A couple of weeks ago I wrote about fantastic business class award space on American Airlines to Europe this summer for the whole family, to destinations like Rome and Paris.
This was notable because American Airlines is known for being particularly stingy with international business class award space on its own flights. I redeem AAdvantage miles more than any other airline currency, but almost always for flights on their partners.
Right now I’m seeing even better award space from several U.S. gateways to London on American Airlines. The U.K. is preparing to re-open, targeting June 21. They won’t be on the same schedule for international arrivals as Schengen Europe generally, having Brexited after all, but with the the country’s huge success in vaccination Covid-19 cases are about 80% lower than in the U.S. currently on a per capita basis.
That gives us a great change of being able to visit the U.K. this summer, and as oneworld partners with American, British Airways is a viable connection beyond Heathrow as well.
So it’s especially useful that there’s amazing business class award space on American Airlines right now between Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and London and even more – for four passengers or more in business class. This space is throughout the year from New York but in general as we approach the end of 2021 and into 2022.
When you pull up an award calendar on the American Airlines website and search Los Angeles – London for 4 passengers in business class here’s what you’ll see for March 2022, but be careful!
This search will include British Airways. You expect to find better award space on searches that include British Airways, they normally offer some awards but many customers don’t want them because of the fuel surcharges.
A business class roundtrip fare on British Airways includes $1400 in surcharges (on top of the taxes), and those get charged on award tickets too.
So you want to restrict your search to ‘American Airlines flights only’. Fortunately for Los Angeles – London in March 2022 there’s still options nearly every single day for business class awards for four passengers:
West Coast non-stop award space in business class is an historical rarity, let alone for four passengers. There’s also space from other gateways which should be less surprising, albeit still surprising for American AIrlines.
What I really appreciate, with all of the uncertainty that remains in the pandemic and what destinations will work for travel, is that American eliminated mileage cancel and redeposit fees for all members. So you can make an AAdvantage award booking and if you need to change plans, put the miles back in your account for free. So grab opportunities while they’re available, you’re really just creating an option.
Since these are saver awards (priced 57,500 AAdvantage miles each way) and not web saver awards, they are available to members of partner frequent flyer programs like Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, British Airways Executive Club, and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
(HT: robb)
I booked one-way MCO-MIA-LHR in Flagship First on AA using 78K miles for late September. MIA-LHR is the 777-300ER. Hoping Flagship First dining will be reopened by then.
We got 4 seats on Flagship Business class in November for 60K each about a month ago. Was shocked to see that. Even looking now – you can still get 4 more on our flight at 60K still. Never seen 8 available before.
We’re trying to move the flight a day earlier but those have been a bit higher but really fluxuating day to day.
Welcome to the UK …. your wait time to enter at LHR immigration is approx. 6 hrs !
I avoid LHR as much as possible and will book to Scotland, if necessary.
Gary,
These have been available for months on most of their routes.
If anything they are now harder to find
Wish there was a site that simplified where we could travel when vaccinated and what the restrictions are. If i book to LHR for mid July, how do i know if they will let me in?
Of course BA will charge fuel surcharges even on AA metal. So Alaska and AA are the best to book these awards.
@ Genise
I know it can be bad, I waited about 90 minutes about three weeks ago. But I came into LHR from Bahrain this morning and was from the plane into the bag hall in about 20 minutes.
We have absolutely no idea what the practicality is of travel to the UK will be coming up anytime soon, so I don’t know why anyone be excited about this. Lockdown might be ending but they forgiven no definitive word if they’re going to resend the quarantine for international travelers. So as of right now the best you can Hope for is being quarantined for 5 days if you test out.
It maybe for AA travelers but not for ALASKA FF’s nothing has changed for us. There are very few AS FF’s that really thought Parker would open up anything but coach for us to Europe and then returning from Europe his fees are very close to BA without getting Biz or even Premium coach. Once again AS gets hosed. Og well
Thanks for the tip! I just used the Web Saver to get roundtrip LAX LHR for my whole family for next spring break (wife and kids in school) in March 2022 for 100K AA miles + $330 per person. What a deal!
Cheers!
Oops, forgot to mention the obvious, but those tickets are roundtrip in Business Class on AA. Nonstop LAX –> LHRd and one-stop (JFK) on return.
The amount of miles needed doesn’t really matter with a mandatory 10 quarantine.
Thanks for the news flash. This prompted me to check the trip I booked on United. They had deleted my flight in March so I had to change it then. Today I discovered they had deleted the replacement flight too! Without telling me. My trip now exceeds 24 hours one way. And who knows what they will do to the return.
Because of this post I found AAvailability for a better option than UA is giving me. Unless AA deletes its flights too!