milepig

I was helping a neophyte colleague this morning.

She had called AA last night and spoke to a person she described as a "very nice helpful agent" who was unable to find her anything ORD-CDG within a range of three days (for each direction) in September.

I said "let me help" and logged in to find availability all over the place, all classes and both saver and anytime awards for a huge range of dates.

She spent about an hour confirming the best date for her, and then went online to book (since I'd shown her how) and was able to get anytime awards, but the saver awards I'd seen shortly before were no longer available. (Now confirmed by me to be not available.)

Either she got a really bad agent, or they opened up a few seats last night that are now being snapped up.

diver858

Not unusual. I set several ExpertFlyer alerts for more desirable routings on saaver awards. If unable to act within a few hours of a notification, inventory will often disappear.

Think about it - Citi gives away AA miles like candy, resulting in large numbers of people chasing a limited resource.

Seats likely became available when someone changed travel plans, rathar than AA releasing additional award seats.

Blumie

It's an unusual night when award inventory doesn't change. It's being opened up and snapped up all the time. I suspect there was nothing special about last night.

JDiver

As American Airlines and US Airways are still operating as distinct airlines, this question is being moved to the appropriate pre-merger airline forum.

Please note the sticky at the top of the consolidated thread which is titled Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING. With all of the changes about, it is important to know where to post, and reading that thread before posting (as the title suggests ) will help get you in the right place.

~Moderator

sdsearch

In addition to everything else, on flights to Europe there's often phantom availability on AB that comes and goes, and can make a date seem to have awards when it doesn't really (but you figure that out if you try click through).

JDiver

I think this may be it. Hundreds hankering for high demand destinations like Paris and Rome, not so many flights. A MileSAAver seat or two become available, at least some of the hungry are subscribers to, say, ExpertFlyer; the SAAver seat inventory to aspirational destinations is probably measured in minutes, not hours.

And some want to badly enough to spend at AAnytime rates.

FabrizioB

One thing I noticed. A specific flight can be widely opened. Then they close it up (drops from T7 to T0 instantly @ near 6am GMT). Then a seat or two pops up within the next 7 days. It is probably seat on hold that have not been taken.

In my case, I was watching a MIA-CUN 10am flight in november for weeks.
It was T7 all the time.
Then, all of a sudden, closed. That's when they decide to end it up.
2 days later, 2 seats were available again. This can only be on-hold reservations released. Hum ?

jaynyc

In the past I've obtained MileSAAver awards in Business and First Class for MIA-EZE. Usually obtained the first day those flights appeared with near 100% success. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. MileSAAver awards for Business and First Class are now grayed out (Economy is available). For Business and First Class only Anytime Awards are available.

Another example of the New American not being a Better American

Blumie

This is not a recent change.

Max M

Indeed.

sAAver inventory for Business/First on MIA-EZE started to dwindle well before the AA/US plans were announced.