rendezvous

Sadly, AUS-DFW F availability is non-existent and even Y availability can be tough to find for connection purposes...

Explorer789

Even still, most people who churn these cards, including myself don't care about AA redemptions. We rather use them for partner airlines in F/J. So I do not think we are contributing at all towards Saver award scarcity.

millionmiler

Fine if you churn cards and live in a very major airport city, otherwise people like you are indeed using AA to connect - or are now having to purchase a ticket to get to one.

Explorer789

It's relatively easy and cheap to book a separate positioning flight in economy as I have done it before. In fact, I don't actually mind going to a different hub if it gives me more flexibility and means I spend longer time in the air to enjoy the F/J award seat.

Saver availability is far more abundant with United if you are looking for domestic savers and want to avoid spending cash. Even still, most cash tickets will be a fraction of the cost of the award value, so spending $100-200 RT is not a big deal.

diver858

Following DL's lead, AA has been discounting domestic F seats, in an effort to earn more revenue, reducing the number of seats available for sticker upgrade. By strategically releasing additional U and Z inventory, AA will "earn" some revenue for the same seats that would otherwise go unsold.

beachfan

very route dependant. LAX-MIA is as high as it's ever been.

JonNYC

Please try digesting what statement I was reacting to. I know quite a bit on these topics, you'll find.

355F1

::raises hand::


I finished 2016 with 182,000 EQMs....




....oh which 23,000 were earned on AA metal. 😌



😆👍🏼

Happy

That I agree.

Hence the poster cited the Citi miles as one of the factors causing the scarcity so now it should be mitigated due to Citi has put in restriction has completely missed the mark for at least 2 things :

1) The card(s) are still freely churned for those who has access to the mailer, as well as the frequent "accidentally" released links without restriction.

2) Those who has boatload of miles are using it on CX and JL far far more often than use it on AA, hence does not contribute to the scarcity issue as you point out.

Happy

Not true.

A lot of people do not get hung up on the idea that ALL flights must be paid for by a single award" - many happily pay for a position flight by other means - be it a pay ticket or another FFP's redemption.

In case you have not realized yet, DL surprisingly actually has some saver availability for domestic trip despite it has been so notorious in the past on how a domestic DL award seat is ridiculously "expensive". Not the case now. The chance of finding DL domestic saver, at least from my airports, are now much easier than AA.

This.

Agree on going to another hub for better availability. We tend to use LAX on CX TPAC exclusively versus going up to JFK/EWR/BOS/ORD.

The Transcon often is a separate position flight which also gives us an opportunity to do a short stay at LAX or SFO.

People have to accept that the days when one can put every needed segment on a single award have been long gone.
One can get very frustrated trying to get a single award to cover everything, or one can learn to adapt with a position flight.

anc305

I know that not being able to get a Saver Award on the domestic segment in F is a bummer but in the past I have always thought that AA opened to many F seats way to early. I am on a saver award in F and the cabin has been F0 for at least 2 weeks. I have been frustrated many times when I could not purchase a international J ticket with the domestic F available on my preferred connection to the international gateway , even to the point of using another carrier that could. I do think they could make a few more Saver coach awards available for connection purposes in conjunction with Saver premium cabin rewards. Just my two cents worth.

Paulchili

That is partially true but changing fast and soon will be much like AA metal availability.
We all know that QF is essentially unattainable, BA is available but undesirable.
CX used to be both great and available but now is only great and F essentially unavailable. EY is very "iffy". For now JL is a good option as is QR most of the time. How long before JL follows CX and decides to hold premium awards for their own elites as the millions of AA FFs are hogging their awards (now more than ever before as CX has almost disappeared as an option to Asia)? I predict not too long.
My advice is to start thinking about alternatives for award premium travel.
You've heard the sayings about all eggs in one basket and rats abandoning a sinking ship The wise will pay attention to those wisdoms.

navatwal

I would like to try out AA's flagship product in F.

i have never found any saver award availability for the flight from LAX to Lon.

I amlooking to get from the U.K. To the Bay Area In late May, any suggestions?

i have also noticed that there are no J awards available to BHX from JFK, last time I checked was two years ago and award inventory was wide open... has this route become popular?

scubadu

Well said and agree.

Regards

Happy

Having meaningful balances in various FFPs is always a good idea.

That said, among the availability of partner award seats -

CX IS available. Just not 2F like in the past. 1F is almost always available at open of booking window. You could do 1F 1J for party of 2 or do 2x1F on flights just a few hours apart - but availability is there, just not 2F for those who insist to fly together.
I just looked last night, there are boat loads of J seats HKG-LAX in the first 2 weeks of Sept, and there are 1F scattered around, just not on the flights I would like to move one of us to so we could be on the same flight...

JL is not as available as CX until quite close to departure.

QR is NOT available for US-DOH routes on both directions - it has long been not available DOH-US direction for the period of Jul to Sept this year since booking window opened last year. Now the US-DOH routes also are very hard to find.

I got a bad feeling that soon QR would be like QF, as many people finally learn the exceptions on the "transit thru 3rd region" because now EU-Australia via DOH is much much harder to get than in 2016.

If CX management finally faces the reality and LOWER their revenue ticket prices to be more in line with its competitors, the empty seats would be no more. As of now the CX revenue tickets are priced with a HUGE PREMIUM above its competitors which are going in the rank while their products both the hard and soft are deteriorating. Hence there are plenty of seats CX has to fill, outside the peak holiday travel periods. So enjoy it while one still can.