Tag Archives for award availability.
Lending Tree is pitching a report that begins with some anodyne claims about customer behavior towards frequent flyer miles and jumps to the unsupported conclusion that mileage redemptions this year are going to crowd out paying customers, who won’t be able to find seats for sale. This is literally insane.
United is usually among one of the tougher airlines when it comes to finding business class award space on their own flights. It’s notable when that space opens up, and it’s done so just as there’s a lot more interest in crossing the Pond which is great news.
There’s saver award space on United’s transatlantic flights for four or more passengers both for summer and for the start of 2022.
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.
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, though, there are some good opportunities to spend miles for summer business class to Europe – just as several European destinations plan to re-open at least to vaccinated Americans.
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 the start of 2021 for Qatar’s QSuites product – out of several U.S. cities – with four business class seats available.
These seats are a way to get to and from Europe in business class most days of the year right now. They may be the seats you want anyway for a quality transatlantic business class experience on points. But even if they’re not the most convenient flights for your needs, they’re a way to construct an award when you need it.
Starting mid-November, a majority of days have at least 4 business class saver award seats available flying American Airlines New York JFK – Milan. Some days even have 6 or more.
Saver awards in business class are wide open flying Delta to Israel for the end of 2021. Israel is likely to have nearly their entire population vaccinated soon, if you’re looking for a place you might bet on opening up to travel for later this year it’s a reasonable bet to make.
Each flight showing availability has between 2 and 8 or more business class award seats available (8 is the most shown even when there are more than 8 available).
American Airlines is offering fantastic business class award availability to Israel. That’s notable even in its own right. You may not be traveling now, but book six months out. The world may look very different. And American no longer has any charge to cancel and redeposit award tickets, so there’s no risk.
There are several things notable about this award space that offer insight into how American is running inventory management for the AAdvantage program.
I’ve gone ahead and booked a couple more sets of 3 business class award roundtrips for later in 2021 thanks to United opening up award seats across the board on many of its toughest to get routes like Houston – Sydney and San Francisco – Singapore. There are even dates where you’ll find 9 or more business class award seats available.
Other open destinations include San Francisco – Bangalore, San Francisco – Tel Aviv, and Newark – Venice (albeit this last with only modest availability).
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
