Award availability limited on direct flights

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
I'm looking at the award availability on AA for ORD-CMH on June 10, 2015.
I was expecting it to be wide open. In a way they are, since there are plenty of seats but they all route ORD-CLT-CMH. It turns a 1 hour flight to over 4 hours :(

There are plenty of direct flights from ORD-CMH. We do need 4 tickets but I find it hard to believe they're all already gone almost a year in advance. What am I missing?

Out of curiosity, I looked up the availability for August and found there are plenty of seats.
Do they just release the direct flights later? If so, can I switch to it since my origin and destination won't change?
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
I'm looking at the award availability on AA for ORD-CMH on June 10, 2015.
I was expecting it to be wide open. In a way they are, since there are plenty of seats but they all route ORD-CLT-CMH. It turns a 1 hour flight to over 4 hours :(

There are plenty of direct flights from ORD-CMH. We do need 4 tickets but I find it hard to believe they're all already gone almost a year in advance. What am I missing?

Out of curiosity, I looked up the availability for August and found there are plenty of seats.
Do they just release the direct flights later? If so, can I switch to it since my origin and destination won't change?
Direct flights are a lot harder to snag than indirect, naturally because there are many ways to get to your destination other than directly (and also because I think they hold back the seats as they can be sold at a premium)

Yes, book indirect, and change for free when seats open up.
 
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