Ok, I know I'm up against the OnePass program's famous inavailability, but I'm still a little young and a lot naive, so bear with me.

I'm trying to book a reward ticket from OAK-UIO (SFO-UIO would be fine too) for the weekend of March 10. Ideally, I'd like to leave that Thursday (3/8) and return on Monday 3/12. I can be flexible +/- a day. On Wed 3/7, there is standard award availability (17,500 miles) for OAK-UIO (and SFO-UIO and IAH-UIO). Not so for Thursday, but fine. I can live with a 3/7 departure.

The return is the issue. Between now and the end of April, there are 3 days (total!) with standard award availability for the return leg. This goes for UIO-OAK, UIO-SFO, UIO-IAH (just for reference-- I wondered if IAH-OAK was the bottleneck, but it appears not). Those days are 4/19, 4/24, 4/25. All of my data here regards economy class. There is absolutely no standard award First/BFirst availability through April (as far as I checked).

So, what gives here? Does CO just give literally NO standard award availability on these flights? Or do they give just 1 or 2 seats and those seats are gone for every UIO-IAH flight for the next 4+ months?

The real question important to me is, of course, should I book this ticket ASAP, so at least I can pay the standard rate for the outbound leg? Or should I wait a while because there is a reasonable chance that some standard award availability will open up on the return flights as their day approaches? How long would I be advised to wait in that case?

I'd sure like to avoid the SleazyPass rate altogether (for 52,500 miles, I should be going to Brazil, not Ecuador!), but I definitely don't want to end up paying 70k miles because I waited too long.

Thoughts? Advice? Can anyone shed some light on the overall scenario?

Thanks in advance!

try doing a search with just the iah-uio-iah flights. when you search co.com it will look for the easiest connections. so if your iah-oak/sfo flights that make most sense are unavailable, the entire trip will show as unavailable.

if you find that your iah-uio-iah flights are good, call CO and tell them your sitch. they will search for other oak and sfo connections for you. you may have to hang in the airport for a while, but it works many times for many CO FF'ers.

Thanks, but as I said, I did search IAH-UIO availability. The availability for SFO-UIO, OAK-UIO, and IAH-UIO are all identical (for March, at least), implying that IAH-UIO is the bottleneck. Hence the question... I just can't believe that all but 3 of the next 150 days are actually booked.

im sorry. i misread your post. usually its the damn domestic connection that screws everything up. it appears that uio-seems to be your issue. i assume CO only has one flight. they may have two, did you check that?

here's another option. book standard FC sfo-uio and sleezypass Y uio-sfo/oak.

then ask to be put on the FC waitlist. if standard opens, you should be able to just switch in. they may make you book in sleaypass FC and then redepoist miles if you are moved into standard, but i have heard that that scenario actually makes it worse becuase it takes a seat away in FC where as booking in Y still leaves it open and vulnerable to a downgrade to standard level.

I believe Channa is the most well informed guy regarding these situations. i bet he wouldnt mind if you pm'd him.

Yeah, CO only has one flight out of UIO per day (to IAH).

Are you bringing up FC as perhaps a better way to get standard availability? If so, how would that work? Unfortunately, co.com shows no standard FC availability for the weekend I need (before and after, of course!). And I can't afford a standard + sleazypass FC ticket anyway. That's 105k miles-- about 8k more than i've got. I could afford a standard FC RT for 70k miles (and would happily take it if available).

A little digging shows that I can go from Panama to OAK with standard reward in FC or Y. I'm going to call the elite desk in the morning and see if they can book my return via Panama. There is an early morning Copa flight from UIO-Panama, and maybe I could get them to put me on that. It'd be awfully nice to get that return in FC for 30k miles...

I'll post whether or not I have any success with this idea. In the mean time, any other tips are appreciated!

You've already figured out the PTY option. From PTY, there are quicker ways to get home than via IAH (e.g., PTY-CP-LAX-AS/DL-SFO).

Dont forget that DL flies UIO-GYE-ATL I believe its a late night flight out of UIO. You should be able to match and match ST members.

Ah yes, good thinking... Can someone tell me about CP's cabins? I can't find mention of FC cabins on their website. If there's none, then I'd prefer the slightly longer routing through IAH on CO (I have friends who'll be making the trip from IAH). Of course that all presumes I can get a standard award FC ticket in the first place.

Oh I found Copa's business class cabin. Can anyone tell me how it compares to CO's service on central american routes? CO just flies 738's on the routes I'm considering.

Why don't you call and see what's available first? Then put something on hold so you can protect your space.

You can always tweak it before issuing the ticket, but at least hold it to protect yourself on something if there is something available.

Per channa's suggestion, I called today and put a reservation on hold. I snagged a pretty good itinerary, but have some questions. All flights are on Delta birds, and I managed to get a First/BusinessFirst reservation for the standard award price of 70k miles, plus about $60 in fees (most due in cash at UIO on departure! )

3/8 OAK-ATL-UIO. 6:40am - 10:00pm (12:20 travel time)
3/13 UIO-ATL-OAK. 10:55pm - 12:10pm (16:15 travel time)

Questions:

I booked First/BusinessFirst, but when I look at my reservation on CO.com, it shows class "International Business (R)" for both transcon legs, but "Coach (O)" for the international legs. However, all of my seat reservations are 2B. When I look at these tickets on Delta.com, the first class cabin shows 2B (alone) reserved on all 4 flights. What gives? Is this a guaranteed FC situation, or a potential downgrade? I'll ask CO about this tomorrow of course, but am curious to hear what you FTers know.

I would prefer the 3/12 return flight, or a 3/13 flight early in the morning. What are the chances something like this will open up before the trip? (CO says no go right now). I see Delta shows 4 FC seats booked for the 3/12 UIO-ATL flight. I don't know what class they are, but perhaps one of them is "the" reward seat for this flight?

Finally, the ATL-UIO leg is a 5h 30m flight. UIO-ATL is 9h 05m! What's with the 3.5 hour difference on a north/south route? The long flight departs at 11pm, so it's kind of nice to arrive at 8am instead of 4:30am. Is that why? So they just throttle back? Fly a less crowded route?

Thanks again for everyone's help and insight!

Hmm... I realized I had a Delta confirmation number, so I checked out what they had to say about my itenerary. All flight segments are listed as "Status: Confirmed." The transcon legs are "First(R)" and the international legs are "Business(O)."

So I guess that means I'm fine as far as having my seats up front, but I'm still curious as to what's up with CO reporting that as a Coach segment. Any thoughts?

The longer flight time is due to a stop in GYE; DL's Ecuador flight is a circle trip ATL-UIO-GYE-ATL. IIRC, thru pax do not deplane in UIO but must leave the plane and reboard in GYE.

The Elite desk CSR even told me about that stop. I just didn't put 2+2 together... that makes 3, rigth?

Thanks for the reminder