I Don't Think There's Any Dreamliner Business Class Award Space on AA Flights Yet

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I don’t think there’s a single MileSAAver award seat available in Business Class on the brand new American Airlines Dreamliner. (There is no First Class on the plane.)

American Airlines announced its first three routes this week for the plane:

• Dallas to Chicago, beginning May 7, 2015
• Dallas to Beijing, beginning June 2, 2015
• Dallas to Buenos Aires, beginning June 4, 2015

In Award Space on American Airlines New 787 Dreamliner Routes, I noted that Dallas to Beijing and Dallas to Buenos Aires had no Business Class MileSAAver award space from June through the end of the schedule in either direction. I didn’t expect that to improve.

However I expected that we would see good award space from Dallas to Chicago in both directions when the space became bookable yesterday.

I was wrong.

Award space on the 787 is now loaded onto aa.com, but it is all at the AAnytime (much more expensive) price levels–even on the Dallas to Chicago route.

Award Space Picture

I scanned Dallas to Buenos Aires and Beijing in both directions from June until the end of the schedule. No MileSAAver Business Class award space, though plenty of economy.

Then I moved on to Dallas to Chicago.

There is plenty of MileSAAver First Class award space on the route (this is how the Dreamliner’s Business Class cabin will be sold domestically.) The question is: is any of it on the Dreamliner?

The way to check is to select a date. For each flight, you have to manually click the + next to “Flight Details.” That lists the aircraft. This flight below is operated by an MD-80.

The 787, listed as 788 because it is the 787-8 version, shows up on the schedule May 7 as promised. It appears to operate at a different flight time each day.
I checked the first several days in both directions for MileSAAver award space and found none. Then I checked scattered dates–still none. I did not check award space every day for the space because of the time-consuming nature of the search, so I can’t say with 100% confidence that there is no MileSAAver award space in the forward cabin of the American Airlines Dreamliner. But I don’t think there is space.

If you find any, let us know in the comments.

Bottom Line

I’m surprised and disappointed. I grudgingly accept that on a lot of routes with their newest planes, American Airlines isn’t releasing longhaul international award space in flat beds at the MileSAAver level. But the 787 has a ton of Business Class seats, way more than all the other planes on the Dallas to Chicago route. I assumed American would release some of these seats for 25,000 miles one way–which would also make them bookable for 22,500 Avios. That doesn’t appear to be the case.

The cheapest way to fly American’s Dreamliner seems to be to 45,000 American Airlines miles for an AAnytime award ticket. For a 2.5 hour flight, that doesn’t interest me.

Getting the Miles

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