JJeffrey

Whatever city you can find availability through on your preferred date.

gumercindo

I guess I'll ask it another way. Right now for 10-11 months out, sAAver J class is non-existent except for a connecting one through LHR via BA for 57.5k miles one way. I only have redeemed J via UA and my experience has been that availability fluctuates throughout the year and I've been able to secure multiple J class saver redemptions as little as 7 months out.

Does this happen with AA or is it much rarer to find J sAAver availbility pop up 8-9 months out?

hyperzulu

I've found certain partner awards to pop up like this, but only closer to departure for AA awards. Though this is maybe not true of all routes AA flies internationally though. The last redemption I tracked was to Australia for AA metal, Spain for partner.

JJeffrey

There's no hard and fast rule for AA, but generally speaking, as long as your dates are flexible, there's a very good chance that better options will open up over the next 11 months.

iahphx

I am starting to see what you describe: DEEP discount fares are popping up on the unsold domestic routes I'm looking at, but in my case a few days before departure. I'm seeing $69 Basic Economy fares, while the cheapest "normal" coach fare is still over $500. They have not loaded any award seats on these flights, which seems like algorithmic incompetence to me: why would you sell $69 fares and not 12,5000 mile award seats, when most of the folks redeeming those fares would get hit with high last-minute fees?

BTW, it's a shame I can't put a ticket bought less than 7 days in advance "on hold" on aa.com. If I buy it from a third part website, is it still refundable within 24 hours? The flights that have loaded are better, but not "perfect" for me: I'm trying to decide whether to "risk it" and hold out for better.

SFO777

Yes, if you buy from an OTA that offers a 24 hour refund policy (Expedia, Orbitz, etc...), you get the 24 hour refund provision on an AA ticket sold inside 7 days.

iahphx

Thanks. That's quite useful in my situation. I do have an AA gift card that I'd prefer to use but, in this situation, it would seem wise to save that and use an OTA.

robertw477

I just booked two award tickets today. I am a lifetime Plat. I needed to use the miles in my account for my ticket and we needed to book my wife using her miles plus 1500 from my account for this business class award. In the past they have booked these tickets in my account and pushed the miles from my wife (if needed). I have not done this in a while. Today I had to pay $42.00 to transfer 1500 miles to her account and the rep was more than happy to book the tickets charging me an additional $75.00 close in booking fee for her ticket. Is this the current policy? I know these things change all the time.

JJeffrey

Yep, both fees are correct, assuming your wife doesn't have any status and would be subject to the $75 close in fee.

rrgg

I thought that was always the policy, unless they waived the fee to transfer miles as a courtesy. You could also just buy miles directly, https://buymiles.americanairlines.com/en/buygift (Also, if your wife was anticipating miles to post next month, sometimes AA lets your account go slightly negative. They did this for me once, but it was quite a long time ago.)

robertw477

Thanks for the info. I guess these days they are figuring every possible way to generate revenue. Maybe in the past they just did it as a courtesy

Thanks

klanfa

How is AA on releasing SAAver awards for domestic itineraries? I'm looking at flights around Thanksgiving (I know, I know,...), and I'm very flexible on both departure and arrival airports, and don't have a problem with reasonable connections. Still, I haven't been able to find anything that works for me. I guess I'm wondering whether saver space tends to open daily or in batches or what? Just so that I know the best strategy for looking - and it's a lot of combinations to check due to married segments and my flexibility.

3Cforme

One can't predict when saver awards will open. Use ExperFlyer award alerts. Don't be too surprised if you approach within 3 weeks of travel and have never seen saver awards.

EkekoBWI

Your obscure, early-90s SNL ref isn't lost on me...

sdsearch

Don't expect award flights on the most heavily booked days of the year (which I think includes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

If the flights actually operate then (some flights are cancelled that day), Thanksgiving Day itself may hold the best chance, because by then fewer people are traveling.

There's no pattern to how award seats get released, once you pass 11 months out (which was over half a year ago). Not that it's dependable even then, but that's the closest it seems to get to patterns.