Over the past few months, there have been several instances of excellent award availability to Europe on US Airways and AA flights. This time it may not be good for summer premium cabin travel, but there are far more award seats open on AA flights than usual. If you’ve been looking for AA award seats to Europe, check now!
In my limited time to research routes before heading out, I have found:
Coach availability on AA flights from the U.S. to Europe nearly every day through the end of May, a couple of dates in June, and then most days from July on.
Excellent coach availability on AA flights from Europe to the U.S. through the end of June, some in July and August, and then nearly every day from late August through the end of the schedule.
Good weekday business class availability on AA flights from the U.S. to Europe starting in October, and then wide open on weekdays starting January 4.
Excellent weekday business class availability from Europe to the U.S. on AA flights starting late October.
I’ve seen times when there wasn’t a single SAAver level seat on AA’s Chicago-Rome flight. This is for four coach seats during peak season!
The dates with premium cabin seats include Thanksgiving break, Christmas break and Winter break or ski week for most school districts. Thanksgiving and wintertime are great times to visit Southern Europe! We found uncrowded museums in France and great weather in Italy in November, and you can read Are We There Yet’s take on Italy in the winter time here.
All of my searches were for 4 passengers.
If you have to choose a not-very-efficient combination of domestic flights to get to your international gateway city, aim for US flights as they are more likely to have schedule changes that allow you to choose better flights. If you have to sort out details or wait on positioning flights, put your transatlantic flight on hold for 5 days. It’s free!
H/T to CMK10 on flyertalk whose post got me searching. Happy booking!
– Kenny
I booked a flight to Greece when you first posted about this in January, so thanks! When I read this new post, I went back to aa to see what availability was like, just for fun. I, too, noticed plenty of award space; however, when you click through to see the actual flights, they all route you through London on BA, which has horrendous surcharges. Have you seen availability on any non-BA flights?
Would you mind sharing your flights to Greece using AA miles and not involving BA. I was not to find anything even back in January. I need 3 tickets but ok with coach
Back in January it was US Airways flight that were wide open including their PHL-ATH route (which may be seasonal anyway). Now it is AA flights and they don’t fly to Greece. Your best bet would be to find a ticket on AA or US to Madrid with a continuing segment on Iberia.
Yes, it was US Airways that had availability PHL-ATH back in January. Agree with Kenny that Madrid is your next best bet. Just a quick glance shows CLT-FRA (Charlotte to Frankfurt) available May 18 and 19. Check for several European cities. Good luck!
Thanks, it makes sense now, I was looking to take advantage of off peak discount but could find it because it is seasonal.