Domestic First Class SAAver award floodgates opened over Xmas
 

So I was checking my bookings and AA completely messed with the schedule over the Christmas weeks. My flights booked with Avios all had to be moved around...but while I did that I noticed domestic first class saver awards were available on my route everyday, every flight for the week of Xmas and after. YMMV, but I checked several random routes over that time from ORD to Floriday, California, and Vegas and ALL had great space.

I doubt this will last long as it seems like the schedule change increased availability usually only lasts a few hours to maybe a day.

Hope this helps people with their holiday travels.

Thanks for the tip; no such luck with Hawaii unfortunately :/

Yup, got my holiday awards cleaned up and/or upgraded thanks to this weekend's schedule changes. Even spotted some rare LAX-JFK U space on the weekend before Christmas! Hope folks were able to do the same.

It shows available for a number of flights, but after you select flight, it says flight no longer available. Checked a couple dozen different flights over multiple days - same results.

Thank You!
 

Major props OP. I was able to snag (U) JFK-LAX and (Z) LAX-JFK for my preferred dates/departure times around Christmas. Now the nonstop premium cabin availability on the route is sparse again, just like that.

still lots of things available but some are double connections. like the OP said, all over the system. Unfortunately the saver flights won't work, so i'll stick with the anytime coach tickets for dates and times that actually work for me, and save about 5k a ticket. Nice find, though

Thanks OP! Worked perfectly for a flight I've been needing over the holidays.

Yep still none on BA for LAX to HNL anywhere. Gonna have to just do some MS and go with flying blue

We actually had some domestic connections on E-VIP upgrades where space opened up as well. There were schedule changes that AA made automatically though that resulted in some very short connection times that we were uncomfortable with, and made some additional changes. It seems like even after ticketing you have to look at your reservations on a fairly regular basis, to make sure there are not changes made with no email or other notification. That said, there was some improvement in LAX-ORD connections and ORD-DFW

Really strange - software glitch????
 

Tried it yesterday, no luck, seats were showing up with text "Seat 2A" etc rather than blue boxes, and failure message as above.

Today, all are showing up and rebooked Xmas flights with no problem.

Thanks to OP for this thread :D

If I had to guess, it might have been a software glitch - they do occur
now and then.

It sounds like some FTers were able to get award seat availability DURING the schedule change. While a schedule change is going on, inventory is set to default levels (which can have the effect of temporarily opening a lot of inventory). Once the schedule change is complete, normal inventory level are restored.

I saw this yesterday morning and grabbed several cross-country saver awards on prime holiday dates --Dec 21, 26, 27, 30. This thread definitely saved me several thousand dollars given the otherwise ridic fares around this time. Thanks OP! ^

Actually, when the "daytime" LAX-BNA was drastically rescheduled (6ish hours later eastbound, 4ish hours later westbound) and changed from 319 to 738, all of the low-priced categories were zeroed out yesterday (they're looking normal today) for Xmas week (I'm not sure how much beyond that yet), and the lowest price for a one-way coach was coming up $1400 or so, so I doubt there was award availability at that point on that route (but I didn't think to check award availability, since I was so shocked at the drastic change in schedule). There's definitely no award availability today.

Did the changes where the award availability appeared entail both timing and plane type, like this LAX-BNA change did?

I also benefitted from this thread. Much appreciation for the OP and FlyerTalk as a resource!

The specific routes I looked at that had good availability (2 seats or more) had crazy pricing. The route I booked was Ord-tpa and had 2-3 seats in saver business on each flights. Cash prices were $1049 coach and $649 first class. Makes no sense at all....but during AA schedule changes up is down, left is right, and saver awards are plentiful :)