Frustrated with American Airlines
 

I have 135,000 ff miles and husband has 175,000 and we want to go to Spain first class (mile saver award)or least Business class (milesaver award) to Barcelona and Madrid but American will only release one such seat for the time frame we want- namely in May or even April. going much before it will be too cold, and of course on the summer it is out of the question. They will release two seats if we select First Anytime award but that requires much too much mileage. We avoid London (BA flights) as the fuel/taxes on these awards are rediculous and thus make that option a no go. So we are forced to look for flights that avoid London and there are precious few.
I have tried many different dates, going first to Bacelona and back from Madrid (our home city is Houston) and vice versa but cannot make it work.
Have I missed any option that will make this work?

Would calling American ft desk help?

Well, AA doesn't offer first class to Spain; business class is their top class of service. You can ride in F to London and switch to Iberia or BA (business) for the onward connection.

I assume you're looking online for seats, in which case you need to know that AA's website doesn't show availability on Iberia. You need to phone AA if you want to find out about using Iberia (which is an excellent business class product, by the way.) <b>OR</b> you can sign up for British Airways' FF program (free) and use BA's site to search for IB availability, then phone AA to make a booking if you see something you like. Note Iberia and BA are the same company, and while IB also whacks you with surcharges, they're not anywhere as punishing as BA's.

Three other considerations: First, this weekend AA is combining its reservations system with US Airways' (US will cease to exist on Oct. 18) and for the time being the AA system is very glitchy. I'd suspend my search until after this weekend and cross fingers things will improve.

Second, Spain, and especially Barcelona, are extremely popular destinations during April and May due to cruise traffic. Try doing separate searches on AA for transatlantic flights NOT originating in Houston, and for flights to other European cities where you could connect, e.g. Paris, Zurich, Berlin, Dusseldorf. Since AA doesn't fly from IAH to Europe but BA <i>does,</i> AA tends to default to BA (along with its fees) for European itineraries originating there. Look for Miami, Chicago, Charlotte, Philly and DFW as origin points, then look separately at flights from IAH to the gateway that would allow a connection. You might need to make the final booking over the phone to unite the flights, but it's one way to work around the robots.

Third, be patient. FF seats open up throughout the booking period and in business class they tend to open up much more toward the end of the period than the beginning, as the yield management computers at the airlines decide that there won't be last-minute cash bookings and that more seats can be released into mileage redemption inventory. This is counter-intuitive to people who always think that early birds get the worms (they also get cats) but that's the way the system works.

Be patient and good luck.

I don't know if this will help, but could you fly to Amsterdam first/business class with AA miles and then book your own flight on to Madrid? Even if you have first or business class seats, once you are flying a connection within Europe, the seats are pretty much the same in economy and the more expensive classes ... just in different areas of the cabin.

For some odd reason, the AA website will often not show two seats even when they are available. Call the booking line, and ask the agent, to whom you speak after you go through the frustrating phone tree, to check if there are two seats available on the flight you want if you use two separate tickets.

If the agent is not helpful and willing to manipulate the system or not skillful enough to do it, call back immediately. It is a virtual certainty that you will speak to someone else. In 20 years of dealing with AA, a necessity as I live only 12 miles from DFW, I have had to call back twice only once.

If you fail to find the seats you want, try again over the next few months, award seats are often added to the system from time to time.

As I indicated above we did find one seat available in First class on AA to Spain ( it was First class milesaver). But not for two people. I will call them ne t week and see if the results are better.

I called today but no luck on getting 2 first class milesaver seats. I will call next week to see if things have changed . If a no go then I was able to find Business class milesaver for 2 going to Barcelona and avoiding London but will need to fly coach coming back from Madrid.

I like the suggestion of scdreamer. I am thinking of using this strategy when I am purchase ticket for my next overseas trip. Need Biz class for long haul, and after that a relatively short flight is not that bad in economy class.