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Over the past few years American Airlines has been getting more and more stingy with the award seats it releases. This has led to a great deal of frustration on the part of American Airlines flyers who have, understandably, felt that the airline has been surreptitiously devaluing their AAdvantage miles – if you can’t use them they’re not worth very much.
Around the beginning of February things suddenly started to change….. and quite dramatically. Awards across the Atlantic suddenly became plentiful (and were duly snapped up by award-starved flyers), awards to Asia appeared on American’s systems and awards were even opened up on the Los Angeles – Auckland route. American even released an unprecedented amount of upgrade space – it was like the floodgates had opened.
One region was left out of this award bonanza – South America.
American Airlines is the dominant US carrier to South America (by quite a distance) so perhaps the airline didn’t feel the need to show South America the same love as the rest of the world, or perhaps they just forgot. Who knows?
Whatever the reasons, it now looks like South America is starting to join the award party with premium cabin award availability opening up on a number of routes out of Miami.
Miami – Santiago
Availability varies from month to month but, just as an example, here’s Business Class availability for April & May….
…and here’s First Class availability for the same months:
Most of these are non-stop flights on an American Airlines 777-200 so, unless you get a refurbished aircraft, the Business and First Class cabins will be the old-style cabins. A few of the award flights are on 767 aircraft so be sure to check what you’re booking if you plan on snapping up one or more of these awards.
The number of awards on any given day can be quite impressive too. Here’s a screenshot from ExpertFlyer showing a minimum of 7 Business Class awards available on each of the two flights between Miami and Santiago on one day!
And this award availability runs in both directions. Here’s another ExpertFlyer screenshot showing 4 First Class and a minimum of 7 Business Class awards available on a single flight from Santiago and Miami:
Miami – Buenos Aires
As with the Santiago route the number of awards varies from month to month and the availability extends through to the end of 2016.
Here’s what August’s Business Class availability looks like for example…..
…and here’s what First Class award availability looks like for the same month:
August not good for you? Then pick another month. Here’s November Business Class award availability….
…and here are the dates with First Class award availability in November:
All these flights are non-stop and, more importantly, not restricted to American’s old 777-200 aircraft that operates one of the two flights between Miami and Buenos Aires. The second daily flight between the two cities is operated by an American Airlines 777-300ER aircraft with the newer (and excellent) Business Class seats:
American Airlines Business Class – Boeing 777-300ER
Here’s a screenshot from ExpertFlyer showing what award availability on the route can be like:
That’s a minimum of 7 Business Class awards on each flight (one of which is operated by the 777-300ER) and 9 First Class award on a single day!
And yes, before you ask, the awards are available going in the opposite direction too. Here’s yet another ExpertFlyer screenshot showing what availability can be like from Buenos Aires to Miami.
Other Routes
The two routes I focused on above are just examples – other routes to South America are looking good too.
Miami to Rio de Janeiro in September (Business Class):
And even Dallas is seeing awards being offered:
Dallas to Buenos Aires in May (Fist Class):
Bottom Line
The routes between South American and the US are extremely popular so, if you’re interested in any of these awards, I’d book sooner rather than later.
Bearing in mind the impeding AAdvantage devaluation after 22 March this could be a very good use of miles. Right now a round-trip Business Class award costs 100,000 AAdvantage Miles/person but, on devaluation day, that will increase to 115,000.
At the moment a round-trip First Class award will set you back 125,000 AAdvantage Miles/person but, for bookings made after 22 March, that will be going up to 170,000 – a stunning 36% increase.
If I haven’t mentioned a route you’re interested in it doesn’t mean that availability isn’t there…it just means that I don’t have the time to discuss every route to South American. Head over to AA.com, input the route and dates you’re interested in and you may get a pleasant surprise.
(HT: View From The Wing)
