I was attempting to use AA miles for upcoming EU travel, but couldn’t find availability for the peak summer travel season. The deal-maker in me also wanted to burn the miles on CX F/J before the March devaluation. We wanted to visit family in HKG and TPE, so here is how I explored my options:
- SFO-HKG (or return)
- SFO-TPE (or return)
- Outbound availability (with either OW or *A)
Remember, sometimes one of the ways has much better availability with one alliance. So book those routes first.
Thus, I started searching BA for SFO-HKG.
Plenty of Econ/Premium Econ availability, but no luck with anything higher, from late November to December. Premium Econ is currently not bookable with AA miles.
HKG-SFO had the same issue with a few J one-stops in HND.
Then I tried SFO-TPE and found some 1 stops in HND. Not bad, but the dates are few are far in between.
TPE-SFO had plenty of Y, but no J.
At the end of the day, just being able to burn miles is already rewarding in today’s award inventory environment. Securing Y and savings the miles might be just fine. I might be able to upgrade to J/F as the day nears if they don’t fill those seats. This could be especially true for Saturday flights (less revenue business-fares).
I could either get Y for any dates with OW on the outbound or inbound. Or I could try to find J/F with the outbound to TPE, then supplementing inbound with *A. This is an example of performing due diligence on your options so you know the possibilities and have the data to make an informed decision.