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A few years ago I changed our travel plans about 4 weeks out and managed to bag 3 award seats in business MIA to BOS in business (or First, as AA terms it). It was a very enjoyable experience indeed, much better than CE, and also meant we got lots of free checked bags. I’d love to do the same on our DCA-MIA flights in December but so far I’m only seeing economy (not the greatest value for avios), or the odd single business seat at really inconvenient times. Are they released at regular intervals, e,g midnight in one of the US time zones?
AA seats are released 330 days in advance as opposed to 355 for BA so a chunk of December isn’t even on sale yet.
But I don’t think AA release seats in the same pattern as BA do.
Also (and more importantly) BA can only offer the lower level of AA saver rewards so you may see something on AA website but not on BAs.
It’s really a question of regular checking and pouncing when you can.
Also given the propensity for AA to change schedules a not very attractive flight time at the moment can soon morph into an attractive one.
Thanks, yes they seem to be released up to about December 14th at the moment, but about 90% economy. I think we were lucky last time and someone had cancelled the 3 First seats just before I looked. I don’t want to leave it that late this time though, as it’s during the Xmas period. I get the impression Americans (the people, not the airline) hoover up everything as far in advance as possible then cancel when they firm up their travel plans! Why wouldn’t you when you’re only losing £4 in taxes?!
I booked some seats from LaX to OGG / HNL about 10months ago and availability was quite sparse and no First Class.
Just checked this morning for April flights and there is quite a bit of availability in both classes on a range of dates. Even spring break / Easter.
When you say “a few years ago” how many was that? I ask because the Advantage programme is a very different animal than it was, say, 4 or 5 years ago. Reward flights used to be divided into into 2 categories with fixed mileage rates, the best value being ‘sAAver’ fares. These days what AA call sAAver fares still exist but the vast majority of rewards (especially in First) are dynamically priced so not only are they pricey but they won’t be available for avios redemption. I just had a quick look on EF which shows virtually no sAAver availability in First up to mid December except, as you have posted, on a couple of evening flights on odd dates. The other things that may have changed are the catering in first which, sadly, is a shadow of what it was on anything other than the longest domestic flights and checked baggage allowance which is now 2 per passenger before fees are incurred.
2018, we had a fantastic 3 week trip LHR-IAD, DCA-GCM, GCM-MIA, MIA-BOS. Took several AA flights and was impressed by how much better their business class is than CE. If we can’t get avios seats though, we’ll probably just get cash economy seats as these aren’t as good value on award bookings.
Plus you have to pay for bags using Avios Domestically
No you don’t?
You have to pay for checked bags in economy (unless you have a certain status), but not in their Business/First, as mentioned above. This is part of what makes it such a good redemption option.
It looks as though award seats might also be released weekly rather than daily, December 14th has been the latest available date for a few days now.
No free checked bags for non status passengers on AA domestic awards but 2 free in First. AA do release availability daily but that doesn’t necessarily translate into simultaneous avios availability and it’s common for a few days lag before they appear on ba.com. For example, today I can book an award on 21 December with AA but on ba.com the latest date is 18 December.
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