No availability... anywhere???
 

I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to award travel.
For 10 years, I booked 4-5 awards for 4 people, always in J or F, always on the same place, always during school breaks, and always TATL/TPAC.
So when kids stopped traveling with us, and we were no longer tied to a tight schedule, I thought we could go anywhere!
But I can't find anything at all.

For example, just searched AA.
No availability under 100K o/w ex NYC to some repositioning routes in S. Am or Asia, from now until end of calendar
DOH, AUH, HKG, TYO, AMM, TLV, EZE, GRU

UA is similar. Spotty availability here and there to Africa, nothing to Asia. DL didn't even bother checking.
Alliances are the same. Very little released to partners, and booking on own metal hugely expensive.

In the meantime, decent amount of sub-$4K fares. $4K, booked through AmEx Biz Plat or Chase Travel, is the equivalent of 133K pts o/w, including taxes, and 10-20K miles credited somewhere.
Somewhat more expensive, but not the huge difference like it was when TATL/TPAC was 100-150K r/t.

It may very well be that as our financial situation has changed, and we are no longer booking x4, that revenue flights will be the norm rather than exception.
Anyone else finding the same?

I have miles in a number of programs so I have flexibility in my searches. I currently am finding decent availability in the SQ program. I move AMEX points to SQ. I have also had success booking SQ awards from my AS account. I also used AS miles for awards via DOH to ZNZ, and awards on JL from SGN-NRT-SAN. These are all for 2 people. I'm not having luck with my Flying Blue program where I had decent success a year or two back. The dates/routes I have tried to book have skyrocketed in points required.

I also subscribe to a newsletter that sends out alerts for premium award space. I get both text and email. I find it worth the $99 annual fee. It gets my creative juices flowing. He lets us know about routes where he finds multiple biz or F seats, then tells what programs can be used to book those awards. He also includes what transferable currency can be moved to those programs.

https://straighttothepoints.co/award-alerts/

Also, like you, we are open to buying tickets when we can't find award space. I have an alert set up for every thread in the premium fare forum. We purchased tickets to Oman last year when we couldn't find award space but could find ticket prices I considered acceptable.

If you are open to Europe travel, I would do a Flying Blue search- specifically great biz class fares on Air France, often under 50k OW. The 25% Amex transfer bonus ends today.

Just about everyone has less availability than before the pandemic because of a combination of extra demand, fewer flights, and changes to FFPs.

I'm finding the same. Our Europe trip this summer was on Amex MR points.

I do find options with UA for us. For Delta, domestic only. AA, a little of both. I'm really not happy that our Delta miles won't get us across an ocean anymore (except to Hawaii).

When are you booking for? I just booked a RT to Europe for the post-Christmas period and was able to come in at 120k roundtrip for 2x Polaris tickets.

I agree with the above that some of the availability comes from using miles within the specific program you are booking (the above UA tickets were UA discounting IN for premier members so someone booking with Aeroplan wouldn't have had access). Likewise I see pretty good availability on AF/KL metal when searching via FlyingBlue and SQ has good options since they restrict J/F from partners.

Don't forget you've got the World Cup in DOH at the end of the year so many of the major airlines have sold actual revenue tickets to DOH that are using space on trunk routes into the hubs before they connect on to DOH. The reason you see nothing with AA to Africa is because QR space has basically disappeared in the lead up to the World Cup and of course AA doesn't fly there on their own.

And at least from the cities you've listed there are very legitimate reasons why availability is near impossible:

DOH/AUH -- see above
HKG -- China COVID policies and flight restrictions
TYO -- crazy demand due to restrictions just being lifted
TLV -- has never been an easy award ticket
EZE/GRU -- no surprise, this is Spring/Summer down there so lots of people traveling there, would bet any award seats on these routes for this time period were snapped up months ago. When we went to EZE pre pandemic I had to book 10 months in advance to get AA J seats for a September visit

Hardly anything in J to and from South east asia to USA.

also more credit card miles than ever

I’ve booked CGK to SEA RT in J fairly recently. Took some work to find dates, but not nonexistant. BR and NH.

I'm finding very few aspirational awards....2x J at good levels to anywhere long-haul.

On the plus side, I'm finding a lot of value on basic cash-replacement awards....simple 6500-mile Y awards on AA for $175-200 flights. With a kid in college, I'm redeeming a bunch of these types of trips these days. Less fun than it used to be, but if I do all the math on the cheap small awards I will probably find that I could just book revenue J seats every now and then at better value. As stevento points out, although the award game is worse, you can shop around for some good J fares that didn't exist 15-20 years ago when corp travel dominated the J cabin.

I am in the same book. Booked the family of 4 all over the world during school breaks and summer holidays for nearly 20 years. Just before the pandemic in 2018 or 2019 I noticed that things were getting harder to Europe especially with Oneworld. (However I exclude British Airways on this as I don't like paying the exorbitant fees) But I was still finding pretty good Star Alliance availability with LOT, Swiss, Austrian)

However add the pandemic. Airlines have drastically reduced capacity also pent up demand in some markets, and uncertainty as what is the next curve ball Covid will throw at us. I presume that things will improve somewhat but the "good ol days" might be behind us. When I started in 2000, I was excited because I could book domestic first class for 25k miles even during holiday times when domestic F fares used to cost as much as $3000. Today I rarely see domestic F for 25k but that is alright because domestic F is so cheap that I tend to buy it if I want to fly it. What I look for 20 years later is Trans Atlantic J for 50k - 85k miles. However as the OP mentioned is getting much more difficult. But on the bright side I guess is I have now flown on sub $2000 trans Atlantic J flights and see more and more of those and less and less of point redemptions.

Unfortunately I am sitting on a boatload of airline miles but I am not sitting on a boatload of cash. Is this the end of the miles and points game? Not sure yet but things are definitely pointing more and more in that direction. I see availability in the off season and also some last minute availability which might be where points will really become useful in the future.

So Europe in October or February I might find good availability with points, but Europe in July or August you might be looking at cash back points and following discounted premium fares.

I surrendered in my quest to use Alaska miles for CX J seats to Asia. So I changed tactics and grabbed Y seats to Scandinavia for late spring 2023. Was able to get 5 together, on Finnair, with minimal junk fees, 30k each way per seat (ex-ORD). There was also pretty wide availability for BA in Y, but with lots of fees.

Early June should have decent weather, lots of daylight, and we're a little ahead of the July/August crowds.

At some point we'll make the Singapore trip we had booked when Covid hit, but we'll probably just do paid seats. Sometimes I see decent Premium Economy sales to Asia...I have a hard time doing TPACs in plain ol' coach.

Just picked up JFK-SGN, HAN-JFK for January about $3100 on JAL through AmEx IAP. Was even cheaper as r/t - and a nice discount from ~$3800 or so it was available elsewhere.

That's roughly 100K MRs each way, plus the credited miles (plus some tax considerations that make it an even better deal in my case), on great airline.
Hard to beat deals like that. I love the flexibility of an award ticket (used AmEx's new cancel for any reason insurance, which added to the cost slightly), but it's also nice not having to search for days for availability that might never come...

Wanted to revive this thread as things only seem to be getting tougher. Have had decent success scoring a lot of transpac F awards for the next 11 months, and SQ continues to have decent availability in that area but I'm trying to go the other way in late May '23 and there doesn't appear to be much of anything at all. Have to position from Denver and trying to get to London but will settle for just about anywhere in Europe (ultimately want to be heading to Zurich by the 31st). Have scoured asiamiles, alaska, sq, ua, and a few other programs and haven't come up with anything decent. Might just go with Westjet for ~$1,900 which isn't bad - I'm just not used to paying XD I definitely don't have much experience with Europe oriented hunts as 99% of my flying is between Asia and the US. Any suggestions welcome!

Good award availability on UA EWR-LHR

Thanks! I did see that earlier but it does certainly look more attractive than before now that I've been through all the others XD

So basically looks like...
154k UA miles den-ewr-lhr (but redeye on a 737 though)
or self position to Vegas for the night then las-den-lhr for 122k UA miles (long leg on 787)
or self position to Houston (15k ua miles) and 87k asiamiles + $350 for BA first on their 787-10

I already have the asiamiles and 15k UA miles in hand; for the other options I'd have to burn UR making them that much less attractive.

69k UA miles DEN-ZRH on March 20

nice one! Unfortunately my timeframe is last week of may

60k UA DEN-LHR May 21

Hmm I think you might be looking at economy awards... and unfortunately I can't get out prior to the 26th

60k in business. Economy would be 30k. I see EWR-LHR for 60k UA miles in business on 5/27, 5/28, 5/29, and 5/30.

Also some PE options in that range, originating in Denver, for 45k.

As much as I like J, for a simple TATL the trade-off of being on one ticket for a reasonable amount of miles trumps positioning flights, an extra night in a hotel, etc. EWR-LHR for 60k in J isn't terrible...if you're already in NYC or otherwise want to be.

I'm pickier about finding actual J or F for TPAC...

weird I must be doing something wrong… can’t see anything even close to that… I do see Econ for 30k on some but that’s it…
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...013be454a0.png

I tested it logged in as a Silver and found some 78k options....circuitous routings (2 stops) from EWR to LHR. Totally not worth it.

The 45k PE seat DEN-LHR would be my play here, given this array of options and assuming I didn't have such a bottomless pit of miles that I could fly unlimited J/F without much care.

Oh I guess I'm getting reduced award pricing as a status benefit/having a UA credit card.

That’s what I was thinking…. I only have the “United business card” - do you have a fancier one perhaps?

Club Infinite 10% back on domestic saver awards.

Otherwise I'm guessing XN fare bucket available to you (either via status or less-bougie UA cardholder).

I probably was seeing IN space

credit card miles really stacking up

Continual frustration...
Been looking for a few months for last 2 weeks in August. 3 people. From NYC, pretty much anywhere in Africa (Tanzania, SA, Moz, Madagascar), Asia (Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mongolia), or Brazil. Nothing. We used to be much less flexible and book for 4, and never had as much trouble.
Asia is pretty much impossible right now. Many routes that used to have tons of availability have disappeared - HGK, ICN used to be wide open and now nothing, PEK has no direct service still, which pretty much just leaves TYO. Ethiopian only releases 2 seats.
Never seen it this tough in all the years.

Have you looked farther out into the fall/winter? Finding J/F (I assume you're looking for that) in August at this date is going to be very, very hard. Especially trying to get 3 together.

We are considering Africa for summer 2024 - I already have my calendar bookmarked to begin searching for seats in July of this year.

I think we are in a little bit of a transition phase, and although my credit card miles are pliling up not being used, I am still optimistic that I will be able to redeem in the future. Currently there is a sharp increase in wages partially because of a lower supply of workers (pilots, CSR, airport employees etc) So CEO's of the airlines are not aggressively increasing supply of flights to anywhere near what we had 4 years ago and this pressure is causing prices to rise and "excess" space that miles use to fill up are no longer offered, and with airlines moving to a non-fixed point model even limited "excess" space is being filled with redemptions that cost 200k, 300k or more points round trip in business class.

Paid J fares sub $2500 from North America to Europe/Africa/Asia are getting harder to find too. Last year I didn't use points as I was finding good flights for $2000 to europe rather than 140,000 miles for the few saver awards that I could find with multiple stops and 5 hour layovers.

Finally finding the "Saver" award inventory, I have been noticing a trend with several airlines to wait 60 or less days before departure. So with that in mind, finding those seats to Africa in August, they might still appear if you keep looking in June.

Hmm I just started looking recently since covid and this is also my observation. Very hard to find any availability in routes I'm interested in..

This thread about Avios-only flights is topical here. Limited routes, looks designed more for marketing impact than a real trend, but I have to think some Flyertalkers will end up on these flights. Could be fun to do for anyone who can make their schedules align.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...y-flights.html

There's a dearth of availability to Asia.

I'm trying to book for a J/F seat to HAN from any US gateway for June, and came up with no possible option for AA miles or * alliance. Previously waiting 2 weeks before departure would almost guarantee at least 1 seat.

May have to shell out $1k for a one way to HAN at this rate. Miles are getting more and more useless...

6/19 has SFO-YVR-ICN-HAN available, although it's Y on ICN-HAN.

Oh really? Where do you see that? AC is charging 485k for it...

1k for a OW in J sounds pretty good to me.

I have found AA.com is not searching the same for award tickets as it used to. I found some early June awards last week, but nothing past the 7th. I’d certainly recommend calling in to check for awards.

Sorry $1k for one way in Y actually...

UA.