award availability

Tag Archives for award availability.

Wide Open Emirates First Class Award Space For The Fall

by Gary Leff on January 11, 2022

Jan 11 2022

Stay at the Burj al Arab, often described as ‘the world’s only 7 star hotel’. Or enjoy a special Marriott redemption at the incredible Al Maha Desert resort, where meals and activities are included and all accommodations are standalone Bedouin villas with their own private pools overlooking the desert. Use a trip to Dubai to visit the Mideast, or as a jumping off point for the Maldives or other destinations in the region.

Right now there’s fantastic first class award space for two passengers on the Washington Dulles – Dubai, Houston – Dubai, and San Francisco – Dubai routes from August through November.

Wide Open QSuites Award Space For 4 Passengers From Several Cities For Months At A Time

by Gary Leff on December 23, 2021

Dec 23 2021

Qatar has one of the best business class product in the world in its ‘QSuites’. These are revolutionary suites with doors and movable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space. Right now there’s fantastic award availability booking for August through November 2022 for Qatar’s QSuites product – out of several U.S. cities – with four business class seats available.

New Singapore A380 Suites Coming To U.S. March 27th – Congrats To Those Who Got Awards!

by Gary Leff on December 16, 2021

Dec 16 2021

Those of you who booked Singapore Airlines Suites from the U.S. to Frankfurt or onward to Singapore will be thrilled to know that Singapore not only plans to operate the Airbus A380 on this route but that starting March 27, 2022 they’ll be operating the A380 with the new cabins which means new Suites.

Unfortunately availability doesn’t look nearly as good as it did 5 days ago. Nonetheless many of you will be excited for the first-time introduction of new cabin to the U.S. This is absolutely one of the best products in the sky. Debates between this and the new Emirates first class and ANA first class are fun (please don’t bring something like Air France first into this debate, their ground experience in Paris notwithstanding).

Three Routes With Great Business Class Award Space For A Family

by Gary Leff on December 14, 2021

Dec 14 2021

I’ve always known that the key to award travel is flexibility. The best deals are on seats that are going to go unsold. An airline doesn’t always know what seats those are, and may play it conservative not releasing award space until very close to departure. And even then they may be reluctant, worried that someone might redeem miles instead of spending big money on a ticket.

Right now uncertainty is even greater for airlines. How many people will be traveling? Will there be any business travelers, or will it be all leisure? Will there be restrictions on actually flying to a destination? Or perhaps restrictions on the number of flights a week that can be offered?

The Tradeoffs We Have To Make Spending Miles On International Business Class Tickets

by Gary Leff on December 5, 2021

Dec 05 2021

Airlines make seats available as awards at the lowest level that they don’t think they can sell for cash. They also want to make sure not to release seats to someone who would pay cash. So you’re getting the leftovers.

That requires flexibility, if you start out saying here’s where I need to go, and here’s the dates I need to travel, and here’s when I need to make my booking.

Qantas Will Use Airbus A380s To Offer Frequent Flyer Award Seats Only

by Gary Leff on December 3, 2021

Dec 03 2021

A program might charter a flight or four, but not enough capacity to really give members choice. Still, it’s a great stunt to highlight the efforts a program is going to for members. And with limited capacity these flights can prove popular.

What’s more, the economics can even work. These flights can be profitable.

American Airlines First Class Awards To Hong Kong Wide Open 4+ Passengers

by Gary Leff on November 24, 2021

Nov 24 2021

For April, July, August, and September 2022 there are plenty of dates with availability for two passengers on the Dallas – Hong Kong flight in first class at 84,000 AAdvantage miles apiece. Next year there may be hope of visiting Hong Kong, or of using this flight to connect onward in Asia on American’s partner Cathay Pacific.

Availability on American’s Dallas flight is great because it’s a useful connecting point for most of the country.

Flying To Europe Using Miles – Without Getting Stuck On A U.S. or European Airline

by Gary Leff on November 3, 2021

Nov 03 2021

Prompted by my writing about wide open availability for two first class Suites awards on the Singapore Airlines New York JFK – Frankfurt flight, a reader asks about other ‘fifth freedom routes’ between the U.S. and Europe.

They wanted to fly between the U.S. and Europe on an Asian or Middle Eastern carrier and wanted to know what their options looked like using miles for the best seats possible.

British Airways First Class Awards Have All But Disappeared From North America Routes

by Gary Leff on October 22, 2021

Oct 22 2021

This summer British Airways doubled its award availability commitment. Each airline opens award space on flights on its own schedule, if they open awards at all. British Airways is unique in promising to make awards available on every flight when the schedule loads.

But they don’t promise first class awards. They used to be good about offering them. Now first class space is almost non-existent.

Where To Find 4+ American Airlines Business Class Awards To Europe Right Now

by Gary Leff on October 20, 2021

Oct 20 2021

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. So when there’s good space for valuable awards on American Airlines itself, I try to highlight it.