Flyertalker001342

Every Finnair itinerary I have ever found on AS for mileage redemption has been phantom space that could not be booked.

PotomacApproach

As a long time Delta Plat, let me welcome you to the world of SkyPesos. 120,000 miles for a standard 2x2 F seat on an A321neo BOS-SFO. AS getting worse is not surprising with all the new OW earnings in addition to the CC, but still has a long way to go to before reaches DL levels.

AinthePNW

AS is 100% devaluing their mileage redemptions. Not only on their metal, but it is increasingly harder to use their miles for partner flights at reasonable levels.

AS has been generally the last player in the US to overwhelmingly devalue their program, but it is finally happening on the redemption side. At least it is still easy to earn AS miles, especially given that they actually award based on distance. With that said, I’m dumping AS next year to go back to UA - who has already massively devalued their program (I’m dumping AS for reasons other then their MileagePlan). While we are all chasing value in mileage redemptions, I’ve learned that the program as a whole is more important then straight mileage value.

SFO777

There are still good deals out there with partners if you are patient. I recently used my last 70K AS miles for JAL First Class from NRT-SFO.

notquiteaff

I recently flew a Finnair award from SEA to HEL and onwards to continental Europe (after a nice three days in Helsinki). I think I paid 70k each for two flat seats. Slept very well. Have had another flight (different date) that I cancelled and one return flight coming up later this month that I still need to cancel. So… at least initially when Finnair loaded the new SEA flight there was plenty of award space. I have looked and not found any for next year, though.

No way. Not in AS F while I still have hope to fly to Europe on Finnair or Condor from the west coast in a lay-flat seat.

Yeah, I don’t carry the AS Visa in my wallet since it makes little sense to use it for daily spend. It’s basically a way to get a discounted companion fare once a year, and a fall-back for bag fee waiver when I don’t make status. I think the discounted AS lounge passes were killed recently, too.

Flyertalker001342

Every CC you have can be compromised, something I have learned by unfortunate experience. My AS Visa card, for some reason, has been compromised several times in the last 5 years, so not using it is a good reason to cancel it. In addition, you could always get another one and take advantage of the sign up bonus, as long as you wait a year or two before reapplying.

WrightHI

And that’s fine. You don’t have to. For now, I’m sitting on more miles than I can use for premium cabin long haul, so it’s useful to have other options available even if the value is lower.

Flyertalker001342

I think the bottom line is that holding on to AS miles (or BA Avios, or whatever currency of whatever mileage program(s) you are in) is a bad idea because it will do nothing but lose value over time. Virtually every airline out there is making redemptions harder to get and worth less. If you want premium cabin space that is even more difficult.

So spend those miles on whatever you can find to spend them on, spend them soon, and don't accumulate large balances because it's not like a bank account, it's like a water tank with a leak in it.

jsguyrus

I have Finnair booked for a trip in a few weeks in J, definitely not phantom space.

TEDisgone

Can also confirm that I was able to find J space for late April and early June. ORD seemed to be the easiest gateway but DFW (A350) had quite a few days when I checked. (Good luck getting a connecting AS flight to either city, though!)

Flyertalker001342

I was able to find space. The problem is that when you try to actually book the space, the booking fails at the very last screen (after you put in your credit card information and push the button to complete the "purchase.")

This is obviously rather annoying, because you have to go through a number of screens before you get to the point where you get the error message indicating that the trip cannot be booked, try again later (which doesn't help, either).

AinthePNW

It may not be phantom award space - rather AS’ terrible IT. I had a summer trip to Europe booked on Aer Lingus in business (SEA-DUB, DUB-BRU). Aer Lingus cancelled the DUB-BRU flight and absent a 2-day layover in DUB, The AS recourse was to rebook me at some crazy amount of miles (170?).

I found a flight on Finnair out of ORD to BRU that worked at the saver level. I got the same error hang up upcoming checking out on the AS website. I thought it was phantom space and walked away from my laptop. Then I was like, hmm, I should at least check expert flyer. Sure enough, 1 J seat was showing up in Expert flyer.

I ring AS and ask them to book. The agent runs into the same problem and says it’s phantom space. HCUA. This time I’m more forceful - I asked for the partner desk, which I finally got. I explained the cancelled flight and the issue, she was quiet for about a minute and said yes, I’m fact the seat is available but our IT won’t let us book it - so it has to be done manually. AS doesn’t allow us to do manual awards on partners anymore, but let me talk to my supervisor since your previous booking was cancelled. Comes back on the line a few minutes later and said that they made an exception for me and she booked the flight. Had a great trip on Finnair. It baffles me why AS won’t allow manual booking if the space is actually available………….

Flyertalker001342

At some point, you (the generic you, not "you" personally) needs to ask, how much of a pain in my ... am I willing to put up with, in an attempt to use airline miles to get "free" seats" on an airplane. My own answer to this question has been a bit of a moving target, but the amount of annoyance I'm willing to put up with is declining over time. The airlines encourage you to accrue miles, however they don't really want you to use them. Maybe it's just better to get the best rewards cash card you can find and to use that to get cash back that is real cash and then you can use it as you wish? Then just find some way to buy your airline tickets for the best price possible, take the perks that come with FF elite status, and then call it a day.

AinthePNW

100% agree with you. In this case, my connecting flight was canceled 3 days before departure. The cheapest one way economy ticket was $2k+ with TK biz pricing out at $2.7k. So, I was a bit pissed that AS almost left me high and dry a few days before departure - not cool.

If this flight was a month or more before depturare I would have walked away and not cared - something, cash or miles would pop up.

olouie

Once AS devalues its miles to AA or DL status there will be very little reason to favor them over any other airline.