No Business Award. BKK-PHL
 

I have been calling AA for two months to find one Business or First Award ticket from BKK to PHIL and they cannot find a ticket from June until August, the next seat is in September. The whole summer without one Business or First class ticket - that is a disgrace and makes it meaningless.

CX is still a far cry from what they used to be. That leaves JL as the only viable asian partner that AA has (QR isn't viable for SE Asia on awards and MH is a joke of an airline). Even JL has been running less than usual as Japan only just reopened.

You can gnash your teeth all you want, but with low supply, higher than expected demand and limited partners, welcome to the new short term reality.

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Don't blame AA: they do not serve BKK. Any award in or out of BKK requires travel on a partner carrier, and AA can only offer award seats on partners that the partners themselves offer to AA. And any award involving even one segment on a partner is only available at the MileSAAver award level.

If you are willing to pay more miles, you could try to combine two separate awards: one from BKK to the Middle East or Europe; and a second award from the intermediate point to PHL.

There seems to be plenty of availability in Premium Economy from BKK-HND-JFK - each day that I checked in July showed seats available. It is quite possible to get award travel, just not much available in business or 1st

I am not sure how there being award availability on a daily basis makes 'it' meaningless. It isn't AA's fault that other airlines have a lack of availability

You will also have a harder time getting a seat to PHL vs say JFK...given that JL does not serve PHL and they are your likely carrier.

Quick glance I see 1 business seat June 21 BKK-JFK on JL.

Would BKK-JFK work for you? If so, here's a multi-city award in June for 110,000 AA miles in Business:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...64f490405d.png

guv1976 thank you for that advice. JFK is hours away from me and being in my 70's do no like the idea of New York traffic and the distance.

As to the replies about AA not flying there and partner airlines are needed, I did book First Award tickets through UNITED. UA to ORD, than ANA to NRT, TG NRT-BKK and than return the same airlines. UA had many options throughout the summer and they also do not fly to BKK. So, maybe it is AA who does not want to pay their partner airlines. With UA you can also do Asia to Europe to the USA for the same miles as trans Pacific. AA charges a lot more miles.

A whole summer without a flight on AA is questionable

Seems like a question of partner award availability in F/J for OneWorld vs Star Alliance. For SE Asia, Star Alliance usually has more options and availability for Award tickets.

1. UA flies to SE Asia2. UA has SQ, TG, NH and CA as alliance members.

UA has always been easier to find SE Asia flights. With CX largely nerfed for now, it's even worse for AA.

Then you should wait for China's eventual reopen and CZ's integration into AA's system.

You're exaggerating a bit. Sounds more like a OneWorld carrier limitation.

Meanwhile, did you try the aa.com award search? First attempt I found the following available for business class one way for 110K:
June 2,9
July 3,4.5


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...20ad34fbd1.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0edbc8a443.png

Good find, but it's important to check the flight details. For the July dates, the domestic AA flight books into Economy, not Business. That's probably not too big a deal for the routings via ORD; I would not want to be in Economy for LAX-PHL.

On one of the July dates, the BKK-TYO leg books into Economy, not Business.

Note that these are First Class awards (hence the 110K mileage charge), not Business Class awards. The intercontinental leg on JL books into JL's F cabin.

You are looking for award tickets to travel in premium cabin during Peak travel season (summer school break) from a destination that AA don't serve themselves and with alliance partners based in countries/cities that are still/until very recently under strict COVID measures that suppress international travel.

This doesn't make the program a "disgrace" or "meaningless".
JL is also known to release First Class award availability ~14 days out from departure. Given the no change fee/free award cancellation, just book whatever award you can for now and change accordingly when/if CX recovers next year or when JL F award opens up.

This thread summarizes why I carry the CSR and Amex Plat instead of any AA cards. Diversify - It opens up a lot of other options instead of just being stuck with one airline or alliance.

I'm off to Europe soon and J mileage tickets for my gf were atrocious on AA. Instead, we booked a 60k ish award on LH through UA courtesy of the CSR transfer.

Exactly why I'm sitting on several hundred K of AMEX points to transfer when a trip piques my interest that has availability on one of the AMEX partners.