Etihad business class is fantastic. Spending American AAdvantage miles on the product is an incredible value, at 70,000 miles each way between the U.S. and Mideast or even connecting over Abu Dhabi to India, Sri Lanka or the Maldives.

The problem is that Etihad largely stopped making award space available to American booked farther than a few weeks out from travel. Right now, though, American AAdvantage has access to wide open award space on Etihad on the Atlanta – Abu Dhabi route.

• The trick is that non-stop Atlanta – Abu Dhabi space isn’t generally showing up. You need to have a connecting flight.

  
  Zayed International Airport, Abu Dhabi

• So search Atlanta – Abu Dhabi – Male in the Maldives, for instance, so see the space.

You’ll find award space July through mid-November and again after Christmas through end of schedule (bookable through late April).

1. To see what dates are available for the long haul flight, I plugged in Atlanta – Muscat (a short haul intra-Gulf route that’s going to be available most of the time). American now lets you specify your connecting city when you search in order to filter out results you don’t want, like flying through London Heathrow on British Airways.

   

2. The Atlanta – Abu Dhabi flight launches four days a week starting July 2, going daily November 1. It’s operated by an Airbus A350-100.

3. You’ll find space in both directions, and on some dates can book four business class award seats. American lets you add connecting flights in the U.S. to reach the Atlanta gateway for no additional miles if space is available.

Availability in business class on the Atlanta – Abu Dhabi flight (with a connection to Muscat, but that can be any onward connecting city with availability) at 70,000 miles one-way per person:

New routes can be a boon for award space. Algorithms seem plenty of not yet book seats and make them available as awards. Routes can take time to mature. What’s unique here is that the space is being made available to American (when they do not usually do this) and that it only shows up when searching for connecting space (journey control).

Etihad Business Class Lounge, Abu Dhabi

I wonder whether this is intentional or a mistake. I don’t expect the availability to persist. It does not appear to be open at traditional saver pricing to Air Canada Aeroplan… instead, it’s available for triple the points of AAdvantage with the carrier’s now ‘off-chart’ pricing for certain partners.

(HT: dodgeram947)