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All airlines release award space 11 months out.
I’m not sure where that idea came from. Many flights never have any award space released, and flights that do have award space released have the space released at all different times from 11 months (or 11.5 months depending on the airline) before the flight to 24 hours.
One airline that has a unique pattern of releasing its Business Class award space between North America and Europe is Austrian Airlines: on Austrian’s five routes, it never releases Business Class space until three months before departure.
The Product
I flew Austrian’s 767 in Business Class between Vienna and Chicago in 2013. Check out the full trip report.
Austrian flies 767s and 777s to North America. Both feature the staggered fully flat beds pictured in this video.
Your feet go under the divider between seats in the row in front of you. The 767 features four Business Class beds in all rows in a 1-2-1 configuration. The 777 alternates 1-2-1, 2-2-2. Obviously use Seat Guru to pick a row with the 1-2-1 configuration if you are traveling alone on an Austrian 777.
The bed is very comfortable like most Business Class beds. Austrian tries to differentiate itself with an onboard chef in full costume.
And its antipasti cart.
I thought the food was good, but the portions were too small–the only time I’ve thought that during a multi-course meal in a premium cabin.
Award Space
How can you get into this very good Business Class space? The easiest way is to pay 70,000 United miles one way in Business Class (on sale for 57,500 miles if you book by Saturday and travel in 2015.)
Award space in Business Class on Austrian’s routes follows a common pattern. Zero is available more than three months before departure. Within that three month window, some is available. (Economy space is available up to 11 months out. I see zero economy award space often in the summer months and great space for the fall and winter.)
Chicago
There are 14 days in the next three months with Business Class award space (blue and green days) from Chicago to Vienna, and no space beyond May 18.
In September and October, there is economy space almost every day, but Business Class space won’t open up in these months until June and July.
New York Area
From JFK and Newark–which I searched together with city code NYC–there is by far the most space. I count 38 days in the next three months with award space with the last day on May 23.
Some days have award space on both flights, which are annoyingly scheduled at exactly the same time, so you can’t pick between different flight schedules.
Washington DC
Washington-Dulles has terrible award space, with only five days with Business Class space in the next three months ending on May 17. Beyond that, there is no Business Class space.
Toronto
Toronto has award space in Business Class on 15 days in the next three months, ending on May 20.
Bottom Line
Not all airlines release award space 11 months out. Austrian releases economy space 11 months out, but only releases Business Class space between Europe and North America three months out if it releases the space at all on a given flight. I’ve noticed this pattern for at least a year.
The most plentiful award space by far is on Austrian’s JFK and Newark to Vienna flights.
This could be good news for people looking for Business Class awards to Europe this summer, but based on the dearth of economy award space to Europe on Austrian flights over the summer, I don’t think Austrian will release much summer award space. (I hope I’m wrong.)
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I’m assuming it’s better news if people want to speculatively book using united’s current rate, and then change to dates/carriers (to farther out than May 20) to Austrian.
I’m assuming it’s better news if people want to speculatively book using united’s current rate, and then change to dates/carriers (to farther out than May 20) to Austrian.
Um, all your screenshots show results when searching for ONE seat. For most people, that’s pretty much useless. If they only release one seat, who-the-fark-cares (besides bloggers and others with, um, an agenda)? You might want to try doing those searches for 2 seats. What are the results?
Come on, be honest. Few people care if one seat is available. Pretty much everyone has a spouse/travel partner that will be going along, and for most folks having one seat available on a flight is pretty much the same as having none. You do nothing to establish credibility by telling people an airline releases “business class award space” if all you are talking about is a single seat.
When does Austrian release Business Class award space? Three months out. I hope you got that from the article.
Some posts I search 2 seats, some I search 1, some I search 4 or 8. If you want to know when there are two Business Class seats available on a given Austrian route, you could have done the search quicker than leaving your pointlessly negative comment.
This information is useful to me and I travel with my spouse and/or kids. Do your trolling somewhere else. No need for the negative comment.
Um, all your screenshots show results when searching for ONE seat. For most people, that’s pretty much useless. If they only release one seat, who-the-fark-cares (besides bloggers and others with, um, an agenda)? You might want to try doing those searches for 2 seats. What are the results?
Come on, be honest. Few people care if one seat is available. Pretty much everyone has a spouse/travel partner that will be going along, and for most folks having one seat available on a flight is pretty much the same as having none. You do nothing to establish credibility by telling people an airline releases “business class award space” if all you are talking about is a single seat.
When does Austrian release Business Class award space? Three months out. I hope you got that from the article.
Some posts I search 2 seats, some I search 1, some I search 4 or 8. If you want to know when there are two Business Class seats available on a given Austrian route, you could have done the search quicker than leaving your pointlessly negative comment.
This information is useful to me and I travel with my spouse and/or kids. Do your trolling somewhere else. No need for the negative comment.
Back on 8.13.14, I booked EWR-VIE (stop)-CDG roundtrip for three in business class using United miles, all flights on OS for travel starting 5.29.15. Has Austrian changed their policy on releasing business class award space? Sadly, I paid 70K per person in each direction; this was before the sale.
I haven’t seen space like that in two years. Interesting. Maybe there is space outside 90 days every once in a while.
Back on 8.13.14, I booked EWR-VIE (stop)-CDG roundtrip for three in business class using United miles, all flights on OS for travel starting 5.29.15. Has Austrian changed their policy on releasing business class award space? Sadly, I paid 70K per person in each direction; this was before the sale.
I haven’t seen space like that in two years. Interesting. Maybe there is space outside 90 days every once in a while.
Scott, although I am sure this is accurate right now, I don’t believe this to always be the case.
In the summer of 2016, I’m planning a family trip to Europe using miles. Obviously patterns can change from year to year, but I checked 2015 summer options back this previous July, August and September (essentially 11 months out). OS consistently released 4 J seats from EWR to VIE and 2 from IAD to VIE on at least half the days of each week. I never checked for fewer than two seats (or more than four). I was much less successful on any of the other three routes or anything on a return.
Does this still work? I don’t see business class availability over the next three months?
I see some over the next two weeks from JFK to Vienna. What I was trying to get across was that Austrian never releases transatlantic Business Class award space more than three months out. That doesn’t mean there is space every day within three months, especially when the next three months are the peak time of summer.
But check within a few weeks or a few days of departure.