Have you tried calling the BA Executive Club reservations line? They should be able to help you with this availability issue. And to clarify, are you trying to use AA miles or BA Avios to book this award?

Trying to book on a AA award

Astrophsx any luck with the AA award? I am trying to find availability for next Feb./Mar.

I am trying to find availability on LAX-LIM for September and not having any luck. BA's site shows 7 first class seats available but when I call AA and I even called BA they both didn't see them so must be a glitch.

Both daily flights on the days I am willing to travel are pretty empty but not sure I can risk waiting. I might hold out for 2-3 more weeks but I don't think LAN will release until a few days out from the flight date if at all.

I am probably going to use 120k Citi TY pts to book through their travel portal (LAN flights show up as AA so I get 1.6 cents per point with prestige card) and just get two seats in Y on the 787 flight :)

I've been looking for availability in Y into/out of Argentina in August (from various locations in S. America), and can find almost nothing. A number of flights show 7 seats in F, but as we all know LAN doesn't offer an F product. Not all of these are B787 flights, either.

I wonder if those 7 available seats are supposed to be in Y, but somehow ended up miscoded?

Using Avios, I am trying to find award space in Y SCL - IPC. Site shows 7 available in F (which I know don't exist). I called BA and they said there was nothing available. So same old story of phantom award space showing up. I can look at the next 6 months and no availability. You can use Lan Kms for award space through them but they want around 120,000 kms for a round trip... Crazy.

Very frustrating. I'm planning a trip to CUZ in May 2016. LAN Chile has opened up availability on flights from the US to Lima (which I need because American Airlines hasn't opened up any SAAver availability), but LAN Peru hasn't posted fares (award or otherwise) past April 2, 2016 for the LIM-CUZ route. I'm checking daily, but it has yet to move past 4/2.

Figured this out on Saturday when I called AA to book my flights. I thought it was weird that BA was showing availability on the MIA-LIM route and not on LIM-CUZ, but I figured it was just some sort of error and the AA agent would be able to help me find a flight. She was initially confused, same as I was, because I was already booking one LAN flight, why wouldn't the others be available? So she called LAN, didn't like what the first agent said to her so she HUCA, and the second agent told her that LAN Peru, specifically, hasn't posted fares past 4/2/16.

Slightly off topic. Was wondering if LA controls the amount of award seats that AA has access to? I've tried in the past using AA miles for LAX LIM in C. No luck. Decided just to purchase a ticket as there was a promotion.

I booked a coach ticket LAX-LIM for last October and can tell you that LAN does not release much availability (when searching through BA for space). I remember things opening up a bit more when the travel date was within ~21 days.

I have never seen more than 7 C seats available, and I have look often. It's common to find 7, but never more. Thus, I believe that LAN initially opens up 7 seats to their partners.

Could you give an example of a date and route you've seen more than 4 c class seats available for partners?

Not OP, but I think I'm starting to get a handle on these patterns.

I think the North America - South America legs initially release 4 seats in business at 330, and then they (often) pull them back at 329/328. For what it's worth, LAN is seeming to pretty consistently list these flights (and release space) at t+330.

I've seen 7 seats in J for intra-South America flights. As an example of one I was recently looking at, check out LIM-SCL in early May of 2016. These don't seem to get pulled at day 328/329. LAN files these flights at t+330 as well.

Then on the short leg intra-country flights with no J, I commonly see 7 seats in Y. As an example, LIM-CUZ on 4/2/16 (which, as noted upthread, is the last day that the flight has been filed at this point). LAN (I think) is filing these flights in batches (rather than rolling schedule).

One other wrinkle is some flights I've seen being filed at 320 days...

I'm not seeing the rhyme or reason here.

D'oh! For some reason, I was seeing 'C' and thinking Coach. You are correct, 4 is typically the number I see for Business Class. Oddly, I have seen 7 for F, for example: JFK-LIM on May 10, 2016.

OK, so the first class award availability showing up on BA's website is bogus. But is the business class award availability showing on BA's site still reliable?

Only ever booked Coach/Economy, so I simply don't know.