mattack4000

As we get closer to Xmas, it appears a lot of flights are becoming available with points going to various destinations in the world. Yet coming back to the US seems to be very difficult to find (SFO especially). I am wondering if anyone has spotted any tickets coming back to the US around 31st to the 2nd on miles? It doesn't matter what alliance, just want to pay saver award price This is for 3. I am not sure if it is possible

LondonElite

Coming back from where?

mattack4000

We r flexible only thing is we prefer first world countries

LondonElite

Are you asking us to plan your holiday? Sorry, but this is not a travel agency. You should do this legwork on your own. As to whether someone has casually noticed three return seats from somewhere to SFO, by the time this info gets to you via FT, they'll be gone.

WorldLux

There are cheap flights to LAX, LAS, etc...

JDiver

Europe? South America? Asia? Australasia? It's a big world...

As to return, it's a peak season for travelers, so the less popular days are often best - Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, etc. (I just secured three reasonably priced awards on those days for my niece and her kids to visit - other days atbtwice the cost or more).

mattack4000

Not sure where I asked people to do the work. I was simply asking for a starting point as there are many countries on this planet.

Productivity

The whole does anybody know of any saver tickets on a specific day, from anywhere in the world? Inventory changes constantly - the only way anybody can actually answer your request is to go and search.

I can't speak for all of FlyerTalk, but I'm happy to help search someone who is feeling overwhelmed. What I'm not going to do is waste time to give you a smorgasbord of options when you can't even be bothered to give people an idea of what you are looking for.

For what it's worth, there's saver availability from IKA to SFO on the 30th. Have fun with that.

Duke787

Your best bet is to pick a region with lots of flights and carriers (e.g., Europe or Asia) and go ahead and book the outbound and then book the return while there.

You'll likely be booking your return 24-48 hours before return but by going to one of those two, you have lots of carriers and opportunities (e.g., LH is plentiful last minute ex-Europe, JL/CX tend to be pretty good ex-Asia especially in J where you can find 3-5 easily if space is available, etc.).

Yes you'll have to be risky but that's the deal with award and with high travel periods. From SFO, Asia is probably the better bet but it depends what miles you have and what class of service you are looking for. If you have miles that give you access to CX or JL as noted above, those are very reliable for last minute J bookings if the space is available.

FWIW, I give this advice as someone who has booked the return from Asia after getting to Asia and then tweaking it to improve routing within 48 hours of departure.

mattack4000

I do have enough miles to take JAL back from Haneda, unfortunately no returns are available from Tokyo. I guess I can always pay revenue ticket, but I wonder how much it would be if I wait until the week of travel.

I am always looking around, just not sure if there are any specific cities that I should start with. I should probably have a cutoff time of about 3 weeks before Xmas to decide.

Thanks

84fiero

What mileage programs would you be able to use? "doesn't matter what alliance" doesn't really help as award availability with the native program may not equal what's released to partners.

Any availability that others may have noticed may or may not still be there hours or days later when someone responds here.

Really, the best method is just legwork searching what's out there within your available mileage currencies. When you find something you like and can afford to redeem, lock it in then and there.

When I'm looking for inspiration or narrowing down, I'll pull up the various interactive route maps to see what destinations are even possible with the particular programs and carriers open to me. Then try some searches (online or in some cases have to phone).

That's going to limit you a quite a bit to begin with. Given that restriction, you shouldn't have much difficulty conducting searches on your own to such a subset of countries.

Duke787

You missed the point of my post. JL is great for last minute award availability (e.g., within 2 weeks). They'll show no award availability for New Year's until December 15th or thereabouts.

You'll have to gamble and likely even depart on trip and gamble on the return. You can get a sense of how things go by tracking JL award space over the next few weeks and see when / how they release things and how it ties to their revenue buckets (e.g., 7 J seats left = 5 award seats, 4 J seats = 4 award seats, etc.)

UpgradeMe

AS has availability for three from YVR to both SEA and PDX on December 30. Problem solved.

mattack4000

Gamble paid off, found some JAL tickets coming back from Tokyo.