enviroian

I'll agree that you and I will never agree on anything on here. No worries. You have your opinion and I have mine.

guv1976

What "change fee" do you mean?

mvoight

I suspect the miles redeposit fee.

DCJoe1

This worked for me a few years ago, booking 4 people to DUB. Business was VERY important to us, as was a specific date. So I bit the bullet and paid 110K miles/person one way for Aanytime awards. Then 3 days before departure the seas parted and 4 J Saaver awards became available on our same flights. Paid $200 to change and saved 210K miles. Can't say that will happen for many others, but it worked in our situation.

Should also add that J availability on AA metal from mid-July to mid-August from the US midwest and East Coast is much better this summer than it has been in the past. Used those saved miles to get 4 J Saavers on AA metal to BCN in late July. Also have family going to LHR around the same time- 5 J Saavers on AA metal.

GFrye

CodyX2

That's unfortunate.

Score8

BTW, just because you select American in the advanced pull down doesn't mean that is all that comes back in the search. All of those 30Ks could be on BA. Only at the next level can you then deselect BA/IB.

VegasGambler

I didn't say it had to be AA metal. I said I was flying AA metal on the TATL legs.

The question was whether AA miles were worthless for flying to/from Europe.

The answer is, I used my AA miles to buy tickets to/from Europe, all in business class. So obviously they are not worthless for that purpose. If they were, I wouldn't have been able to get those tickets.

ijgordon

Have you found this recently?
Because my impression is that AA is NOT necessarily releasing those seats at Saver levels. They *are* releasing them as upgrade inventory, but they still want people making last-minute bookings to pay AAnytime award prices, by and large. Effectively how Delta SkyMiles works, but at least DL has lots of "middle grounds" between lowest saver (harder to find than on AA probably) and unrestricted.

seigex

Last year on 9/7, I booked a J LAX-LHR trip on AA metal with J MileSAAver space there (57.5K) and J AAnytime space (110K) on the way back, total was 167,500 and $220 in fees for 2018 Christmas/New Years weeks (12/24/18 to 1/5/19). I had been watching constantly (multiple times a day some days when I was bored) for about 3 months before I booked, and there were many times that I could have got MileSAAver both ways, but by the time I was ready to pull the trigger it changed. During that time, I noticed that MileSAAVer awards change almost daily. Any specific day you could have the award you're looking for, or it'll disappear. There seemed to always be BA available with the $1200 fuel surcharge that I wasn't interested in, so you have to weed through it.

Sometimes the calendar was full of blue J SAAver space and othertimes none. Almost every day I searched there was economy SAAVer space available for 37,500 each way for the same flight, but I didn't want to copay to maybe get upgraded to J for the flight. I did notice about 3 months out, the SAAver space pops up less frequently and it's harder to get what you want, but it still does randomly become available.

There are tricks to looking for just American and ignoring BA, mainly by selecting advanced search and choosing "American Airlines Only" or whatever it is, and setting it to "Business/First" if that's what you're looking for.

I ultimately cancelled the trip at the last minute and went back to Tokyo instead.

dwugson

Yes TATL seats can be had but, as the OP said, using BA flights and fees. If you have status with AA I've found it more worthwhile to use my miles + cash to upgrade and with judicious booking, I'm successful most of the time. It certainly is less pricey than the horrendous taxes charged by BA.

bitterproffit

I found a unicorn for late May, early April, and then I found a double rainbow unicorn!

I had almost given up trying east coast gateways to anywhere in Europe for this summer. Then in November, suddenly, PHL-LHR-FRA opened up with AA metal to LHR and BA to FRA. No BA fees. I wondered if I could get pushy and originate it from Nashville. And it worked! I could go BNA-PHL-LHR-FRA all in J for 57.5K.

So, now I am getting really cocky. I try FRA back to Nashville in June and the Double Rainbow Unicorn appears! A J class saver 57.5K redemption including the non stop BA flight from LHR right in to Nashville.

Fees are high ($800), but I remember reading on FT to split the reservation into 2 one ways. So, sure enough, splitting it drops the fee down to about $400. $400 and no repositioning flights and no airport hotels at repositioning airports? I will take it.

So, they are really tough to find, but I was shocked I found it. I was getting really frustrated but finally it clicked. Plus, I had completely eliminated BA at first due to the fees, but then tried it as one ways and the fees became a little more acceptable.

enviroian

It's really a shame AA does this to their customers. With high profits and full planes they don't care about customer loyalty (don't worry, spare me the "satisfy shareholders return" blah blah blah speech). They raise the spend thresholds to reach a certain level but restrict awards so much that we have to use pay for services to find a "unicorn" through an exhaustive and 95% of time fruitless search.

AA really sucks...

beachfan

VegasGambler

It depends on how flexible you are.

If you want to pick your dates and magically find award availability on that date, yeah, you are most likely out of luck.

If you are flexible about when you fly, you can find award space.