While trying to reserve FF seats on AA from Boston to Milan for next September, I learned a a few things that might be helpful to others. My husband and I thought we would try for business class awards once in our lifetime and we just happen to have enough miles due to his business transactions this year that are not likely to happen again. I have heard these are rather difficult to get so I have been plotting for the past 2 weeks (while also trying to get ready for this year's trip next week -talk about stress!)

So I called the AA advantage desk for some advice such as the exact date the seats for my preferred travel dates would be avaialble, if I could mix partner airlines and what time of day the seats are usually released. No one could tell me about the timing of when seats are released except any time after midnight.

I went to bed before midnight on the morning they would be released and thought, I'm not going to obsess about it (yeah right!), if I wake up in the middle of the night I'll try giving them a call. AS luck would have it I awoke at 2:30 am and thought it was a sign . So I dragged myself out of bed, made the call and lo and behold I was able to get 2 FF BC seats from Boston to London. Since the flight to Milan from London was the next day, I would have to call back again the following morning to book those. I asked this helpful agent what time the seats were usually released and she said after midnight CENTRAL TIME. Aha-at last an answer to this burning question!

So last night rather then going to bed, I stayed up until 1 am to make the call. Not in the system yet!! Went to bed, called again at around 2:30 am and SUCCESS ! Of course, now I have to go through the same process for the return segment but I'll be in Italy and the timing should be a more reasonable 8am or so.

The other interesting thing I learned by playing with the AA advantage booking on line is that the on line awards seem to be 2 days behind what a live agent can offer. So always call an agent! So that's my story, hope it helps someone and keep your fingers crossed that the return portion works out for us.

Colleen, that's terrific. And may the force be with you on those return reservations!

As AA FFs ourselves, I can add that our experience also supports working through the agents rather than online. In fact, just last week we were able to snare award tickets to Venice from SFO for mid-November to mid-December of this year. I think they keep releasing award seats, depending on the loads. No rhyme or reason as far as we the public can see.

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I think they keep releasing award seats, depending on the loads. No rhyme or reason as far as we the public can see.

That's exactly what they do. If the flight isn't going to sell out, they release seats. Last May I was able to get tickets from JFK to Paris on AA for June (less than 4 weeks out).

We have successfully booked AA FF seats for our last 3 trips and always used the agent, since it seems like what we want to do has one or two small deviations from the straightforward plan. This summer we were trying to book next summer's trip from LAX to Zurich, thought we would fly AA to London and then BA to Zurich and the agent at AA found us a nonstop flight on SwissAir in Business from LAX to Zurich for July 07 (of course AA is ending their code share with SwissAir in 10/07 so we'll never be able to do this again).
Then we're taking the train to Venice,and spending time in Piedmont and the Lakes.

Marcia

Yes, the Swiss Air option is a good one to Milan through Zurich but they weren't posting FF seats yet so I thought I had better grab what I could. May need to use them on the return-we'll see. I like Swiss Air and the Zurich airport is easy-too bad AA is ending the partnership.