Just my observation (maybe someone can fill in the blanks)

[klfrodo]

Planning to sail out of Trieste next year. For the past few years, we were easily able to find mileage award seat (One World) in business class without too much difficulty. Just like in the past few years, I would go on AS site (using DDG as my browser) and do some searches months in advance, just to get a feel. By the time it came to book the award tickets, I always had a really good idea of what was going to be available.

 

This year? Not so much. Can't remember the last time I saw BA offerings. I even check multiple departure cities. (We don't mind flying to another city the evening before). Air Lingus is asking 350K for one way. Not. A few offerings from Qatar for 255K. That's an option that would be good if still offered on the day I need for travel. AA rarely offers Business. Usually Premium Economy. Finnair? Lucky to find economy

 

I guess if it comes down to it, we'll just have to step outside of the One World family and buy the tickets.

[Zach1213]

It's hard out there. I have an ungodly amount of AA miles that I am trying to use before I die, and the other day my wife and I looked at going to France in the spring (not spring break, not summer peak, just a random week in Spring) and business class was like 450,000+ miles roundtrip...each. Economy rewards are still somewhat reasonable (the same roundtrip in Y was like 45,000 miles each), but it's clear that the demand for paid J class is kicking out the rewards at a faster and faster pace. 

Edited September 11 by Zach1213

[ilovesalchows]

So strangely enough I have found better AS awards closer to the date.  It used to be you would jump on them as soon as the calendar opened up.  On our last trip in August I had booked Iceland Air 11 months in advance and then 2 months before some AA PE flights came up so I rebooked and save hundreds of dollars in fees.

 

I think now that there are no penalties for changes people are speculatively booking the premium awards in advance.  At least it seems that way form some of the chatter I see on Flyer Talk.  Just keep checking.  Be creative, if you can find an AA award from ORD in PE, but not from SEA, try looking as a multi-city from SEA-ORD and then ORD-VCE or whatever.

 

Also - are you trying Trieste?  You are not going to find any awards on AS.  You can book to Frankfurt on Condor and buy a flight to Trieste.  (You will be on your own if you miss this connection)  Take the train to Venice instead.  Stay at the NH Collection Murano and take the Alilaguna boat to the airport.

 

Note: about a year ago the BA fees went up substantially on AS bookings.  It used to be something you just cringed over, now they are not worth it.  (Used to be $400 now are around $1000 for J)

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

Remember the limitation of only one partner carrier per award ticket with AS Mileage Plan.

 

Pro tip:  Work backwards towards the USA.  Hardest segments first, then worry about positioning to them.

 

And if you aren't searching at least a dozen cities and at least five dates, you aren't really trying.  Make a matrix, print it out, and just go through box after box after box.  Same with revenue tickets - you can't believe the thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of miles I've saved by using positioning flights.  Even adding in the cost of those flights.

 

 

[SelectSys]

 

On 9/11/2024 at 12:07 PM, Zach1213 said:

and business class was like 450,000+ miles roundtrip...each

I can see flights from OW carriers departing LAX to destinations in France for about $3000 roundtrip to places for a week stay in April.  This puts the value of miles well under $,01 without even considering any additional fees.  

 

On 9/11/2024 at 12:07 PM, Zach1213 said:

I have an ungodly amount of AA miles that I am trying to use before I die

I guess it doesn't matter how many miles AA charges you as long as the fees aren't exorbitant too. 🙂

 

On 9/11/2024 at 3:03 PM, ilovesalchows said:

BA fees went up substantially on AS bookings.  It used to be something you just cringed over, now they are not worth it.  (Used to be $400 now are around $1000 for J)

Same on American's site.  I just looked at BA flights between LA and London for grins and saw a fee of over $1,800 on a round trip ticket.  It truly is getting ridiculous trying to get a business class ticket even though the fees in economy are crazy too.

Edited Saturday at 02:30 AM by SelectSys

[GeezerCouple]

38 minutes ago, SelectSys said:

Same on American's site.  I just looked at BA flights between LA and London for grins and saw a fee of over $1,800 on a round trip ticket.  It truly is getting ridiculous trying to get a business class ticket even though the fees in economy are crazy too.

 

We haven't flown using awards on BA for ages, and we've never flown on USA-based airlines for awards.

We've ended up using LH (Lufthansa several times, and we were able to get F, but those were pre-Covid.  We were supposed to have taken an LH flight on Monday, but we had to cancel for medical reasons.  Those were business class.

But we were going to have to add a connection to make it work, going through Canada to catch the LH flight.

 

Things have definitely tightened up for awards air travel in top category, unfortunately.

Earlier pre-Covid, we were able to get two F tickets on Cathay Pacific (wonderful!).  But by 2019, CX was only allowing 1 awards F seat per flight.

We tried VERY hard to throw points at them to let us have a second F seat, but noooo.  Instead, the other 5 F seats flew... empty!  IF they had let us pay a premium # of points for one more of those seats, they could have sold the J seat, and had a double win.  Money for the J, and use up more of our points on that flight, etc.

 

I know there's probably an element of "protecting the integrity of the F product" so that it remains truly "special", but... how far to take that!?? 😠

 

At least we had the nice experience a few years earlier.  Plus, with one F ticket, we both were able ot use the wonderful CX F facilities at the Hong Kong airport.   Back then, they's free up another F about 2 weeks prior to flight date if no one was paying cash for it.  So we had spent several months holding 1F and 1J, until about 2 weeks prior to the flight, when we were able to get that second F. 🙂 

 

Anyway, sometimes awards seats open up late, as do some nice cabins/suites on ships, because others needed to cancel.

Getting those IF they are available took a lot of monitoring, however.

 

GC

 

[SelectSys]

11 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Anyway, sometimes awards seats open up late

They do.  I am flying reasonably soon and have been checking for an affordable mileage price in business class on a daily basis.

 

For some unknown reason, the first class seats on an AA operated for the same date seemed to be a much better deal even though their fees seem to be exploding as well:

 

Edited Saturday at 03:33 AM by SelectSys

[Host Mike]

5 hours ago, SelectSys said:

 

 

Same on American's site.  I just looked at BA flights between LA and London for grins and saw a fee of over $1,800

I have come to view AA/BA as more of a discount and not an award.  At one time I was pricing a business seat from PRG to RDU and buying the ticket $2100 USD while the award fee was $1750 USD

[SelectSys]

3 hours ago, Host Mike said:

AA/BA as more of a discount and not an award

I think that is a reasonable way to view it - at least going to and from Europe.  BA was certainly the innovator on huge FF award fees.  It seems AA is now following the BA lead. 

 

In other markets, fees don't seem as bad going on AA.  I currently have a reward ticket that I am planning to use for Asia and it has very nominal fees.

[ilovesalchows]

I found some good Royal Air Maroc business awards from JFK for our river cruise next summer.  Of course they only released one every day.  

 

Also, the only feasible way to book BA awards now is using Avios.  The fees are much less.  We booked our flights home from the Olympics and for a family of 4 it only ended up costing me $600 in fees.  Plus they wanted less miles than Alaska Air did.  I can move into Avios from Chase UR, and the stars aligned to have a bonus for that when I needed to book.

Edited Saturday at 05:25 PM by ilovesalchows