I think that this can vary by airline.

However, I believe that if you know that the flight exists and you know that you need I class, you can go to the normal flight availability display and use the alert function there to set an alert for an I class seat even if I class isn't displayed on that page.

You can use the Flight Availability search, the Create New Flight Alert page, or add an Other Class to the Award search like Y to force the flight to show. For some airlines flights won't show if they have no availability.

How often does the award availability check run, and what is the latency for alert emails?
Here's what I saw today:
- I had previously set up an Iberia award alert for several dates in December.
- I received an email around 9 am telling me that there's now availability for date "A" on the ORD-MAD route.
- At 9:15 am, checking both the AA award search web page and ExpertFlyer, I verified that there was in fact availability on date "A"
- Using the award search on aa.com, I also found one seat for date "B", and I booked it around 9:20 am. Using both aa.com and EF after making the booking, I verified that there were no more award seats available on date "B".
- At 1 pm, I received an email alert that there was at least one award seat available on date "B". At 1:05 pm I verified on both EF and aa.com that there was no award seat available at that date.

EF not showing all available award space..
 

Hi there,

When I search EF for AA awards in all SAVER classes, I see 0 availability. I go
to AA website and it shows many awards (in SAVER) for the same city pairs.
EF is only showing LIS-BOS via MAD/JFK (IB and AA but not BA). While AA
website is showing available space via BA. When I search EF for BA awards,
it does show same availability.
Is this something EF is planning to fix ? Sometimes airline showing award space
may not be available for partners. Also I am not able to map BA award codes to
AA since they do not have different levels like Saver and Anytime..
I would rather just do one search than multiple searches....

The alerts are checked a few times a day, not every minute. There is no "latency" in the email, if an alert check finds award space, it immediately emails you.

There is nothing to fix, the AA award search will only show award space on AA operated flights. To see award space on BA operated flights choose BA as the airline, etc. It's not meant to be the same as an airline website. The inventory we show is partner level award inventory.

I am confused here. I see that EF is not showing any data but comes up with these routings. While BA routings do not show up...

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...65fe478746.png

I think you must have got to that list by selecting AA as the airline in the awards search.

If you want to see routings on BA flights, you need to select BA as the airline in the awards search, as ExpertFlyer Voice says. If you see award availability that way, you can then use your AA miles to book the award seat if it's in the correct booking class for you to do that.

You probably already know this, but it's also worth remembering that as a general rule, you can only book awards on the flight's prime code (usually the operating airline's code). This is likely to be the reason why AA (IB) 8694 shows no data at all: you are very unlikely to be able to book AA8694 as an award. If there is award space on the IB code, then you may be able to book that if it's in the correct class for you to book it with AA miles.

All I am saying is that the result set is inconsistent. If it can show TP and IB routes, why can't it show BA routes albeit no data ? That was the confusing part...

It can, but the information is not very helpful to you (rather like the IB examples you posted above):

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...460ee638d9.png

It shows you some (AA Saver) availability on a flight that could form part of a valid routing, but cannot tell you whether there is anything available on the BA flight.

For travel between the US and Europe (or within Europe) using AA miles, EF wouldn't be my first choice of tool. AA's own website is a better place to start.

Correct, we do not choose the routing, the reservation systems do, and they don't understand what is an award class vs a paid class. The best way to search is to only search the city pair that AA operates when searching for AA award inventory, same for the BA flights for BA award inventory.

Is it possible that passengers have not confirmed seats in BA F so still showing availability?
No reward availability & No cash tickets available in F on that flight when I searched?

I suspect that the flight is oversold in C and/or W.
Is that the case?

If this is the case, will 3 x passengers already booked in CW be upgraded?

Depends on many factors as well such as now shows..

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d1b1ca930b.png
I've been seeing the same seat map availability for over 2 x weeks now?