I am trying to book 2 business class tickets to Spain in November using miles. I was told today that I could pretty much go any day I want if we use 200,000 miles for each ticket. I don't want to do that. My husband and I both have plenty of miles to use but I don't want to use them all up on one ticket. We haven't booked many free tickets because we are always trying to keep our elite status every year (only Silver but it helps us at least get Exit row seats and an occasional upgrade). This year we have achieved that mark early so it would be a great time to finally use some of these miles!

I think I have seen a post before that mentioned additional seats will open up as the flight date gets closer. Does anyone know when that generally happens? We don't need to leave on a specific date and we don't need to fly to a specific destination in Spain so I am hoping we might be successful if we are patient.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

In general this process is a pain in the a** and you will have to check back regularly for available seats, or get creative with your itinerary. Please do some searches on international award travel and you will be able to fill your mind and eyes with others experience and advice.....

Perseverance is key here. Try every day and also with different agents. You never know when inventory will open up. Sometimes you have to be flexible and willing to make 2 or 3 stopovers. Have the agents check with partner carriers and especially to secondary European cities (DUS, MAN, CPH, CGN, etc). and connect from there. Sometimes inventory is better if you connect through Canada. Once you get your foot in Europe intra-European connections are easier to find. As your travel day approaches inventory can open up and it has happened to me 1 day before my trip on AF for 2 business class seats. Needless to say, that approach is risky. I was able to do it because my companion was Platinum and there was no fee to get tickets reissued. We already had seats confirmed SFO-EWR-CDG but wanted to try for the nonstop SFO-CDG. Good luck.

Thanks for your replies. I have gotten different responses from three different agents which made me wonder if they were all checking the same flights. By my third try, I was giving them suggestions for different cities to fly in and out of, but still no tickets!

I really appreciate all of your great suggestions.

I would think your best bet is to do your homework and check NW and partners sites (DL, CO). Feed the search engines with the transatlantic portion first. A DL search may list AF flights as well. Once you find an option, search for the connecting flights separately with connections less than 24 hours (this is allowed on Int. itinerary). Within Spain you may be able to use Air Europa on the same award ticket.

There are just too many options to look for and many reservation agents either don't have the time to check them all or are not familiar with all the options available. The whole process works much better if you can give some suggestions and maybe tell them where you got stuck. Good luck.

Have you explored the upgradable fares? The inventory is different for mileage upgrade seats vs. confirmed biz award seats. That way, you can still get EQMs for this year. The last I remembered, on tPac flights, Y-fares map onto Z-class (discount biz) while B-fares map into I-class availability... there might be something similar for tAtl flights.