Not a single AA transcon/intl First saver (Z) through the end of schedule?
 

Hi folks,

Trying to redeem for an F award to Asia where the transpacific F segment is available from LAX (on CX). To maximize the experience, I am trying to find a transcon F award so I could use the JFK and LAX Flagship dining. However, after some more searching, it appears there is not a single F saver award through the end of the schedule (yes, not only not available on my preferred dates, but it is not available on all dates throughout the posted schedule if you go through the award calendar)

I understand that saver awards are strictly capacity controlled, but isn't that the transcon F usually leave empty or get filled with non-revs? Is AA really this stingy, or maybe there is some software glitch (like married segment nonsense) that are preventing those seats from being available to book?

Thanks for any insight!

EDIT: I just searched all the other transcons as well as some of the 77W routes with International First Class, without finding a single Z seat!

I think your post is a bit mis-leading. It looks like you are only searching JFK-LAX based on the information provided, but there are a ton of other TransCon flights to go from east coast to west coast. If you look to other airports, especially outside of NYC, you'll maybe find more availability. If you want to stick with NYC, that's fine, but the title of this thread should probably be changed accordingly.

Business frequently oversells on the route, which leads American to hold back some F seats to op-up people into in order to sell more J seats.

Sorry for the confusion. I was meant to say all of AA's A321T/77W premium transcon routes (JFK-LAX/SFO, LAX-BOS/MIA), thus I mentioned First Saver Z. Other routes it will be Business/First Saver U. But I will update the title.

BTW, I have just searched all of all other transcons, as well as some of the 77W international routes (HKG, LHR, HND, GRU), without seeing a single Z! This has to be a bug of some sort I believe...

Or perhaps AA wants you to pull the trigger on an aanytime award or sell you the seat for $$$
and AA is happy with having F fly empty or "filled with non-revs" otherwise.

Perhaps they will open up saaver seats randomly later and those with EF alerts (or checking website daily) will grab them immediately.

Nope.

AA doesn't seem to open up saver ability in F on this route. Some dates seem to show AAnytime for 85,000 miles. Another option is to book a relatively cheap business class cash fare ($659, or $1,109 depending on the date) and upgrade via your SWU or with miles. Even buying F for cash outright may be a better option

Details? You got 5 saver fares SFO-JFK-LHR on one flight in July/August?

Lately the only time I’ve seen sAAver first on SFO-JFK or JFK-SFO is when biz is already sold out on a flight.

Ahhh I see, if you search SFO-JFK-LHR there appears to be a lot of married segments Z availability (for example 23 July).

I can tolerate AA for using married segments for Y/J booking, because most flights have Y/J seats so it is still possible to book something. Using married segments for F (requiring both flights to be empty enough release Z seats) seems a little bit too too much.

I guess I will never be able to book a transcon F to connect to my CX award... probably just going to buy some AS miles and book using AS (40k miles cheaper plus a freebie Asia F)...

Thanks everyone for contributing and sorry for not doing thorough research about this married segment thing (I only searched transcons and LAX-LHR/HKG/HND, DFW-LHR/HKG, MIA-GRU/EZE/LHR and completely forgotten this married segments annoyance)

Mods, please feel free to move this thread to the married segments megathread or the paucity of Saaver award thread.

That's not quite how it works, to my understanding. There could, in theory, be Z inventory on SFO-JFK when you search SFO-JFK-LHR, but only U (or T!) on the JFK-LHR segment. And there could be zero Z on just SFO-JFK. So the availability of the Z on SFO-JFK is not really tied to whether there is availability on JFK-LHR or not, but it's tied to whether your flying from SFO to JFK vs. LHR.

But this can make it difficult to piece something together like JFK-SFO-HKG, because I don't think ExpertFlyer can handle the married segment logic on an AA/CX itinerary, and you can't search CX on AA.com, so you have to speak to an agent. (And this assumes that AA is applying married segment logic to multi-airline itineraries, I'm not sure, but I think they've been starting to.)

Yup- this does seem to be a casualty of married segments and admittedly a reduction in the need for EF. What I found is that the availability in both F and J was TOTALLY different this summer than in years past due to married segments logic. It is not really possible any longer to "find the gateway" and then piece together as i had previously done. Even looking at YVR/SEA/PDX yields different results for the overwater segments. The good news is that I found several viable options from SEA via DFW to MAD in biz, by putting in SEA-MAD. None of these showed if I looked at DFW-MAD. The SFO-LHR came up from a random search I did before accepting a SEA-SMF-DFW-LHR trip in J, which wasted part of a day in SMF.

What I am not sure about is whether adding an AS segment on to the beginning of this is going to work or whether the AA system will effectively ask if my Z5 availability would not have been available for SFO-JFK-LHR is we started in SEA. Worst case is we buy that segment, calling now to check on that.

On AA metal on JFK-LHR?
And at the sAAver level?

AA is devaluing their program in all kinds of ways. You can find multiple threads on SAVER over the water not linking up with SAVER on the domestic legs. If you find them the layover time is often overnight or just under 23 hours.