Book Award Ticket Now or Wait
 

I am looking at Award Flights for May 2014 to get me from San Diego to Italy- visiting Florence so any nearby cities, and returning from Barcelona after a cruise.

I have miles on American and United, so could use any of their associated carriers. Would prefer business class.

Right now I can book economy seats going using my AA miles on AA, BA, AB or I can see Air Canada, UA, and LH bookings using my United miles.

Coming home from Barcelona Spain I do have tickets on hold for BA first class at 62,500 miles each plus $425 copay.

Should I book the economy seats now and hope something else opens up or wait and chance that better options open closer to booking.
Thanks

If it is early enough in May, the off season mileage to Europe is only 20K in Economy on AA. Then fly back from BCN on whoever, but that $450 on BA is painful. All things equal, I would burn my AA miles before UA miles.

I agree that it makes more sense to burn AA before UA--you never know what will happen with their bankruptcy proceedings. Go ahead and book the economy tix now, and if J opens up, AA will likely let you upgrade without additional fees.

You can avoid the high fees on BA by using IB or AB for the return flight from Spain. AB would require a change in Germany, but has very low fees. IB's fees would be higher, but still far lower than BA's.

Unfortunately coming home from Barcelona right now my only choice is BA in coach or first class. AB and Iberia flights have an additional overnight and I am already leaving one day later than planned. I have the BA tickets on hold for 5 days so will keep checking.

The BA co payments make using miles for BA economy not worthwhile at all.

Going to Italy the economy flights are only 20,000 miles each as I am flying May 14- last day of off season rates. I have many more AA miles than United Over 500,00 AA vs 100,00 United so it does make sense to burn the AA at this time.

AA doesnt charge for changing class upwards....just confirmed 2 days before...

It's for you to decide, of course, but remember that AA does not charge a fee for changing award tickets (if you do it far enough in advance) as long as you keep the same origin and destination. I've been looking myself for award travel back from Germany to Washington in July, and nearly all the flights involving AA and AB require an overnight stay in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Chicago or Raleigh. Earlier this month I booked a flight with the overnight stay in Raleigh, hoping that I will be able to change the schedule during the next nine months. In your case, you would be able to book coach on BA now, and hope to be able to change the flight to AA, AB or IB before you travel. There's risk to this, of course, but it may be worth considering.

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

"AA does not charge a fee for changing award tickets (as long as you do it far enough in advance) as long as you keep the same origin and destination."

There's no charge even if you don't do it far in advance. As long as the new flights are at least 21 days past the original ticketing date, it doesn't matter when you make the change.

Thanks for the correction, guv1976. I had thought it was at least 21 days before the flight, and the correction may prove helpful to me as well as to holocker.

If you can fly home to San Diego, instead of LAX, on BA, that would be a plus.

You can also route via NYC or Chicago or Dallas as options.

Right now my routing home is Barcelona-LHR-ORD-SAN.
BA seems to be very stingy on releasing any business class seats on the SAN- LHR nonstop and I think it is foolish to pay $300+ for the copay to fly BA in coach. If I have to pay a copay, I will pay a little more for Business or First.

Right now I have a SAN-ORD-DUS-FLR flight in Economy going (AA and AB) and BCN-LHR-ORD-SAN in First Class (BA and AA) on hold.

Iberia doesn't seem like it releases many seats on its LAX-MAD flights.

Your best chance is to see if you can get flights out of LAX to get to Europe. The BA flight out of SAN can be hit and miss with reward seats and it does not have First Class on that flight. BA often release seats in First out of LAX.

If you are searching beyond LHR do the search by segment. When I look at the AA site for redemption there are business class flights LAX to LHR just about every day in May.

I don't know how many seats IB releases on its various flights, but if seats are available you could fly IB to BOS/JFK/MIA and then AA to LAX/SAN.

Does anyone know if I book a flight on AA using BA avios can I call AA and change the date without a charge? BA's change fee is $40 a ticket.

Thanks.

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

You can't change it with AA even if you were willing to pay a change fee. If it's a BA-issued ticket, only BA can change it (except in the case of IRROPS on day of travel).

If it's a purely domestic itinerary on AA, you might find that it is cheaper just to cancel and rebook the award. It's been reported that BA does not make any additional collection when canceling award tickets, so if you only paid $5.00 in taxes on your award, that's all you would forfeit if you cancel.