iahphx

We won't know until they load the X-mas schedule, and that's still about 3 weeks away. Last X-mas, almost everything except Christmas Day was embargoed, so your odds are not good.

The good news is that there's currently a lot of competition in that market and fares are pretty good. Like you can fly roundtrip for less than $260 on most days around Thanksgiving (alas, not on AA). If those fares get loaded for Christmas, and your dates are certain, I'd buy them. It's generally silly to use 25,000 miles for a $260 fare, and it's especially silly to use 50,000 miles for a $260 fare. Seats will go quickly at that price for the Holidays, and the early bird will get the best flights.

BTW, the calendar is "odd" this year with X-mas and New Year's falling in the middle of the week, so there are no obvious "peak" days. I don't think that will help with AA saver award allocation (they'll just blackout "everything"), but it should help in buying revenue tickets (demand is a bit spread out), and it might help slightly in finding award seats on other airlines. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Austinrunner

No, it wasn't.

danorum

Well, I would prefer to use miles. We don't travel internationally, so some of the redemption values the rest of you get is tough for me.

Hopefully it won't be blacked out when the dates get loaded later this month.

Thanks for the advice,
Dan

iahphx

Everyone's circumstances are different, and I understand. Realistically, though, the odds that AA will have Saver award seats available on the days you want to travel on that particular itinerary are extremely low. I'd actually put them at about 3%. Your best chances are either mistake (they forget to load the embargo script) or a smart AA manager reading this thread decides to give fodder to the "nothing's going on here crowd" by specifically loading seats for you! Both are low probability events, however.

So plan on making other plans. In any event, there's nothing you can do now expect wait the 3 weeks or so for the Xmas schedule to load. When the seats don't appear on that day, somebody here will probably tell you to wait -- they could add seats later -- but I would highly recommend making other plans at that point.

EsquireFlyer

danorum

I would take either of those scenarios.

Jsut so I am clear, what was missing?

All savers (econ and first)? Just econ savers? Direct and 1 stop or just direct?

I am seeing even in early Dec that there are only 2 direct ORD-MCO seats on each flight, but plenty of routing through MIA/DFW.

This is the first time I have tried to book when availability opened, so I would like to get it right. If there is another thread to read up on this, I would be happy for a pointer. I have done some searches on FT, but possibly now well.

Thanks again!
Dan

iahphx

Only coach saver domestic awards are getting specifically embargoed for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday periods. If you're willing to pay 50K for first class, you would have a shot when the booking window opens. But I have no experience with this many FC seats; 4 seems like a lot.

And it is certainly alarming that AA's "regular" allocation program isn't loading many ORD-MCO saver seats. Early December is obviously not a peak travel period. The fact that they won't load more than 2 coach saver seats on any mid-week nonstop flight the first week of December tells me your chances of getting 4 saver seats on one flight during X-mas vacation -- even without the special script that will likely pull ALL domestic saver inventory on those days -- is remote.

There really isn't much else you can do at this point. Just to check on things, do a simple award search (I find one-way is easier) on AA.com every week or so for your route to see what's "going on." What I think you will find is for travel days beginning around December 20 (which will roll onto the schedule in 2 weeks) ALL saver awards (including connections) will vanish from the system. This means the Holiday embargo script is being deployed for Christmas -- and it becomes extremely improbable that you'd be able to book your proposed coach award travel at saver rates. But you obviously won't know for sure until your travel date goes on schedule.

I wish there was more anyone could do for you, but I suspect your choices are to pay 50K (hopefully in FC), buy an affordable revenue ticket (possibly on another carrier), or make other vacation plans.

iahphx

Bad news, folks -- it looks like AA will be taking a very heavy-hand in restricting domestic coach saver availability for next Christmas. The dates are just rolling onto the calendar, but they seem to be starting the embargo on Thursday, December 13 -- twelve days before Christmas!

We'll have to see if they make seats available for any days during the X-mas season -- like perhaps Christmas Day. They also might take a few days off the embargo list (and perhaps a few city pairs) as Christmas draws closer. But this decision probably means that almost no one will be able to redeem at the normal "saver" level for domestic coach Xmas travel.

Science Goy

You're fretting about this nearly a year in advance?

Well, that's your prerogative. I'm not going to worry about it, and enjoy my Saver award flights next Christmas whenever they're made available. Just like I do every year.

nitrobass24

First off there are not that many sAAver seats available and of course they will go faster than normal if its a period when everyone tries to go.
Holidays, olypmics, whatever.

Also AA is in business to make money selling seats, not giving them away to frequent fliers. If I was running an airline, I would limit availability on sAAver seats as well because it makes good business sense...that time of the year the seats are going to sell no matter what.

PS: What does the poll even mean? The options are in a question!

former230

This embargo (specifically around thanksgiving time) is affecting me as well. 330 days out I was able to book 2 CX F tickets from HKG to ORD on 11/18 but there is nothing available to get me from ORD to MCI. Kind of amusing as it's typically the CX F portion that people struggle with.

The EXP agents have suggested that I will have to buy those ORD-MC legs or use a seperate ticket for an AAnytime award. Makes me feel stupid to use 67.5K miles for CX F portion and potentially 25K or 50K for an AAnytime award.

iahphx

Yup, all you'll have to do is wait.

You know what that river in Egypt is called, right?

iahphx

Interesting. When I've "priced" AA int'l awards during the embargo period, availability for the domestic segments "magically" appears. Basically, the "married segments" script overrides the domestic embargo script. But I've never tried pricing an award with a partner (because you'd have to call to do it). Not sure what happens.

And, of course, the embargo doesn't apply to domestic FC travel.

So I'm not sure if you have an "embargo problem" or a "normal" award availability problem.

Austinrunner

There is not and never has been an "embargo." A bunch of alarmist propaganda from the OP, just like last year.

Science Goy

Yeah, de-"same-thing-happens-every-year-and-it's-always-fine"-al