Still not sure what's going on... checked BA right at dot for JL seats at 17:00 and shows no seats for the 330 days in First, so JL isn't releasing First seats?

Then went for another date (1/19) that BA showed has seats, but AA agents say no seats...

Then for certain dates if I go for NRT-LAX instead of TPE-LAX, it shows seats on BA site... and then disappears lol

I'd echo this. I just had a similar experience a couple days ago with CSRs seeing different space than BA/QF/JL shows. I was booking flights to come home from DPS in a couple weeks and say BA and QF both showing 4 F seats on JL NRT - ORD.

Called up and fed the CSR all the flights and we got to that flight and he claimed he couldn't see it (I believe he either had the date entered wrong or it really wasn't there because he was super helpful) and then he spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if other routings would work before exclaiming that the original F seats on NRT - ORD had returned and he was able to grab them and get it ticketed.

1) Right in the wiki: "JL may release 0-2 F and 0-4 J award seats initially"...
2) What route are you talking about F on? TPE-LAX? Or something else? I only show 1F on JL via BA site on 1/19.
3) If people hold or book the seats, they do disappear and show 0 available. On the other hand, if the BA site glitches, the flight or class of service usually doesn't show up at all.

Were you able to check BA and QF at the same time as the CSR? With awards limited and a lot of people going after them, I suspect that part of this "BA says this, CSR doesn't see it" conundrum is people holding/ticketing awards and beating others to the punch.

That said, I have had to direct a CSR to a specific flight number several times, especially when booking a partner award on a route that also has a non-stop AA flight. BUT, I was on my PC and able to confirm that the BA or AA site showed availability that instant and therefore didn't feel bad pressing them a bit.

Yep I was refreshing on the spot for both so it was quite odd - and even after he got them BA still shows 3F and it's been 48 hours since I grabbed my 2 F seats while at 4F so the space was/continues to be there so either the agent made an error or there's some issue with JL space displaying properly.

This was also for a flight in 2.5 weeks not one for post-deval (right before) so it wasn't a matter of tons of people calling right after space was released.

Similarly the agent couldn't see KA F even though I could see it live on QF and BA though that ended up being a non-issue because CX F HKG - HND opened up two days later for the connection to JL 10.

Yes, I understand it may be JAL who is not releasing the seats... but that's the thing, I try to book 1/19 that BA shows and the AA agent told me she could not see it... so kind of confused.

I am trying to book TPE-LAX.

Same thing here. Just called the EXP desk and even though BA.com is showing 2 seats available in F, the EXP attendant told me she couldn't see availability.

Is this normal?

BA has been known to show "phantom" award availability at times, as clearly stated in the wikipost at the top of the page, unfortunately.

so i've never booked a partner award using AA miles before. there shouldn't be any reason i can't find a segment or 2 on JL with availability, and couple it with a domestic AA flight right?

how does it work with regards to changing or canceling the award? can i redeposit miles for free if i'm AA EXP?

Aside from the reason that the availability might not be there for the exact dates you're looking.

As EXP, all the fees are waived, including (I believe) changing origin/destination of the award flight. Where you might get dinged though, is if you do that AFTER March 22nd...you might be charged more miles (i.e. if you change origin/destination). why that is an important consideration is that if you can't find the AA connection leg to the partner flight "today" thinking you can add it later might trigger an award re-pricing.

If you can't find the connecting flight, I'd just book the long haul partner flight. Depending on what you're looking at it might be easier/cheaper to simply buy the connecting flight down the road. Then again, I have no idea what you're looking at.

I'm looking for ATL->PVG. I've found availability on JL out of a DFW and LAX, and there's AA availability to get me to those cities, so assuming the JL availability isn't phantom, they should be able to book that all as 1 single award right?

Yep, they will. It will be booked as a partner award because there's a mix of JL and AA flights.

If there's availability on the AA segments right now, you might as well put them on hold or book them. You can always call in later and have the booking/hold changed to include the long-haul flights.'

Caveat on that: If your flight is after March 22nd, you'll need to add the long-haul segment before that to avoid a repricing of the points needed at the higher rates (there's a thread on this). Also, there's always a small chance that when the agent adds the long-haul flight, they may have to release the AA segments and rebook them again w/ the long-haul flight - and the AA flights may not re-appear when they are released depending on timing/inventory/etc. But... it's still better than waiting until you book the long-haul because it gives you a chance at those AA flights rather than someone else booking them.

As Hartlogan says. Sounds pretty straightforward. You just need to decide which schedule works best and if you prefer a 777 or a 787. The former has F if that's of potential interest.

yeah i'm thinking i'll probably go ahead and book it all now. with that said, isn't it also an option to NOT fly business or first on domestic legs on AA? as in, i can combine economy milesaaver with the longhaul "business milesaaver" on JL?

Yes. But make sure it prices correctly as one J award (55k). AA reservation system sometimes wants to price the Y segment as a separate award and you may have to prompt an inexperienced agent that you are taking a 'voluntary downgrade' on the final domestic segment.