Tag Archives for award availability.
With United Airlines set to resume San Francisco – Hong Kong flights in March, business class saver award availability is wide open. You can book use the space to connect onward in Asia on airlines like Singapore and Thai.
As of this writing at least two business class award seats are available for every day except one March 24, 2023 – October 28, 2023. On most dates there are at least 9 saver awards in business class on the route.
I cannot say how long Swiss will make first class redemptions available to all Miles & More members, or even that they will not have ‘sellers remorse’. There’s no discount here, of course, just a redemption opportunity they do not normally offer.
Singapore Airlines frequently makes plenty of award space available towards the end of its booking calendar. If you’re searching 9 or more months in advance you have a good shot at finding a plethora of options. Right now though their award availability is exceptional across several routes, both from the U.S. to Asia and also from the U.S. to Europe.
For instance, San Francisco – Singapore non-stop has the floodgates completely open between July and October, not just for the normal 2 passengers where you’ll frequently see space but for many more than that.
Etihad has great business class award space for two passengers between New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare, Washington Dulles and Abu Dhabi for travel from January through end of schedule. You can use Etihad to connect onward to places in the Mideast or destinations in Asia like the Maldives and India.
And there’s a handful of dates with two first class award seats available, also which I’m seeing on the Washington Dulles route.
Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s best carriers. They don’t just fly to Singapore – they also operate ‘fifth freedom’ routes between the U.S. and Europe. Right now their New York JFK – Frankfurt flight has up to 6 business class award seats available most dates over the next year, and most credit card points transfer to book these.
With Asia opening back up, it’s a great time to grab some awards. SkyTeam member and all around great airline, Taipei-based China Airlines, has outstanding business class award availability from North America to Taiwan and beyond.
Just a few weeks ago the prospect of trying to coordinate changes to Europe awards would have given me heartburn. There was simply very little award space, save for a handful of airline and routes that I used as ‘worst-case scenarios’ when helping people to redeem their miles. And I didn’t want worst-case scenarios traveling with my wife and daughter.
Fortunately things are really looking up for those of us looking to use points for travel abroad, especially to Europe.
I’m shocked to see that Alaska Airlines appears to have wide open award availability for Singapore Airlines business class awards between the U.S. and Asia. In fact it seems they have at least as good availability as is offered to Singapore’s own members.
Two days ago there was Delta business class award space to Zurich and now there’s space from New York JFK to Amsterdam and from Salt Lake City to both Paris and Amsterdam in business class for two passengers for January through March.
For the past 9 years Swiss has only made its first class award space available to top elite members of the Miles & More frequent flyer program. So if you have United, Air Canada, Avianca or other Star Alliance miles you’ve been shut out from redeeming for this product.
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 »
