joer1212

I just checked availability from both ABE and ZFV.
ABE has the worst availability, much worse than JFK or EWR. It has nothing at all in business class, not even AAnytime awards.
I don't know why people keep suggesting to try smaller airports. If anything, the smaller the airport, the worse the selection will be. I have never once gotten somthing from a smaller airport that couldn't be gotten from a much larger one.

ZFV has similar availability to JFK & EWR. No business saver award seats available at all, only AAnytime business and first.
I also checked flights out of MIA and DFW. Same thing.

Actually, if there was Milesaaver Business availability from cities other than NY, those results would show up as a layover flight, even if you're not looking for these flights. I see no difference at all in specifically searching for a flight from MIA or DFW. In my experience searching for awards on AA and UA, pretty much all possible results are displayed up front (nonstop & connecting flights).

joer1212

I just checked BA.com for availability on LAN and TAM. The only results that come up is BA or AA to LHR, then LHR to EZE.
I even checked for availability to GIG. The same thing. The only difference is that there is a sprinkling of flights on Iberia to MAD, then MAD to GIG. Very bad.

KennyBSAT

AA also knows that people want to fly in their business class seats, so they are not releasing them for saver awards. Nothing new here. I see TAM first class JFK-GRU-EZE on several dates including 1/16, 1/19, 1/30 and 2/1. 62,500 one way. Along with lots and lots of coach seats nonstop.

Searched at britishairways.com, you do have to click each day.

KennyBSAT

There are also business class seats JFK-MIA-LIM-EZE on 1/13, AA1085, LA2515, LA2427. I am not sure if this is a valid routing per AA's rules, though.

Same on several Mondays and Tuesdays, you have to search NYC-MIA and MIA-EZE separately.

joer1212

I tried Philly, Dallas, and Miami. No luck.
I also tried other arrival Argentinian cities, and this message comes up:

There are currently no awards available on AA.com for your requested Origin and Destination. Please modify your request or contact AAdvantage Reservations for award opportunities on all AAdvantage participating airlines.

NOTE: *My brother and I just decided to head to Rio instead of Buenos Aires. So we are now only searching for availability for NYC to RIO on a J saver award. No luck in sight yet.

joer1212

Did this. There are no business Saver awards whatsoever.

KennyBSAT

On AA.com, you are right. There are, as I noted, some TAM first class saver seats. The other carriers that also serve EZE will show up at Qantas or BA, or you can call. ETA: for TAM first class, you are a few miles short. Can/are you willing to open a credit card that would give you the miles you need

joer1212

If I can't get Business saver awards, I can't go, since I don't have enough miles for a standard award. If we have to fly coach to GIG, we'll pass on this destination.

KennyBSAT

JFK-GIG mid February, TAM flight 8079, business class. Nearly every date in February. Nice overnight schedule for business class: 18:50-8:02

Edit: you can also continue on in TAM business class to EZE. TAM flights JJ8079 and JJ8022. You may have to search each segment individually, but they are all there. So your choice on the destination Or if that's the way you like to travel, continue on JJ8002 with a layover in GIG from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM. And get both.

joer1212

Just out of curiosity, I tried searching for 2 o/w Business Milesaaver awards to nearly every major city in South America (Jan 18, 2015). I could not find even a single seat. Not one.

I thought this was really odd. Maybe there's a glitch in AA's website?

So, I searched for 2 o/w Business Milesaaver awards to several cities in Europe (same dates) to see if I got the same result (Rome, London, Paris, Vienna, etc).

There were tons of available Business MileSaaver seats for every city I searched.

How is this possible? Why would it be harder to get J saver awards to SA than Europe? If anything, you would think that South America would have way more available options than Europe for anyone willing to fly there. Instead, it's the exact opposite.
Is this because there are very few flights to cities in SA, while Europe has many flights? I can't believe how hard it is to get 2 J saver awards to anyplace in SA. Availability to SA in J saver sucks even when I check the off season!

joer1212

I can't fly in Feb, but even if I could, where are you seeing nearly every date available on TAM in Feb? Is this on TAM's website? How is this availability likely to be a saver award, anyway?

KennyBSAT

I am seeing them on britishairways.com. They should also appear on Qantas. several blogs have series of posts on booking AA awards that might be helpful. Yes, they will have to be booked over the phone.

Sorry, your OP made it sound like we were looking for a 2 week period between January and March, 2015.

You see more availability to Europe because 2 AA partners' award seats to Europe show up, as well as AA flights. However, most of those seats are on BA and have high surcharges. Unless you go to Brazil first, which is another story.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

The ba.com website sometimes has trouble displaying available award-seat connections, at least when one of the carriers is AA.

Try searching for each segment individually on ba.com, i.e., NYC-MIA, MIA-EZE, MIA-GRU, GRU-EZE/AEP, JFK-MCO, MCO-GRU, JFK-SCL, SCL-AEP, etc., etc.

mikelat

It all comes down to demand. Depending on the time of year you're looking at, you may find demand is lower to SA than to Europe. And, many people try to avoid BA award flights for TATL travel so there may be 'easier' BA flights over the pond to Europe than there are AA flights to SA. I actually would expect Europe to have better options than SA as there are more flights LAX/ORD/JFK/DFW-LHR that can connect to BA intra-europe flights than when you look for AA direct to EZE/GIG/SAO.

joer1212

I have no idea where everyone is seeing First Class saver seats on TAM on AA's website. There are none whatsoever. In fact, not only are there no Business class or First class saver seats at all, but the only airline that shows up on the AAnytime search results is American, no one else (are partner airlines EVER shown on AA's award searches?).
I checked for NYC to EZE and NYC to GIG. I also looked at several months before and after my dates. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I must live in a different universe than everyone else here.