United Airlines is returning to New York JFK starting February 1 with two flights a day to Los Angeles and two to San Francisco, operated by a premium-heavy Boeing 767-300ER. Each flight will have 46 business class lie flat direct aisle access seats.

Traditionally non-stop cross country flights in premium cabins are tough to get but that is a lot of premium cabin inventory at a time that business travelers aren’t flying. Or – perhaps this is an early mistake on United’s part that won’t last. But every single day between the February 1 start of service and the end of the airline schedule 11 months from now has numerous business class saver award seats open.

Searching as a non-MileagePlus elite, without their credit card, there are tons of seats every day. Searching with elite status you’ll see 9 or more seats available.

Now is the time to book United’s premium cabin transcon flights as awards. These are accessible with miles from United MileagePlus, from Chase transferred to United or Singapore Airlines, with Avianca LifeMiles, Amex points transferred to Air Canada etc. They should even be bookable with Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles for the lowest possible price.

What United didn’t share when announcing their return to New York JFK, though, is that technically they’ve only secured access to the airport February 1 through March 26 and plan to try to leverage that into a permanent stay.

The aviation internet is excited today because @united is returning to New York JFK. It should be an indefinite stay, but technically @united only has the rights to fly there through March 26. Here's what the airline told employees. pic.twitter.com/CcPMxvIewP

— Brian Sumers (@BrianSumers) November 10, 2020

If you book awards on the JFK flights though and for some reason United isn’t able to continue operations there, you should have no problem getting the airline to move you to the Newark non-stop of your choice.