General miles question
 

This is a bit broad, and spans 2 airlines, which is why I didn't wanna post it in either specific forum.

I've got just over 55,000 miles in both Alaska and American accounts. My experience is mostly with Aeroplan/star alliance, so I kinda thought when I originally earned these miles, that it'd be pretty easy to use them. I was wrong, at least not use them well.

Any suggestions? Again I know that's really broad. But I'm looking for suggestions as to things I can ACTUALLY attain with them, rather than like mythical LATAM award space or something that can't be seen anywhere and that the AS reps on the phone can't see.

I'm free to travel pretty much anytime after April 2018, so I can book as far as a year out, though I don't travel much during the North American summer because when it's actually nice in Vancouver it's a pretty good place to be. I'm willing to go basically anywhere, but maybe with emphasis on Buenos Aires, Cairo, Istanbul, St. Petersburg Russia, South Africa, Australia. Those are all places I've never been but would be interested in visiting. Business would be nice, but economy is fine, or 1 and 1. I basically wanna burn up these miles at close to 55,000 a piece as I can because I have no plans to earn anymore with either program.

AS miles SEEM ultra valuable, but I've had 0 success in my previous searches to actually find anything, OR to book anything I think I've found. Down to "oh yea it's available, but the booking class in economy has to MATCH the booking class available for that flight, so I can't get you there". AA miles seem to be kinda garbage, there's virtually no availability for anything and much like AS, when there is for some reason there's always an overnight in PHX/DFW/MIA.

I have an EF subscription, I've signed up for the BA/QF accounts to search for space, but even when I do find something I can never seem to actually book it.

I don't really need anyone to do the leg work for me, I'm happy to do that myself, but maybe some ideas of things that are actually attainable as I said rather than the once in a lifetime space kinda things.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Cross posting is not allowed on FlyerTalk. Your AA forum cross-post has been deleted. But...

If you want to know how to improve your success with AA, see HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance. In particular, read the Wikipost at the top of the page; it also contains links to threads useful and specific to securing awards on partners like Cathay Pacific, etc.

It's possible the Alaska Airlines has similar assistance for those trying to secure awards. Good luck.

AA availability is generally the pits these days:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...iscussion.html

I find AS to be pretty good but as always it depends on what you're looking for and with whom. As I think you are aware you have to redeem for some partners online such as LATAM.

I'm confused by what you relayed from AS agents "it's available, but the booking class in economy has to MATCH the booking class available for that flight, so I can't get you there" - don't understand what that means or if you're referring to redemption on AS metal or partners. There is a flame-free Q&A thread at the top of the AS forum on here, you may want to start there.

There sometimes are issues with phantom availability on LATAM when I've looked at redeeming Avios for their flights, not sure but perhaps the same is the case through AA/AS. IME their award availability is poor on some routes in general.