR which limits my choices of flights since I can't mix partners and have to look for AS-metal only flights.

eponymous_coward

The secret is AS is probably the weakest of the major US-based programs (AA, DL, UA, AS) for premium cabin redemptions to Europe. Every other program has better partner availability you can redeem on (*A, VS, AF, KL, EI, IB). AS basically has BA (lots of carrier surcharges), AA (their premium availability to Europe in summer is basically 0, and what there is is snapped up very quickly whenever it's opened), and random LCCs DE and FI (FI has carrier surcharges too) where the advance J fares don't offer a lot of premium over cash.

The Europe redemption side of the program took big hits when DL, KL and AF said "hasta la vista".

Personally I look at flying BA F as paying for Y on a non-earning ticket and getting a three cabin upgrade...

halamadrid

Another option to try is Emirates. You normally have to make a stop in Dubai, but that's actually a good thing IMO as a quick visit in Dubai is always fun. I know that EK has many destinations in Europe, but MXP and NCE are ones where I usually find good availability. A good strategy is to first do a search for the over the water portion from EK's US gateways. You'll usually have better luck with airports like IAH or MCO over the bigger ones like SFO, LAX, SEA, or JFK. Once you see availability in J for the over the water segment, you can then do the search for that day and start trying European destinations as your final destination. I just found 2 seats in J for August 8 to MXP from IAH on EK. It's 105K each way per passenger, but worth it IMO. Good luck! P.S. you can then work backwards to look for your US gateway to the EK gateway, but that may be tough to find on AS so you may need to purchase that part separately, but shouldn't be too much at least in Y.

sltlyamusd

Lake_Hood

Generally, it doesn't make sense for me to book a mileage ticket in coach to Europe given the cheap fares. However, I am very discouraged by recent business availability. I have booked a trip to in business for two to Europe (be it Spring or Fall) every year for the past 5 years. It got much worse when Delta/Air France/KLM left, but this past 6 months to a year, it has been harder yet (save occasional Condor). I was hopeful when Finnair first joined as I was able to snag a couple seats out of LAX, but as of late, availability, for me (maybe anecdotal) has been next to nothing. This is looking 330 days out (and checking back) and using expert flyer for two separate trips I have tried to book. Perhaps British's new J product will make it a better option, but I can't stomach paying those fees and miles for their current offering.

skimthetrees

Search on AA advanced and select AA only flights. Might be complicated by AA married segments.

I see an 8/11 PSP-(Y)-SEA-(J)-FRA (AS/DE)
8/11 LAX-SEA-FRA
8/13 PHX-SEA-FRA

ETA:
9/9 PHX-FRA

3Cforme

ExpertFlyer searches and award alerts support AA and BA but not Icelandic or Condor. Here's a link to list of carriers supported:

https://www.expertflyer.com/sessionlessClassList.do

If you want to fly AA in Business TATL you need a flexible schedule - not so much looking at the 330-day window but setting EF alerts for inventory that may come available <15 days before travel.

That is married segment availability. It is practiced for awards by DL, AA and UA, too.

Bretmd

jiburi

Keep in mind that Icelandair booking using Alaska miles is currently not functioning, and Alaska is working on the problem. It has not been functional for the past week and has been removed from booking engine. It will return as soon as the problem is resolved.

Mileage levels will also be raised effective May 1, 2019.

As for AA, AA flies to a few more cities beside FRA. I'd suggest being flexible on that side of the pond as well. I recently found space on Berlin (TXL) via PHL.

Jiburi

RetiredSFOATC

Thanks to everyone for these intriguing and helpful thoughts. I will be processing, and likely will have some further questions. It seems like things might loosen up when FI and AS get their booking issues straightened out. Without them onboard, the J and F choices really are limited - near non-existent, in fact. But I appreciate the tips - and am always interested in further suggestions.

VegasGambler

The real issue with booking on AA is that you can't connect on to anywhere on the same award.

If you have AA miles, I highly recommend using those since you can connect on any OW partner for no additional miles, which gives you a LOT more options -- you can basically get to anywhere in Europe.

Of course if you actually want to visit a city that AA flies to directly, this is moot.