Looking at AA and UA web sites for saver awards in First or Business next September show very limited availability even though almost no seats have been sold. of course, they are easy to get at higher mileage levels. Any idea on how airlines manage availability of "saver" award seats? Is it likely there will be better availability later?

what do you want?....al's manage for profit....keep looking from time to time and maybe you will find it...

good luck!

Believe it or not, I found a F Saver award from the east coast to Hawaii for next month!

Just keep trying.

Oh - welcome to FT!

Welcome to Flyertalk, tph07!

Where are you trying to go? Keep in mind that on the UA website you can only see availability availability on UA metal, so you may want to call UA so you can see if there is availability with the Star Alliance partners. Similar situation with AA.

I found that on Alaska Airlines, all their Saver (20,000 mile) seats went wide open 14 days in advance.

I knew I was pushing it time-wise, and in season award tix are hard to get, but I did successfully get decent connections on a AA europe award for July from Boston with only 3 months to go til travel!!

Was able to grab part of the reservation and put it on hold, and then I called back regularly and suffered thru the phone process to eventually tweak and tailor it to be closer to what I wanted. Dates and times and partner carriers were flexible and I was even ok with connections and possible alternative airports where needed. But in the end, I had on hold a very close rendition of what we wanted to fly. (with AA you can do that for a couple weeks sometimes and that's SOOOO cool! they are the only ones left who really do it that way!) I called back once more and voila! The waiting and planning paid off. Got the best flights we could get, only one connection (which our trip with them would require anyway because of the destination as it relates to our departure city) and booked the reservation just yesterday!

Key to doing this: Patience, flexibility, understanding, being nice to CSRs, having time to sit on the phone, chit chat, creative suggestions (we were almost prepared to connect thru Istanbul just to fly BOS-AMS and back!) and knowing something of who partners with who and how.

I think AA was really good in this case. Their int'l agents also know what they are doing. Let's hope they never cut those jobs!

MM

With UA and Star Alliance, some Star Alliance airlines let you check award inventory without logging into their programs. That will tell you which, if any, AC (for example) flights are available to AC Aeroplan members (similar for other Star Alliance airlines). Those available to UA MileagePlus members will be a subset of those flights, but at least you'll find out before calling which Star Alliance flights are worth asking about when you are on the phone to UA (i.e. don't bother asking about the flights that are not available at the "saver" level to the other airline's own frequent flyers).

with northwest, if you dont see it avail online, call them. they may still have the same awars you seek but only avail on phone! also, many times a partner still has available itins that the actually carrier is out of. find out by calling or checking those sites and see if you can have a friend book it for you and you get him back someday with your miles

I recently booked a number of tickets for travel in September on AA in both coach and first/business. On the flights I wanted it was pretty much wide open with the non-stop option always available. Similar situations on other "tough markets" on other airlines that are notoriously difficult (CO, DL, etc.)

I was just poking around on AA yesterday and found international premium class saver availability quite open compared to what I was expecting. Sure, you're not getting a cheap business class ticket to FCO in June/July/August, but the people that got those (if there were any) probably booked them 330 days out.

Flexibility (in timing and routing) and creativity (in routing and airline partners) is going to be the best rule of thumb. When a website doesn't find availability, call and talk to the agents. Paying the agent fee is better than paying double miles online.

Most people of FT have a lot more experience than me, but when I try to get a saver award to a desirable location I find it much easier if I fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Just as fares decrease on those days, I have found saver award availability increases. As was stated, talk to the reps and be patient.