miles

Tips for Booking AA Premium Cabin Awards to Europe

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Dreaming of a lie-flat bed over the Atlantic without the five-figure price tag? In 2026, American Airlines is rolling out even more “Flagship Suite” seats featuring privacy doors. However, finding these seats for miles requires more than just luck.

Are you willing to be flexible, or maybe settle for just a flatbed in an older business product or premium economy instead? Flexibility is the main key to searching for premium seats on American Airlines.

Here are some other tips to find awards with AA:

1. Master the Partner “Sweet Spots.”

The secret to the best value often lies with AA’s Oneworld partners. While AA-operated flights can fluctuate in price, partner awards are often more stable than other alliance partnerships, but taxes and fees can be the enemy with partners.

Finnair to Helsinki (HEL): Finnair has expanded award availability in recent years, especially from hubs like Dallas (DFW). Their “AirLounge” business class is famous for its unique non-reclining (but fully flat) design. In the past, there have been times with a lot of inaccurate or ‘phantom’ space during award searches with Finnair, however.


Iberia to Madrid (MAD): If you want to avoid up to $750+ surcharges typical of British Airways, Iberia is your best friend. Expect taxes closer to $120.


AA Metal to Secondary Hubs: Instead of London (LHR), search for AA-operated flights to Munich (MUC), Milan (MXP), or Zurich (ZRH). These often have better “Saver” availability than the ultra-competitive New York-to-London routes.

2. Use Advanced Search Tools

Don’t just rely on the standard search bar. Professional “point-hackers” use other tools:

  • Seats.aero: The fastest way to see a massive “map” of availability across multiple dates and routes at once. Paid site.
  • ExpertFlyer: Essential for setting “Award Alerts.” If the seat isn’t available today, ExpertFlyer will email you the second it opens up. Paid site.
  • AA.com Calendar: If you prefer the official site, always use the Advanced Search and check the “Redeem Miles” box to view the 30-day award calendar. Searching one way at a time can be helpful as well. Free.

3. Avoid the “London Tax.”

When flying home from Europe, try to avoid departing from London if you can avoid it. The UK’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) can add hundreds of dollars to a “free” ticket. It is higher for premium cabins than for economy. Instead, start your return journey from Dublin (DUB), Madrid (MAD), or Amsterdam (AMS) to keep your out-of-pocket costs to a minimum.

Even cities like Paris can have high departure taxes. Taking cheap low-cost carriers (LCC’s) to other cities in Europe to position yourself for a return will save money. Another tip is to take the Eurostar to AMS. While not free, it can pay for itself.

Another savings tip when flying from Europe to the USA is that most flights are daytime flights, so can you get by in economy or maybe premium economy and save?

4. The 331-Day Rule

American Airlines typically opens its booking window 331 days in advance. If you have a specific high-demand date in mind, mark your calendar for exactly 331 days prior to departure to snag “Saver” level seats the moment they are released. But still try to be flexible with that date. Keep in mind that not all inventory is released 331 days out, but what is available does become bookable at that point in time. Partner space may vary more by date.

5. Last-Minute “T-14” Openings

If you didn’t book a year out, don’t panic. Many airlines, including AA partners, release unsold business class seats as awards within 14 days of departure. If you can be flexible, some of the best luxury cabins can be booked just days before you fly. It’s more of a gamble, but if you are also flexible on where you go, it can open up some good opportunities.

Pro Tip: Remember that AAdvantage miles don’t always have change or cancellation fees for award tickets, making it safer in some cases to “lock in” a flight now and change it later if a better route opens up! AA will also let you ‘hold’ an award booking for 24 hours at no cost if the flight you are looking at is 7 or more days away.

6. Seasonal Routes

I used to have more luck with these, but lesser-known American Airlines seasonal routes can offer award availability at times. Often these are seasonal flights from U.S. hubs to smaller European cities like Prague, Budapest, and Milan, as well as routes operated by partners like Finnair.

Philadelphia (PHL) to Prague (PRG) or Budapest (BUD) – Summer.


Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Zurich (ZRH) or Athens (ATH)- May through August.


Philadelphia (PHL) to Glasgow (GLA)- May through September.


Smaller cities like Munich (MUC) or Milan (MXP): Flights from AA hubs like Charlotte (CLT) or Chicago (ORD) to these cities on AA “metal” (AA-operated aircraft) often have more “saver” availability than London routes and help avoid high UK taxes.

7. Search by Segment

Search by Segment: Sometimes, searching for award space for the individual segments of a trip (e.g., PHL-MUC, then MUC-final destination on a partner) can uncover options that don’t appear when searching for the entire itinerary at once. However, keep in mind that ‘married segment’ logic may be required for saver-level awards from certain cities. In addition, just because you can find PHL-MUC and MUC-FCO doesn’t mean you’ll find PHL-FCO with MUC as a layover. In fact, even if you call in, the CSR may not be able to book that.

The other thing that you may find is that the award ticket is 60,000 miles PHL-MUC and 30,000 for PHL-FCO, but book it as one ticket, it may be 275,000 due to segment logic rules and availability.

The opposite can work in your favor, however. For example, you may find an award from ORD for 300,000 miles, but starting in STL, it may drop to 100,000, due to ‘married segment logic’.

Set your Expectations Accordingly

Many times, you may find a decent-priced premium award ticket, but most often that lower price will include things people don’t like. For example, you may have to connect LGA-JFK in New York, or you might end up with a 15-hour layover. If you don’t mind that 5:15am flight, it can be cheaper even for domestic awards. To save money, you might need to put up with a less-than-desirable route or itinerary. To me, it’s part of the adventure.

One last thing I would mention is that if you book a flight 11 months out, there is a VERY good chance the flight and/or the aircraft will change during that time. Sometimes AA will rebook you, and it’s fine, but many times you’ll have to call in to get it adjusted to your liking. This can be in your favor as you might be able to have them move you to another, better flight. But keep an eye on your reservation. If you are forced to call in, it’s a good idea to search for alternate routes for your trip before you call. Look at any award ticket, regardless of the mile price, and during the conversation, nicely offer them what you found. Don’t get upset if they can’t book it the way you want, though. This is especially true with partner awards.

Did Southwest let Chase declare their points are worth less than 1 cent each?

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My wife has the Southwest Priority Card until the annual fee goes up next year. She just got a spend promo from Chase. These are pretty typical and usually provide 5x points for spend in certain categories. We always sign up for them, but usually can’t max them out unless it’s something good like Amazon spending. I guess you could say I am pretty well-versed on these and the fine print.

We currently have several cards with gas, grocery, and restaurant deals from 3x to 5x, but this new Southwest one caught my eye.

As you can see, it is 4% up to $40 through September. I thought, well, that is pretty good and easy to max out, even if we buy most of our groceries at Walmart, which doesn’t count. But then I read the fine print.

OK, still 4% back up to $40, so doing my public school math, that is $1,000 to get $40, I’m in, or at least I’ll register. But then it dawned on me…why? Why cashback, why not points or miles? Now I know Freedom does this as cash back, but it really ends up being points.

Maybe I’m dumb, but since we prefer airline credit cards, wouldn’t you think Chase would assume we want miles or points instead of cash? If I just wanted a cash rewards card, I’d just do that. I’m sure I’m reading too much into all this, but it will be interesting to see how we earn this bonus. Of course, it takes 6 to 8 weeks because, well, it’s 2025.

My conclusion on this is if they want to pay us 4% cash back instead of the typical 5x points, does that mean Southwest points are worth less than 1 cent each? My reasoning is that if this were 5x points, I’d earn 5,000 points, not $40 for the same $1,000 spend on this card.

If my math is correct, 5,000 points at $40 is about .008 per point.

Next time, Chase, just give me points, it’s a game, not real life, to me in this space. I’m trying to earn a vacation here, not $40.

I’d even add that if I had $40 in Southwest points, which we now know is 5,000 points, I’d be spending them only on Southwest, so the cost for them to provide that 5,000 worth of service would likely be worth less and give them more profit. I suppose Chase doesn’t see it that way.

Why Amex Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts Benefit is worthless to me.

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So I found myself at 7pm on 12-31-22, once again trying to figure out a way to use the American Express Personal Platinum card Fine Hotel and Resorts $200 annual credit. For those living under a rock, this benefit is supposed to be a way to claw back some of the overpriced annual fee. It is basically as useful as most hotel discount rates. I’d compare it to the IHG Ambassador free weekend night benefit but less useful due to the limited locations for the average person.

So I sound really negative but here is why. If you look at the entire list of FHR or Hotel Collection locations there are entire states and major cities without a single location. The Proud Money blog has a nice list for example. Sure California, New York, and Florida all do pretty well but 1 location in Indiana and none in Kansas are just a few examples of holes in this program. This doesn’t even mention locations all over the world that either lack any locations or only have a few (which are all super expensive of course).

Ok so I’m mad I couldn’t figure out how to use this again for the 2nd year in a row and 2023 isn’t looking promising. Maybe I’m just bitter so I’ll give you an example of why this program isn’t worth anything to me.

This is a summary from the Amex website that makes this sound awesome. I’ll overlook the fact that it’s now 2023 and Wi-Fi, like Color TV, should be included at all hotels for free anyway. In some odd way, Amex is promising “strong coffee” but I assume that comes at a price.

Amex promises extra benefits on FHR 1-night prepaid stays or Hotel Collection 2-night stays in addition to the $200 rebate. You can book it far in advance and get the benefit once per calendar year so you could book your 2022 benefit into 2023 and then use the 2023 credit as well. This all sounds good but unless you are already planning to pay for a stay at one of these higher-end properties it might not be your best rate, by far.

So one potential location that would have worked for me is an upcoming trip to Israel that I’m considering so I checked Israel. I was in luck as there are several properties there that could work. Let’s compare the rate for one.

A web search finds the IHG Intercontinental Tel Aviv for $314 per night on Google Maps. Now, this isn’t 100% fair since the $314 is a prepaid 3rd party OTA site and doesn’t include taxes most likely but even the IHG website has it for less than about $350 a night for most nights. But let’s look at the Amex website. Keep in mind that as an IHG member with just about any status at all you will earn bonus IHG points., late check-out, etc. so this offsets any Amex 5x benefits except for the food credit which is usually around $100 if you want to eat at the hotel while in Tel Aviv.

$415 seems high compared to the $314 on Google? Weird that this is around a $100 difference, huh… Now I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that not all FHR properties are like this. I have found a few that are about the same but at the end of the day, you still aren’t getting the best rate. No such thing as a free lunch as they say.

For this hotel, I could also use around 60,000 IHG points for a free night which I could likely buy at around .5 cents per point or less so about $300. Since I’m an IHG Ambassador status person I’ll likely skip the Amex benefit but this is just one example of many that I’ve found.

I’ve been able to use the $200 airline credit at less than $200 in value for misc junk like miles and such. I’ve also made good use of the Saks $50 credit but I bought stuff I really didn’t need at a store I don’t love, at prices that are much too high so I don’t value that at $100 per year. I think I’m going to have to downgrade my Platinum card for 2023 back to Gold so I at least get 4x at restaurants.

Bottom line: Are there some deals and value to be found with this benefit? Sure, but not for most people, and certainly not for me. When combined with the higher fees and the new 2023 limits on Centurion Lounge access the Amex Platinum card is no longer worth it to me.

Ever Wonder If – Those “Buy Extra Miles” at airport check-in are a good deal.

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Sure we’ve all been there. You are rushing around getting ready for your trip and you jump online to check in for your flight, “pick and pray” on the seat selector without the advantage of SeatGuru available. You worry about how to print the boarding pass in a hotel lobby with 5 printers that all lack ink and IT support.

Or Maybe you’re doing it on the fly at the airport Kiosk, worried about dropping your bags or passport while the amateur travelers all around you wonder at your kiosk skills and how cool a jet-setter like you looks.

Then BANG you get the “Mileage Multiplier” !!!

Wait!!! HOLD THE PLANE. YOU mean for just a bit more money I can get 5,000 extra miles to add to my Euro Trip Vacation stash.

Oh it must be a good deal because after all I’m flying already and only people checking in will be able to gain these extra miles at such a good value. I can see myself drinking champagne in crystal fluted glasses in first class. Or is that sparkling wine in plastic cups?

But wait is it a good deal? It must be but I can’t do the math in my head, too much going on. UGGGG. Not sure what to do! Pull the trigger or pass up the “deal of the century”. Oh the pressure.

OK let’s not do math, let’s just compare. If you don’t even have a reservation but log into AA.com (in this case). Go to the Buy, Gift and Transfer miles page and you’ll find this price:

That’s right my friends you would have just paid $12.03 too much for those miles at check-in. Feel special yet? Oh and there is more. That’s without taking advantage of the frequent or current mile buy deals for buying more miles.

Sure $461.99 is a lot to spend on miles but this is just a hint that those miles at check-in aren’t usually a good deal. As a rule of thumb if you aren’t seeing “buy miles” deals at less than 2 cents per mile it isn’t usually a great deal. In fact buying miles rarely is a good deal to buy on speculation. It can pay off to buy miles to put you over the top for a premium cabin redemption but I’ve never seen it be a good deal at check-in. I assume there are folks that can sneak this through on an expense account but most of us live in the real world and have morals.

Oh and those travel bloggers that help us all out by telling us about the latest mile buying promotions or top travel gadgets to buy from Amazon can be helpful if you have the need. Remember though that most are doing this as a way to may affiliate revenue. They get money when you click through many of the deals they post. Doesn’t make it wrong but just do it eyes-wide open. In fact when I do take advantage of things like this or credit card sign-ups I try to do it through blogs I like to support them. Some of them also lack morals so use caution.

Side Note: I pick on American Airlines here but most airline check-in deals aren’t worth it. Just remember if the price for those 5,000 miles is higher than $100 you are paying too much. Less than that could be a good deal and a unicorn. Maybe like a unicorn using a kiosk at the airport 🙂

How To Easily Search Radisson Award Nights by Category

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Many times to find an award night for hotel points or certificates you have to find the location then drill into the reservations and then find out the number of points required or the category level for free night certificates, etc.

Radisson makes this much easier than some hotel chains:

First, click on “Benefits & Rewards” along the top banner.  It might be helpful to be logged in as well. 

radisson beni

 

Then Click on “Redeem” on right middle of the page.

 

radisson redeem

Then click on “Award Night Stays” 

radisson award nights

Then it will open up a page that shows award category levels and how many points are needed for a standard or premium room. Basic award chart. But what makes this award chart extra nice is that if you click the hidden link at the top of each column it will open up the list of hotels by category worldwide. 

Radisson free nights

So, for example, click on “Category 1” and will give you a page that shows the hotels by region for that point and Cat level as shown here:

Radisson award by cat by region

There you go. Sure for points veterans, this is simple stuff and 101 level but as somewhat of a Radisson fan I really like this feature for booking hotel awards on my upcoming travels. I’m a very visual reference learner and enjoy this feature a lot as it’s so simple. 

IHG 2nd Quarter Accelerate Promo Now Live but….

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holiday-inn-express-art

In case you’re not familiar IHG Hotels has for many years run a quarterly bonus point earning promo called Accelerate. It has been decent for many years however it is targeted and seems to track how often you stay at IHG. So in other words, if you don’t stay at IHG hotels (Holiday Inn’s, etc.) often then you tend to get really good offers. Like “Stay 1 Night and earn 4,000 bonus points” or whatever. If you stay at a lot of IHG hotels the offers tend to get harder to achieve but also may offer greater rewards. For example “Stay 26 nights this quarter and get 20,000 bonus points” or whatever.

IHG says:

Complete your customized offers now and get your points. With offers designed for the way you like to travel, Accelerate helps you experience more of life. Earn bonus points, get rewards, and make every stay count more.

How does it work?

1. Book and stay at any IHG® hotel around the world from now until August 31.
2. Earn bonus points to use for great rewards and moments that matter.

So we get to:

Have: Customized offers, great (See above)

Offers that are designed for “the way you like to travel”, Apparently not the way others like to travel for me to travel the way I do or something.

“Experience more of life”. Apparently by staying at IHG hotels “life” is more of an “Experience”

And we get to “make every stay count more”.

All sounds great unless you get a crappy offer like my wife did this year.

Here is her offer:

FireShot Capture 048 - IHG® Rewards Club - Earn the extra rewards you deserve - Register Now_ - www.ihg.com

OK let’s say you aren’t familiar with this promo and think this is a great offer. That would be good if you didn’t know that my wife usually has an Accelerate promo worth like 50,000 points but can be hard to reach. She stays about 100 nights a year in hotels so targeting 24 nights’ish in a quarter to get some bonus works for her and IHG. This promo is so low AND requires her to stay for leisure to obtain it. Since she is a business traveler she doesn’t usually stay over on Saturday night. She doesn’t usually book for points & cash and uses a business credit card. Kind of disappointed.

Before you accuse me of kicking the gift horse that IHG Accelerate usually provides I will point out the offer I got below. Why is mine better? Because IHG had done the same to me in early 2018 and I moved all my stays over to Marriott in early 2018 to try and reset the clock with IHG. Good plan right? Sure except I found out that I REALLY like Marriott. In the marketing world, I would consider that a failure. So by IHG having targeted promo’s that punish loyal customers (11,600 versus 60,100) it can backfire I think.

FireShot Capture 049 - IHG® Rewards Club - Earn the extra rewards you deserve - Register Now_ - www.ihg.com

I won’t bring up the registration process issues on this latest promo. Mine worked fine and my wife’s didn’t load until after May 1st. Not sure why. I assume IT issues and not that they more closely reviewed her’s for extra crappy-ness.

Anyway. I urge you to register if you even think you’ll stay at an IHG hotel soon.

How does it work?

1. Sign up for Accelerate.
2. Book and stay at any of your favorite IHG® hotels from May 1, 2019, and August 31, 2019.
3. Earn bonus points to use for great rewards.

You can sign up for the latest promotion by June 18, 2019, and each offer must be completed between 5/1/18 and May 1, 2019, and August 31, 2019.

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My state of mind on hotels today

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So I was reading the Travel with Grant blog today and he states how he is in a funk over hotel programs. I agree and attempted to give my 5 cents. Why because it’s free. Not I’m not a troll on Boardingarea. Well maybe I’m sort of a big fan that is opinionated.

So I share some thoughts on most hotel programs below. Keep in mind that I travel 100 to 125 nights a year on business plus vacations and cruises so yes my dogs hate me. My wife travels 75 to 100 nights as well. She is a real IHG Spire loyalist as am I and am a Spire Ambassador (sounds impressive) but I also branch out with Hilton and Marriott a lot. We both hold Silver status with Marriott and I have Diamond with Hilton as well as Gold with Radisson.

Radisson used to be better but 40k a year is worth keeping the card for an odd night or so plus Gold status. I love Radisson Blu hotels and have stayed at a lot of them all over the world.

Hyatt, I love love them but…not enough properties. So I don’t want to waste my stays there.

Marriott, I want to love them, they have properties everywhere, but it’s too hard to earn top tier status. But…once you do you can earn United Silver. But…the free night certs are limited and expire too quickly. I’ve got about a dozen stays in with them this year so far but as a Silver i wonder why I’m not at other chains where my status is higher.

SPG, you should have already moved your points over to Virgin to Alaska when you had the chance. They also have too many places where the hotel selection it too eclectic and it’s not my thing. Points super valuable but a bit hard to rack up quickly in my world.

IHG, I love IHG. They have properties everywhere, well they are weak in Hawaii (come on IHG). As an IHG credit card holder you get a real free night cert that you can use for a year. In addition they have good promos. I also like buying up in points or cash to Intercontinental status for the free night rebates or status share and free weekend BOGO cert although it’s not always the best deal. The IHG card also gives you Platinum status which is a nicer level than some others.

Choice Hotels. They have been going down hill for years. The Cambria properties offer some hope and I really like them but they don’t have Cambria hotels in most areas. In general they are a fancy Wyndham motel or an Ex-IHG,Marriott,Hilton property. The card is OK I guess but I’m not a fan in general.

Wyndham…..They have lied to me many times on promotions and have for years. They have a few good properties but unless you work on a transient labor crew and are forced to “do time” in Super 8’s  or HOJO’s then they are not a good place to be, trust me.

Best Western. They are like an honest Wyndham with slightly better rooms or maybe equal with Choice. The future is bright for them as they seem to be putting in a real effort to improve the hotels but unless you do business travel in a region where they are all over it’s not my first, second or third choice and I’m Diamond with them (don’t ask).

Hilton. You’ll notice they are lumped at the bottom. If it wasn’t for nicer hotels they would be even with Choice or Best Western. They have devalued SO much I’m not sure where the bottom is. I want to love Hilton but they don’t love me back. The Hampton’s are a weak HIX and they devalue faster than I can earn points and I’m a Hilton Diamond. Sure they offer free breakfast and free wifi but isn’t that like free HBO and air conditioned rooms? They also did away with the double dip in another devaluation. 2017 may have seen some of my last stays with Hilton as I watch my Hilton points currency burning in front me faster than I use it. It’s like the Wiemar Republic of the hotel points world. Maybe I’ll start referring to their points as HHonormarks or RReichmarks.

So bottom line is use the cards from the random hotel chains for the perks and odd location awards but Marriott or IHG should be your future until they follow Hilton to the Neverland Ranch. The dynamics change for certain types of travelers I know and I don’t think everyone will agree with me. Just my personal opinion based on my experience and how I’ve been treated by these programs over the years. Plus I’m biased. Now IHG go build some Hawaii properties so I can go there on vacation already 🙂

My advices is to put most of your day to day spend on a good card like Chase Sapphire Reserve and forget doing much spending on hotel cards unless you need the hit to earn a promo, etc. Churn these cards to get points unless your a business traveler and if you are pick the best one that works for you everywhere you go or want awards.

Notice I have no affiliate links in my post so I’m trying to be as honest as I can about my feelings on these properties but keep in mind that I’m a bit biased to IHG in general. 20171218_1448131057734389.jpg

Should I buy the AA Platinum Upgrade offer or just do the UA Economy Plus Subscription?

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So in 2017 I was Gold with American Airlines. I reached that again by mid year but managed to miss Platinum by a hair at the end of the year. I just didn’t see the profit in doing a mileage run. So far in 2018 I have some AA flights booked and some long haul award trips on AA but some of my business trips have been moved over to United for various reasons in this first Quarter.

So here comes the offers. I can buy up to Platinum on AA for $795

FireShot Capture 4 - Secure your eli_ - https___elite.americanairlines.com_eliterenewal_purchase.cfm

But after thinking about it I don’t think it’s worth that much to me. Sure I might see a few additional domestic upgrades but the main value is the MCE seats. And if I’m stuck flying United more than normal in 2018 I might be better off to just get an Economy Plus subscription for $499.

FireShot Capture 5 - Economy plus choose options I United A_ - https___www.united.com_ual_en_us_su

I’m not sure it’s worth it for either one. I actually wish AA would have given me a bit cheaper of an option to move up to Platinum since I was so close but at least I’m still Gold with a bunch of 500 mile stickers for now. I don’t think it’s worth it to do a status match with United either but we’ll see.

Iceland Air Coming to Kansas City MCI

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I guess due to the recent subzero weather we’ve had in Kansas City lately, the Icelanders have been fooled into starting service from MCI to Iceland. And…I love it.

FireShot Capture 1 - Cheap flights to Europe & Iceland I Icelandair_ - http___www.icelandair.us_

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/new-airline-service-announcement-expected-tuesdayat-kci

Apparently per TV 4 in KC:

”

Officials with the Kansas City International Airport and Mayor Sly James announced Icelandair is coming to KCI this year.

Icelandair will bring seasonal transatlantic air service to Europe with new nonstop flights between Kansas City and Iceland. Beginning May 26, 2018, Kansas City-region travelers can fly nonstop from KCI to Icelandair’s hub at Keflavik International Airport near the Iceland capital, Reykjavik.

According to the Kansas City Aviation Department, Icelandair’s Kansas City service will offer three nonstop flights per week to Iceland with connections to and from more than 25 destinations in Scandinavia, the UK, and Continental Europe. ”

This is good news for Kansas City. The city plans to work through political issues and build a new single terminal airport that will likely be too small and made of too much glass in the near future. As my home airport I love that I can now fly to Europe directly without flying to a hub first. Great news !

Update***

It seems this service will start seasonally from May to September in 2018 with hopes to expand. The outbound flights will be M-W-Sat with Return inbound flights on T-F-Sun. The flight is just under 7 hours and will offer fares that include the ability to stop over in Iceland for up to 7 days without additional fees.

http://www.icelandair.us/news/story/icelandair-is-going-to-kansas-city/

 

American Airlines Playing Games With Award Availability on Non-Stop Flights?

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This isn’t an exact science but my theory says that AA plays games with award space to keep it’s loyal customers from booking the best non-stop routes with miles. So say you want to book an award flight from the USA to Europe. We’ll pick DFW to Madrid for an example. So I’m searching 11 months out for my example:

DFW-MAD

I’m thrilled because I found an actual non-BA flight with awards space for 2 passengers!

dfwmad

Now this is not bad but I don’t actually live in DFW so I’m willing to stage from my non-hub to other hubs like say Chicago ORD. Since I’d rather not have an extra leg I just want the ORD-MAD flight. It’s available as part of this booking, right?

Think again here is the ORD-MAD non-BA selections for this same date:

ORDMAD

Gosh that’s weird. Why isn’t that same non-stop Iberia flight available? Oh well it looks like I can just stage to JFK and pick one of the TWO Iberia flights for that date. Not as close for me and I’ll likely need to trek from LGA to JFK but it should work OK. At least I can save that extra leg from ORD, right?

jfkmad

Well think again. I’d have to fly to Boston I guess. Boston is not an easy connection for me but hey at least that one is available. Maybe I managed to corner AA enough into Boston? To me this is silly. It’s either a poor system that doesn’t work well OR….done intentionally to keep you from booking the best flights on awards for some odd reason.

bosmad