Tag Archives for award availability.
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).
Australia may re-open to international travel July 1. At least that’s what the CEO of Qantas is saying, and Qantas has loaded international flights for sale as of that date. Qantas had previously killed its full international schedule through the end of September.
Seeing this news I immediately went to look for award seats
Star Alliance member EVA Air has wide open business class award space from Los Angeles to Taipei (and beyond in Asia) for August 2021 through end of schedule.
International travel right now isn’t an option for most – especially to Asia – but come summer 2021 the world is likely to look a lot different than it does today. I’m betting that late summer and fall travel is going to be possible, and mileage trips are exactly what you want to be booking given the flexibility to cancel and redeposit miles. I’ve got an Asia trip on the books for the back half of 2021 already myself.
Right now there’s great business and first class award availability on Star Alliance airline ANA from several US cities to Tokyo and back starting in August and running through the end of the current airline schedule (basically, October). That’s great for connecting onward to Asia.
Two passengers can fly from Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose or Seattle using miles from United (or Chase), Avianca LifeMiles, or even better Virgin Atlantic (which partners with several credit card transferable points programs).
At the end of the current Japan Airlines schedule first class awards are wide open for two passengers on the New York JFK – Tokyo Haneda route.
Here’s availability for not just two award seats – far more widespread – but for four passengers at 34,000 miles each way per person and without big fuel surcharges.
It’s nice to see how much award space is open on Singapore Airlines non-stops from the U.S. While two business class seats are common throughout 2021, in August and September there’s a wide variety of days on the Los Angeles – Singapore route where four business class saver award seats are available.
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 »
