In my experience, if anything, it's the other way round. Qantas lets its own frequent flyers grab awards at 353 days out, but someone who wants to use AA miles has to wait another three weeks. By then a lot has been taken. It's not as bad as it might be, since demand by AA members (mostly from North America) tends to be mostly in seasons when QF members (mostly from Australia) wouldn't want to travel, but it's still a concern.

This specific situation has been discussed a great deal, both in the AA forum and in the various threads about the annual May FlyerTalk get-together in Australia* (OzFest), which many Yanks attend. I can't be as specific about other partnerships, but I suspect it's similar: either awards open up to everyone at the same time, or the airline's own program members get first dibs.

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*And once in New Zealand, earlier this year. Back to Oz in 2016.

Afraid I can't answer your question. But one tool you might want to check for award availability is awardnexus.com I believe that it offers some initial, free use for FlyerTalk members. I don't think it covers SQ, but might be useful for getting a sense of whether and how far in advance the three airlines you have in mind open up awards, and whether there might be other options out there.

Having said that, even if you find something on awardnexus.com, best to check the airline's site or call the airline yourself to confirm. And conversely, though awardnexus is usually very good, there can be times when it misses availability. So I'm not suggesting it as a substitute for the other research you're doing. But it can supplement those efforts.

SFO-FCO
 

I can only make suggestions for this leg as I just booked for next June but our of NY. It looks like on some days AA does open up business seats on the JFK-FCO flight, but not frequently. I booked JFK-DUS-FCO on AB at 330 days out. Since the flight is an overnight flight it really ended up being 229 days out. If you look at the AA calendar when you put in your date you will easily see when they should open up. I found that although it showed availability on the first day of opening I could not book it for one more day as the leg from DUS-FCO was the next day.

I would think that if you look at the various gateway cities that AA/IB flies to either FCO or to Germany you could snag the TATL portion and then easily piece in what you need from SFO.

Hi everyone,
Trying to understand how to use the tools at hand and needed an explanation on something...

I just ran a test search on KVS Tool for July 26th 2016 SFO-LHR then LHR-FCO.
KVS shows me (with 351 days to go) that BA has two seats from SFO to LHR in business.

I went on BA website and its confirmed those two seats are available. Avios points needed 125,000 + $959 in taxes and fuel surcharge!!.

Since I have miles on AA (50,000 per person is what AA charges instead), I then go to AA.com, but it won't let me search that far ahead, given the 331 days limit they have I assume.

Knowing that BA has availability, if i call AA, would they book me the award flight or also by phone I need to wait 331 days before i can contact AA for this award flight?

Thank you all as always!

Leonardo

Based on an article I read recently, you'd have to wait. Some people used to book using Avios, then when the 331 days time frame approached, they'd cancel and immediately book using AA miles. *But*, the main point of the article was that this "trick" was no longer working flawlessly. The canceled reservation seats would sometimes (most of the times?) not show up as available again.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

It doesn't matter whether you call or use aa.com: AAdvantage awards cannot be booked more than 331 days before departure.

And even though AA charges fewer miles for SFO-LHR-FCO on BA, the taxes and surcharges will be comparable to what BA quoted you.

Perfect thanks for the input!
At this point I think we'll push for a AA flight so not to throw away $$ in taxes and fuel surcharges :)

Hello everyone,

A little update on this "master plan"... all possible thanks to all your great advice.

My mile bank has changed as I was able to earn another 110,000 Ultimate Chase Rewards in this past month and a half (Chase Sapphire for both myself and my fiance'..)
So now the intinerary has changed :)

SFO-JFK in American Airlines First. Trying to catch the 8.40am flight from SFO and fly a premium product of AA (First class 32,500 miles one way each). For this we are covered as we have enough miles (100,000 on AAdvantage)

JFK-FRA-SIN-MLE on Singapore with TWO stopovers, in FRA the first (for the wedding week in Italy) and the second one in SIN for two inghts. Goal is to fly Suites on the JFK-FRA-SIN route, then business to MLE from SIN as they don't offer First on that route. Cost should be 224,400 and $722 in YQ for two people. This is the hard one, but i've learned to get waitlisted first, then book business then call in often to checkin on the waitlisting to Suites... fingers crossed! This one seems hard to get but I will be persistent in checking daily with KVS tool the availability of the award on SQ.

MLE-DXB-SFO on Emirates with ONE stopover in Dubai for two nights. Cost 247,500 miles for two ppl in Business. I'll book this first then try and stockup more miles before our departure date so as to try an upgrade to First as well.

Funny how one starts planning in Business and ends up WANTING First... all the way :)

Another couple of weeks and the award seats should start showing on the websites, let's see if I can make this work....

Thanks again to all!
Leonardo

Congratulations on all the good planning!

If by some chance you don't land two F seats on an AA SFO-JFK flight and have to "settle" for J, don't worry about it. Certainly, F is a nicer and roomier seat and thus a bit more of a special experience But it has the disadvantage for a couple of your not sitting next to each other and sharing the ride. Plus J is lie-flat as well (if you'd even want that on a five-hour daytime flight) and perfectly comfortable, and you get to sit right next to each other.

My only other advice for that flight is if you end up in J, sit at least a row back (starting in row 7, that is), from where the galley and toilet are located. Similarly, sit at least a row forward from them if in F.

I know the feeling!

Thank you for the recommendation! I totally agree. Will focus on J for SFO-JFK. Makes totally sense to travel together on a transcontinental flight. And also great advice on the seat rows!

Today I checked again Emirates.com availability and something does not add up. I thought their availability was up to 340 days out. Today it show Aug 24th 2016 availability and not beyond. That is 328 days out... has something changed with Emirates? Maybe the website source I'm using is wrong.

Thanks!