lensovet

I have an award that’s EWR-SEA-YVR-NAN.

The last two legs are in business. The first leg is in coach. But if I search for EWR-SEA-YVR in J on AS, there’s plenty of availability.

Is there some rule around this? It thinks that the SEA-YVR flight is my “connection to the gateway city” and thinks that I don’t deserve to get J for the first flight?

jrl767

“married segments”

for award travel, all AS segments have to be available at lowest (Saver) rate to combine with partner flights

lensovet

Ah, and how can I tell whether a ticket is a saver one? For economy I guess it's 12.5k and J is…25?

lensovet

To be clear, this is an itinerary that has been booked and ticketed already. I'm just trying to figure out how I can tell when space is available on the first leg so I can go in and change it once availability opens. Obviously I can't keep searching for the whole trip since the availability of J legs on YVR-NAN has nothing to do with AS's own availability on their flights.

Flying for Fun

Were you searching for awards or revenue? Have you confirmed if there is award availability in Saver E fare class on your flight(s)? Even if there is F award space on EWR-SEA-YVR, it may be dynamically priced, which cannot be combined.

James

lensovet

Searching for awards. How can I tell if there’s saver space on AS’s website?

eponymous_coward

LOL, on an AS transcon 9 out of 10 times seeing F space on EWR-SEA-YVR on a search means that EWR-SEA is Y and SEA-YVR is F. Do the search by segment before assuming you have found transcon saver F (it does happen, I’ve booked it in conjunction with AS international partners and stopovers, but it’s not common).

Also, AS metal for saver is now 12.5k for Y on a flight over 2101 miles, 30k for F.

Also… there’s very VERY little chance AS will open F for awards later on a transcon if it wasn’t open at booking. I’ve never seen it in a decade+, but sure, hunt down your unicorn, good luck. Much more likely they will open U before departure and if you’re an elite on a coach ticket, you can get the upgrade (though EWR is a pretty tough station unless you’re flying a redeye in January or something, it’s theoretically possible an MVP could get the upgrade but it’s a vanishingly small chance when you’re behind EVERYONE in line, MVPs on saver awards come dead last in upgrade order).

lensovet

I didn’t assume anything, I’m asking what the rules are.

the flight has first not coach

eponymous_coward

That’s not Saver F. It would need to be available at 30k.

And like I said there’s pretty much zero chance AS is going to open Saver F on EWR-SEA if it’s not available at booking. But maybe you’ll get a lotto ticket. Good luck.

Arsene Wenger

Saver in the context of award travel is referring to the lowest priced (in miles) award bucket ( T for main cabin, E for First) not to be confused with Saver cash/revenue fares (X) with all the restrictions. It’s confusing I know!


Here is expertflyer info for the flight you posted



Award seats are available but none in the Saver/cheapest fare buckets (E for First and T for Main Cabin) which can’t be combined with your J award partner booking sadly, but there are higher/dynamically priced award seats available.

As eponymous_coward suggested if you don’t have an expertflyer subscription you can also use the AS award chart to figure out if a AS segment is available in Saver (First or Main) by the number of miles AS wants for their individual segment.




“Starting from” = the Saver award price so EWR to SEA being 2401 miles in distance means if the individual segment is priced at 30,000 miles for first it’s a Saver (E) award and it can be combined with a partner award. As the flights you posted are 50,000 (not 30,000) for first and 15,000 (not 12,500) for main you then know they aren’t Saver and are dynamically price and thus cannot be combined on a partner award.

Lack of Saver (E and T space) availability to gateways to combine with partner awards is an issue and it was voiced at least on FT ahead of the Flyer Forum AS hosted so you aren’t the only one frustrated by this.

lensovet

thanks so sounds like the answer to this was 30k. I’ll keep an eye out.

lensovet

Last question: on the phone an agent said that it’s possible to upgrade for $$. Does this make any sense?

lensovet

I’ll be honest, I’m not too bent out of shape about this and just wanted to understand what was happening. At the end of the day, I’m getting 4 flights with effectively two stopovers (the layover in YVR is 12 hours so we’re going out into the city) for the price of a single J redemption with lie flat business on the longest leg. As a point of comparison, on Aegean, an equivalent booking would price out as 3 awards due to the mixed classes of service (2 economy, 1 business).

so yeah, I’ll take this over either no availability at all or requiring a break in mileage due to mixed cabins.

lensovet

Well, I'm seeing 30k redemptions for this route on 1/21, 1/24, 1/25 (direct), and a bunch of availability with stops on 1/26, as an example. So perhaps looking closer in is the ticket?

beckoa

In Jan and Feb, sure. Going further into the year, probably not as much. Bottom line, keep an eye on it. Consider a subscription to Expert Flyer as well. Good luck!