American Opens Up Business Class Saver Award Space To London And Paris

American’s saver award availability has been far stingier than Delta’s and United’s award space of late.

American is especially stingy in business and first class, so it’s newsworthy when things open up.

Last year they opened up business class space to Tel Aviv and I flew with my extended family to Israel on miles. Unfortunately American no longer flies to Israel.

Currently there’s excellent availability to London and Paris for travel from January-May.

American now charges 115K miles round-trip for these awards, but there are better ways to book.

This post details the cost in miles for every Oneworld destination from NYC and whether the airline tacks on a fuel surcharge.

View other ways to book and sample routes with business class saver award space after the jump:

BA charges 120K round-trip and tacks on fuel surcharges, so that would be a terrible use of Avios.

Alaska charges 100K round-trip and has no fuel surcharges.

It’s worth noting that you can currently transfer increments of 20K Starpoints into 30K American miles.

But the clear winner is Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at just 80K round-trip and no fuel surcharges. You can transfer points from AMEX, Citi, or Starwood to Asia Miles, but the main caveat is that transfers aren’t instant. It can take a day for AMEX or Citi points to reach Asia Miles.

Cathay Pacific doesn’t allow award holds for partner travel. You are able to hold an award on AA.com for up to 5 days though. Usually when you cancel an award it will go back into inventory, but there’s no guarantee of that.

Cathay Pacific allows you to travel up to 10K flown miles for 45K miles in coach, 80K miles in business class, or 120K miles in first class, so that works for most flights from the US to Europe except for the west coast. For a flight from Los Angeles-London you can use 100K Alaska miles or 115K AA miles in business class (it would be 120K with Asia Miles).

To search for American flights only (in order to exclude BA flights with $1,000+ fuel surcharges) click on Advanced Search and then switch from AA+AAdvantage Participating Airlines to American Airlines and American Eagle only:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grab the 77W if you can for the best business class in AAs fleet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample award search for 2 passengers from JFK-London and Dallas-JFK (AA flights only, toggled to non-stop flights only)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample award search for 2 passengers from Dallas-London and Dallas-Paris (AA flights only, toggled to non-stop flights only)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample award search for 2 passengers from Chicago-London and Chicago-Paris (AA flights only, toggled to non-stop flights only)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample award search for 2 passengers from Miami-London and Miami-Paris (AA flights only, toggled to non-stop flights only)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample award search for 2 passengers from Philadelphia-London and Philadelphia-Paris (AA flights only, toggled to non-stop flights only)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now if only they would open up some domestic award space…

0 seats JFK-Los Angeles in coach, business, or first:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0 seats JFK/LGA-Toronto in coach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0 seats JFK/LGA-Miami in coach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will you burn your miles for a trip to London or Paris this winter or spring?

HT: SearchGuy via DDF, and Gary