marlin

I don't usually redeem for AA but I am looking to do so for popular March dates/Caribbean travel.

Should I call at Midnight?

Thanks

ohioflyer

In my recent experience, the new day was loading between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. Eastern time. On Sundays, it has often been much later.

Good luck!

marlin

Thank you!

Roadrunner2

Yes, you might start by calling at midnight CENTRAL time. But don't be surprised if the inventory doesn't load until an hour or two, or even a day or two later. At least that's been my experience.

j3823x

FYI, inventory may not load 330 days out. I've seen it take a bit longer. If this happens in your case, a subscription to Expertflyer.com may be in order to alert you when availability does occur.

Life_Platinum

Even though you may be trying to book immediately after AA has loaded a flight doesn't mean you will be able to book a business seat. I've noted that AA hasn't released J seats on some of their Asian flights until the day of departure. For example, we have been wait listed on the top of the list as an EXP for an outbound PVG flight from the time no one was seated in J, and now about 3 weeks out, we still have not cleared. I'm beginning to think that we might not clear, and that AA has not made any J seats available for EXP passengers using Evips.

hm3

Using the new online system, I have noticed J for POS is loading as much as 10-11 days after economy. This was a surprise, but an RA confirmed that she was seeing what I was.

I don't know if this is the case for all the Caribbean, but you may want to check the online site to see when seats are becoming available.

marlin

I only need coach. It's still better to call than to book aa.com, isn't it?

ohioflyer

Calling gives you a 2-day head start over aa.com

marlin

Thank you, that is what I thought.

rminky

I got my carib. tickets online 329 days before RETURN travel date. The outbound were up on web, but had to wait 3 weeks for return to load. Still it worked out OK, you will have to "juggle" dates a bit or suffer the overnight stay somewhere. AA seems to be awash with these on their award flights.

cmjaffe

here's my advice on what I did for "coveted" 4 Hawaii seats over Xmas. Keep checking our outbound flights on aa.com to see when they're loaded (booking a one way ticket). Get the flights you want. Then keep checking (calling up) when you think (and perhaps a day or so earlier) when your return flights will be loaded in. Have them add it to ressie. You can then pay for them on aa.com. Don't know when you're traveling but unf. we found out that some flights were loaded into system at 330 and then others got loaded in later on which would have been better suited for us (more local airport). BUT we've got our seats all set up for Xmas holiday going to 2 islands (would have loved to just do one but couldn't get return flight from LIH... 2 weeks later they added more seats into inventory but we didn't want to pay the $180 change fee then.. a bit more than our interisland flights).
Good luck with getting your award seats. It's good to know that AA still has coach seats available for peak travel without surcharges if you plan ahead.

wintermom

Since your outbound opens up first how do you save those seats while waiting for your return flights to open up? I know this has been discussed
before but I neglected to write down the information.

ohioflyer

AA will be happy to put your outbound on hold for 14 days while you wait for the return to become available.

wintermom

Thanks, I'll make a note of that