no saver awards anywhere

Except to the place that there are.

Also, see this thread, Jwerking: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...iscussion.html

I was able to book two 12.5k awards today for phx-cmh November 2017.

Yes. AA has stopped making any award seats available to Hawaii. It was announced about a month ago. :-).

Savers are VERY difficult to Hawaii and I am sure as a reader of this forum know that they can pop in at any time and that it is best to have an EF subscription. You might have better luck to HNL.

There is always the AAnytime awards

There are some seats on the 12th and 13th SEA-KOA. What city are you departing from? There are AS seats that get released at 331 days.

I am leaving from the East Coast - we retired to Virginia Beach (ORF) but lived in DC Metro area - so we fly out of there a lot to get award seats.

Yes, I just checked again now for DC airports and found I can get 2 saver seats at 22.5K out of DCA for Nov 13 - only ones available for the entire month of November. Surprised in change in availability but maybe someone was holding these seats and they got released.

Also checked from Charlotte NC - which is a big hub now inherited from USAir and found two 20K awards also for Nov 13 - once again, the only saver seats for the whole month of Nov. But I think it is about a 5 hr drive to Charlotte - ugh!

So looks like Saver seats to HI are going to be slim pickings and will take a lot of work. You always use to see the Alaska Air flights, but even they do not show up now - so apparently AA's relationship with AS has significantly changed. Bummer, at least,AS was always an easy option.

Also appears that the AA availability is perhaps not showing award seats requiring an overnight stay enroute. So may have to piece available legs together and call to book with an agent. This is really starting to add to the cost of a freebie award seat - as we get a one way car rental car to airport and often have to get a hotel for night prior. So an overnight stay enroute would add another hotel cost - so min of about $300 total for Motel 6 type accomodations.

Just playing around now as I need seats for Jan 13 2018 - which is more of an issue because AA never offers saver seats for the time period around the Xmas holidays or loads them very late. I delayed our Big Island accomodations for our Jan 2018 stay for this reason. Had few saver options for our Jan 8 2017 checkin - so hopefully delaying it for another week will definitely get us out of Holiday travel.

Ah well, maybe my freebie airfares to HI are over - hope not!

<<Yes. AA has stopped making any award seats available to Hawaii. It was announced about a month ago>>

Was this an official AA announcement?

<<...they can pop in at any time and that it is best to have an EF subscription>>

What is an EF subscription?

Booking AS options-
For the AS redeye with a connection the following day; put the redeye on hold at aa.com and then call the next evening 7-9pm EST to add the connecting flight. This is the way I was able to book OGG-ATL for JUL 17.

www.expertflyer.com

On Expert Flyer you can set up email alerts for availability (of awards or upgrades) on specific AA metal flights (as well as some of the other airlines that AA partners with, including Iberia [IB] for example).

Way to go - EXCELLENT tip! But as I previously stated, there now seems to be very little AS inventory at AA.com. Previously, AS always had saver seats loaded promptly at the 330 day window - when AA loaded them at odd times and sometimes never. But found very limited AS availability at the 330 day window for next Nov.

<<call the next evening 7-9pm EST to add the connecting flight>>

Is this when AS or AA loaded its award seats?

In the old days, AA use to load its award seats sometime after midnight EST daily. I use to get up at 5 or 6 am EST and always get exactly what I wanted for our family of 4 - enjoyed lots of trips to Caribbean/Mexico during Xmas and Easter as well as our summer trips. Ahh, those were the days!

Does anyone know when AA now loads their award seats?

Never

Honestly, that's not much further from the truth...

It is when the AS flights show up on aa.com. They appear on expertflyer earlier. AS usually has 1 F and 2 Y award seats on every flight at 331 days then they tend to disappear quickly.

They are almost as stingy as AA. What good is 1 F seat when you're using it for a vacation?

I am not personally really worried about F. The 2 Y helps and with 331 days until the flight, there is usually a schedule change that gets you on a more desirable flight.