stilton1028

I've been flying almost weekly with AA since they purchased US Air and an EP every year. I don't often complain and have made some great friends with wonderful staff all over, but recently I've had a lot of difficulty trying to use miles for flights abroad. Today I'm searching for destinations this summer flying out of RDU and several flights show nothing available when choosing to use miles, but of course should I deselect and opt to pay for a flight its not an issue. I've never had this previously and don't know if I've just been lucky or if they've changed the terms of using miles? I was under the impression that blackout dates didn't exist, so maybe limits are placed on how many mileage tickets can be used, although I consider that just as bad.

Between the increased cancellations and delays, (70% of my flights so far this year), and now this I'm about ready to explore my options sadly.

Smiley90

Are you trying to book flights on AA or on partners? Examples?

JJeffrey

Yea, give us an example (date and flight) so we can help troubleshoot.

pinniped

We definitely seem to be in a cycle when using miles on long-hauls and with partners seems quite difficult - or at rates so high that using miles makes no sense at all. But I've never been 100% shut out...usually there are options at insane rates.

The positive side of the cycle is that I've been using my miles for excellent value on short-hauls. I realize this is boring and not what FTers like to do, I've always been fine buying the cheaper tickets and holding the miles for international J/F. But now some of my usual routes have gotten pricey due to lack of competition, but the miles to redeem have actually gone down. So...for now...AA miles are simple cash-replacement awards for me.

Is the total lack of availability because there's a connection onward from an international airport and you're 100% at the mercy of at least one partner segment?

stilton1028

Sorry - I did try attaching screenshots in my original post but as a newbie I'm not allowed until my 5th post.

My first try was RDU to KEF from 7/25 to 7/29. The search returned "We modified your search and didn't find a match".

My next try was RDU to SZG the same dates and came back "Something went wrong we didn't find a match". I tried again and same issue but after deselecting miles it populated many choices...same as KEF.

daninstl

Those are smaller airports for AA miles and searching Europe in Peak July a few months out might be part of the issue but I'm just speculating. Even if you find availability would be a BA flight or some partner which has become harder lately. God forbid you want business class.

stilton1028

I just tried expanding the search to Stuttgart and the same issue applies...only available via purchase. Closest I can get to my end destination is Munich which is outrageous compared to other parts of Europe during those same dates. I know the Olympics are in Paris but that's quite a distance away and shouldn't affect Germany.

guv1976

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Neither of your destinations is served by AA metal, so you are looking for a "partner" award. Partner awards have fixed redemption rates, so in order to find a partner award, the partner must make award seats available to AA, and AA must have low-cost award seats available on its flight. You could try pricing this as two awards, using the AA multi-city award-booking engine. Try routing through MAD (for KEF only), through HEL, or through LON. Or just book award travel to one of those hub cities, and explore cash options for the flight to KEF or SZG.

And by the way, AA did not buy US; US bought AA, and opted to trade as AA after the purchase.

Smiley90

Yes, this is the problem. AA will happily sell you an AA flight for however many miles it might cost - partner airlines however only make a limited amount of seats available for AA members to redeem miles on. Even less in Business, and a lot of those seats get booked far in advance, especially for popular travel periods. If you have unlimited AA miles available you can likely find flights into places served by AA itself and then reposition within Europe by train or flight.

ehallison

I'm sorry you're not finding the reward you want, but it's a bit late to book for summer travel. That said - I was pleasantly surprised this week to find award flights from US to Rome & Venice for 65k miles in J, in August. I'd been looking for a couple of weeks and was resigned to flying in Premium Economy when these popped up (multiple flights, multiple days of the week - and not just the 28 hour 2 stop itineraries!). So sometimes miracles happen. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I was even seeing some options on BA and Iberia flights, so there were some decent partner awards thrown in there too.

enviroian

Remind me again how to find Iberia award availability? I know EF doesn’t. BA?

Smiley90

BA and IB both use Avios, so availability won't match AA. IB should show up on AA.com, when available.

guv1976

If you're looking to redeem AAdvantage miles for travel on Iberia, search at aa.com, or on the AA app:

cova

Icelandic Air flies nonstop from RDU to KEF. This might be your best bet - just buy a ticket. These are 737Max9.
Main routing for AA with AA flight numbers is to LHR then BA to KEF - but then you are backtracking.

2 years ago AA was flying to KEF but gave it up. KEF is 2/3 of the way to main Europe. So all the flights are single aisle aircraft.

UA flies out of EWR and ORD to KEF with 752.

Antarius

another one of AA's brilliant strategy of throwing darts at a map or chasing every Tom, dick or Harry that threw before them.

DFW-KEF was protecting the hub (which realistically doesn't need it) and PHL-KEF was one of their Taylor Swift style flirtations with PHL being their TATL gateway (before unceremoniously dumping them for JFK only to rebound and then repeat cycle)