Andrito

So I am relatively new to the AA process and was trying to book two TATL tickets in J or F. Obviously hoping to get the low level redemption. What I found was pretty peculiar. There was not a single seat available on AA metal(4 flights per day) from May 1(a ton before) to Dec 22nd(last day out). They have plenty of Y and many connecting flights but nothing direct.

So then I decided to give EXP line a call to see if maybe availability is better(as suggested by a poster on the "scarcity of award tix" thread).

Didn't help but I had a pretty funny interaction with the agent. I asked her if this is policy not to release those flights. She said that they are just snagged very quickly.

So I asked her how many seats they typically release per flight. She said about 10. So using her logic, thats means 40 seats were released yesterday for December 22nd(last day out) and I was wondering if she thought it was possible that all of them got scooped up in a 24 hour period. She did <eye roll>

While I understand that its technically possible, I have a very hard time imagining some AA vultures impatiently waiting to snag up any J or F seat the second that they become available. Especially 11 months out.

I mean, am I wrong? Isn't the likely scenario that they simply don't release that route at all on sAAver redemption level? Or have they simply put the cutoff at April 30th (for now?).

The agent didn't know how to explain it so she said that other people have redeemed sAAver in J and F on that route. Out of curiosity, has anyone been successful with that on this board? AA metal, JFK to LHR in J or F, sAAver level after May 1, 2014.

I mean, if they don't release it, thats fine. Thats the name of the game. Its not like other FF programs are perfect. I was just curious enough about this to ask all the AA travel warriors, as well as knowing for the future.

Much obliged.

jridge

Not a very scientific answer, but my impression is that they are very tight with releasing premium seats on the 77W, both for awards and upgrades. Similar situation with DFW-LHR's 77W. Note JFK-LHR is going to all-77W on the AA side.

Austinrunner

Do we really need a new thread for the award scarcity issue?

Andrito

Well, the question is pretty specific and only requires one answer - "yes". I definitely don't think this needs to be a thread about scarcity. Just wondering if anyone was able to book it.

Given the amount of frequent flyers on this board, if 1000 people view this thread and we get zero "yes" answers, then its clear that AA simply has not released a single sAAver J or F award after 05.01.14 on Flights 100, 104, 106 and 142.

Again, this isn't structured as a complaint but more a curiosity of what the rules of the game are.

GaryD

We wanted 4 J Saver AAward seats on AA JFK-LHR-JFK in August for a Baltic cruise, only one day flexibility. We were ready at the 11-month mark: only BA available, with the high supplemental "fees," so reserved those, and added an alert on AwardNexus. From late September until today, only the BA flights show available (four flights each day to date), never a single AA seat in J for our preferred date outbound or inbound.

We're also using JAL miles for flights NRT/HND-LHR-NRT/HND. There, we preferred JL over BA, looking for one seat in F. We got a seat in F on JL NRT-LHR (now changed to HND-LHR), but the return is only available on BA, again with the high supplemental "fees." Again, AwardNexus shows no availablity from late September until today in JL F. The JMB Diamond (ow Emerald) waitlist doesn't help either.

I've got to conclude, joint partner BA is tasked to supply the award seats, since that's where the fees are. It's just business.

Andrito

So it appears. If you guys were waiting several months already and didn't see a single one pop up, that tells me that the thesis is likely correct.

I guess they require BA to carry the award flag on that route. I also put an alert on EF but I guess that was for naught. I don't even mind the summer blackouts, as that is somewhat reasonable, but why not make flights available from Sep on? There is a ton of availability in April for F.

In conclusion, I guess we can shut this down at this point. Between your experience and 225 people viewing this thread and none of them(presumably) having booked a sAAver J or F after May 1st, I can only imagine that AA, in fact, did not release any availability for those flights under those conditions.

ESpen36

AA and BA share revenue on TATL routes from the USA to the UK. BA charges outrageous fuel surcharges on award tickets; AA does not. Since the two airlines share revenue on these routes, it would make sense for BA to be the carrier to offer premium awards; that way, both carriers benefit financially from the fuel surcharge revenue.

Makes sense to me. I don't like it, but it makes sense. AA is in business to make money.
You can always claim an AAnytime award if you want to avoid the surcharges.

dayone

I challenge the presumption and discount the imagination.

Andrito

That's fantastic. When you say "challenge", are you going to back that up or just say it?

I actually did the research, formed an opinion and asked people to chime in. So far, not one "yes". Would you care to challenge that too?

Apieinthesky

I trust that you did your research and I'm aware of the increasing scarcity on TATL awards in particular. However, I have a few objections.

Bolding mine:
This is not correct. AA has no obligation, nor is it anywhere in their policy to do so (at least AFAIK), to release award seats exactly at the window. Just because flights are loaded on a day doesn't mean they have to load sAAver or upgrade inventory as well. RM decides when to release those inventories, and that can be anytime between 330 days to 1 day.

I see that you said from 5/1 out. How about sAAver inventory closer in? Obviously flights from now to 5/1 have been in the system for many months. Do those have any sAAver J/F inventory? That would suggest RM is waiting to see how quickly the cabins fill up before deciding how many awards to release, which makes perfect sense IMO. Also, AA has tons of historical data for their older planes, but comparably very little for the 77W product. It makes sense that they would err on the side of caution before releasing sAAver seats that could've been sold for full J or full F.

Also, you mentioned that there are connecting flights available. I think that's good enough, and AA also doesn't have an obligation to release inventory on direct flights. That also makes sense to me with their new 77W product (which should generate more revenue), to direct sAAver awards to their older J/F products. While perhaps not ideal (and you're right, no FFP is perfect and some will work better than others, depending on your needs), the mantra here is that flexibility is key when using awards.

I also want to mention sAAver J/F awards on the A321T routes. When the flights were first loaded they were nonexistant, but there have now been numerous reports of FTers being able to snag U/Z awards. It's not a huge number, but certainly enough to discount any claims of "sAAver awards are nonexistant on the A321T routes."

Upgraded!

You sure that she meant they release ten seats all at once, as opposed to they typically release ten total over a 330 day period? They may trickle in over the 11 months because a) they want to see how many they'll sell and b) perhaps they want to avoid giving up groups of four hoping to get those looking for four seats to buy a couple when only a few awards exist.

ajnaro

Only you're using AA miles.

Dave Noble

If not using AA miles, then no benefit in using AA over BA for the award since likely to be charged the fuel fines regardless

Also , the OP would be unlikely to be trying to use the EP desk to make the booking if not using AA miles

Austinrunner

They are surcharges, not fuel surcharges. And whether AA gets any of them is unknown. That depends on the super-secret contract between AA and BA. Have you read it?

Austinrunner

The "rules of the game" have been discussed about a thousand times in the preexisting award scarcity thread. Your question / situation is nothing new.