Will You Find Last Minute Award Space?

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Many points and miles enthusiasts recommend searching for award flights when the booking window first opens—typically between 330 and 362 days in advance depending on the airline—and/or close to desired travel dates to secure better award availability and lower award rates. Let’s take a closer look at last-minute award availability.

Last-Minute Award Basics

Let’s start with a few key points related to what’s commonly referred to as last-minute or close-in award availability.

Close-In Award Timing

There isn’t a consistent number of days before travel when additional award space is released. The general reason airlines release more award space close to travel is that complex algorithms indicate that it’s likely that they won’t be able to sell seats for cash, so they’re willing to make more seats available to book with points and miles rather than have empty seats. Among airlines that release additional award seats closer to travel dates, timing ranges from the day of to several weeks before the flight.

Classes of Service

Close-in award seats may be released in all classes of service, but many points and miles enthusiasts seek premium-cabin (business- and first-class) awards for long-haul international flights.

Reasonable Award Rates

Many airlines now use dynamic award rates, which sometimes result in situations where awards are available at almost any point in the booking window for travelers who are willing to spend many more points or miles than the lowest rate. 

For example, we’ve observed one-way business-class award rates from 54,000 miles to 400,000 miles for American Airlines flights from Philadelphia to Rome.

It’s worth noting that the concept of reasonable award rates is subjective because some travelers are willing to redeem more points and miles than others. So, we’re going to discuss redemptions with variable rates as last-minute options only if we see what we consider reasonable rates.

Even in situations where award rates are fixed for a given route or specified in region-based or distance-based award charts, there sometimes are multiple award levels. In these situations, we’ll identify which awards are considered reasonable. 

All awards that fall into the Saver category—which typically are the least expensive rates and represent award space on one airline that can be booked using partner airline points and miles—are considered reasonable rates in this analysis.

Booking Programs and Operating Airlines

As with flights booked further in advance, it’s possible to book close-in awards through one airline loyalty program for flights operated by that airline, partner airlines only or a combination of the two. For example, you can book an award through Delta SkyMiles program that includes flights on Delta Air Lines only, flights on Delta and Air France, or flights on Air France only.

For the purpose of finding close-in awards, it’s important to consider which airlines release space and whether the additional award space can be booked only through that airline’s loyalty program or through its own program and partner airlines’ programs. Knowing these things determines which programs to use for searches.

Factors Impacting Award Availability

The same factors that impact general award availability also impact close-in award availability. Some of the most significant factors are:

• The types of points and miles you have
• Travel dates 
• Specific route 
• Class of service
• Number of passengers

These factors are inter-related, and they can be considered together under the umbrella of flexibility to encompass the degree to which a traveler is willing to consider alternatives. Being more flexible increases the chance of finding scarce awards and/or securing better award rates.

Specific Points and Miles Available

Having points and miles in multiple programs usually is helpful, but having a small number of points and miles spread out among many airline programs can result in a situation where there aren’t enough miles in specific airline programs to book awards. To avoid this situation and for other reasons, many points and miles enthusiasts focus on earning flexible currency that can be transferred to multiple partner airline programs.

Primary flexible award programs in the United States include:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Rewards

Each program has multiple airline programs to which points can be transferred. There is significant overlap in partners. For example, all of these programs support transfers to Air France-KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Award availability often is better if booking through an airline’s own program compared to partner airlines’ programs. For example, if you’re interested in booking a United Airlines flight, particularly in domestic first class or international business class, availability through a partner program (such as Air Canada Aeroplan) often is limited compared to availability through the United MileagePlus program.

Choosing among booking programs is a personal decision that involves considerations such as relative award rates, tax and fee amounts, and other program-specific factors. 

For example, some travelers may prefer to book through a program where they currently have points or miles or a program that allows award holds to eliminate the risk of losing award space while waiting for transferred points and miles to post.

We’re focusing on redemption opportunities through U.S. airline loyalty programs and some international airline programs that are flexible currency transfer partners and often are used by U.S.-based travelers.

Travel Dates

Stating what’s obvious to many points and miles enthusiasts, award availability is based on supply and demand. That often translates to less availability and/or higher rates for travel at peak travel times. This usually includes major holiday periods as well as destination-specific peak times focused on special events or popular tourism seasons.

The day of the week can also have an impact. Weekends (or days close to weekends) tend to be popular travel days for leisure travel. Patterns like less award availability or higher rates to fly to Europe on a Friday are common. Mid-week travel often has better award availability and lower rates.

Specific Routes and Flights

Travelers with route flexibility may find better award availability and lower rates. This includes willingness to book separate positioning flights to airports served by foreign airlines and considering routes with more connections and/or longer layovers. In addition, flights at less convenient times (for most people), such as early morning or late at night, may have better award availability and lower rates.

A related consideration is the specific airline operating the flight. For example, a U.S. program (such as American) and one of its partners may operate flights on the same route. American Airlines uses a region-based award chart for partner flights but has dynamic award rates on its own flights. This may result in different award availability and rates—sometimes significantly different—between an American flight and a partner flight.

Class of Service

Most planes are configured with many more economy seats than premium-economy, business-class and first-class seats. Less capacity usually means there is less award availability in these cabins. There also have been many reports that demand for luxury travel has increased at a higher rate in recent years compared to budget travel.

Travelers seeking economy seats often see award availability present throughout the booking period. Of course, there are exceptions for peak travel dates, and not every flight will have awards available at the lowest possible rates. Travelers often don’t need to wait for last-minute award availability in economy class.

Number of Passengers

The number of passengers travelling together also can impact award availability. Particularly in premium cabins, many airlines don’t release four or more award seats. Solo travelers have the best chance of finding last-minute awards, followed by parties of two and so on.

To make it easier to find award seats, some families or groups traveling together may consider splitting onto separate flights or travelling in different cabins. If you’re considering doing this with minors, the simplest solution is to book a minor on the same flight and class of service as an adult. Otherwise, it’s important to know and adhere to airline-specific rules about unaccompanied minors.

Airlines That Release Additional Award Space or Reduce Award Rates for Close-In Flights

Some airline loyalty programs are known for releasing close-in award space on their own flights. The situation is evolving, so our findings won’t necessarily be the same as yours. 

For airlines annotated with an asterisk below, examples are provided in this article. Airlines for which we observed additional award space or reduced dynamic award rates for travel within 30 days (or fewer) include:

• Air New Zealand*: Since Air New Zealand isn’t a transfer partner with any U.S. flexible currency programs, our focus is on Air New Zealand flights that can be booked through partner programs, such as United MileagePlus.
• All Nippon Airways (ANA)*: Although ANA is a transfer partner with American Express Membership Rewards, ANA also opens last-minute award space to partner programs, including Star Alliance members such as United MileagePlus and Air Canada Aeroplan.
• American Airlines: When American offers lower business-class rates for close-in travel on its own flights, that space often is limited to awards booked through the AAdvantage program. American flights that can be booked through partner programs must have one of the following fare classes: T (main cabin), X (premium economy), U (business for international flights or first for domestic two-cabin flights) or Z (first for three-cabin flights).
• Emirates: Emirates is known to release additional business- and first-class award space close to travel dates. Some travelers who book awards through Emirates Skywards are able to upgrade to a higher class of service using additional miles just before travel. We discussed this in our article about booking Emirates first-class awards, but the same principle applies to upgrading to business class.
• Etihad*: Etihad typically restricts partner airlines’ access to business- or first-class awards to flights within 30 days or fewer.
• Japan Airlines (JAL)*: Japan Airlines releases close-in award space—in business class and sometimes first class—for close-in dates. Awards are available through partner programs, such as American AAdvantage.
• Lufthansa*: Lufthansa releases close-in business- and first-class awards. Business-class space is released to partners earlier than first-class awards. The latter are released the day of or day before travel. Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines are part of the Lufthansa group and sometimes follow a similar approach to releasing business-class awards.
• United Airlines*: United has dynamic award rates on its own flights, and international business-class fares typically have high rates and aren’t available through partner programs. For close-in awards, United reduces rates and sometimes makes flights available for booking through partner programs.

Close-In Award Search Approach

The approach used to search for awards is discussed below and can be modified to meet individual circumstances. We sought award availability over a one-week period and began initial searches six to seven weeks in advance.

Searches performed are for one-way international travel originating in the United States. Last-minute awards often involve separately booking outbound and inbound travel because availability for flights appear at different times.

Identify Dates, Locations and Flight Options Aligned with Your Points and Miles

As discussed above, being more flexible about travel dates increases the chances of finding desirable award options. We chose a seven-day period (July 21 to July 27) for searches.

Some travelers with defined times for a trip may consider looking at multiple destinations for the same timeframe to increase the chance of finding desirable awards to one of the places they want to go.

After deciding on destination(s) for a trip, the next step is to identify airlines that fly there. Useful sources for identifying flight options include FlightConnections or individual airport Wikipedia pages.

You may want to consider departing from and arriving at airports besides the closest airport to your home or destination to expand potential award options. The basic idea is to focus on the long-haul international flight first. When booking through a program that allows connecting domestic flights on an award ticket, it’s useful to check availability from your home airport and international gateways.

When booking award flights on some foreign carriers through that airline’s loyalty program, domestic connecting flights to that airline’s U.S. gateways may have to be booked separately. 

It also can be useful to identify programs that can be used for booking each airline’s flights. This eliminates wasting time considering flights you won’t be able to book. If you have points and miles in many programs—including programs like American Express Membership Rewards that can be transferred to multiple airline programs—it’s less important to do this before checking flight availability because there’s a better chance that you have relevant points and miles.

Let’s take a look at an example. One search we performed is for travel from the U.S. to New Zealand.

Airports for New Zealand Travel

U.S. airports with nonstop flights to and from New Zealand are New York (JFK), Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO) and Honolulu (HNL). Most options between the U.S. and New Zealand are to or from Auckland, New Zealand (AKL), and United also serves Christchurch, New Zealand (CHC).

Airlines and Routes for New Zealand Flights

Nonstop flights are available on the following airlines, and there also are connecting routes available on Fiji Airways:

• Air New Zealand between Auckland and New York, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Honolulu
• American (seasonal service only) between Auckland and Dallas or Los Angeles
• Delta between Auckland and Los Angeles (seasonal)
• Qantas between Auckland and New York
• United between Auckland or Christchurch and San Francisco

Booking Program Options

With flights on airlines in all three alliances—Oneworld (American, Fiji and Qantas), SkyTeam (Delta) and Star Alliance (Air New Zealand and United)—a range of booking options exist. It’s possible to book awards through the airline operating the flight or through other airlines that partner with the operating airline (either within or outside an alliance).

U.S. flexible rewards programs that support transfers to airline programs for carriers operating between the U.S. and New Zealand are:

• Air New Zealand Airpoints: None
• American AAdvantage (the AAdvantage program also is used by Fiji): Citi ThankYou Rewards
• Delta SkyMiles: American Express Membership Rewards
• Qantas Frequent Flyer: American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards
• United MileagePlus: Bilt Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards

Perform Initial Searches and Make Booking Decisions

Although our focus is on close-in award availability, we recommend performing initial searches as soon as you’ve determined search parameters. It’s possible to find good awards at any time. If you find an award that meets your criteria 10 months or 40 days before your travel date, it usually makes sense to book the award then.

In addition to searching for your desired travel dates, you may want to search for last-minute award availability near your initial search date. For example, if you want to travel in August and begin searching June 1, check availability for the desired route for dates immediately after June 1. If airlines and programs currently are releasing close-in awards, that might indicate a better chance of future close-in award availability. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee that the situation will be the same before your travel dates.

Some people also employ a strategy of booking a less desirable flight as a back-up option in case the close-in awards they want don’t materialize. Things to consider before doing this include fees associated with canceling the less desirable award if you find a better option and whether booking the back-up option ties up points and miles you need to book the preferred award. It’s also important to be realistic about selecting back-up flights that you’re willing to fly if desired awards don’t materialize.

Third-Party Search Tools

Search approaches vary depending on multiple factors. For a broad search including a large set of potential airlines, airports and/or travel dates, using third-party search tools as a first step may be useful to identify options that you might not have considered and to see award availability patterns. We’ve discussed multiple tools in our guide for searching Oneworld availability and demonstrated using PointsYeah’s discovery functionality in our guide for redeeming AAdvantage miles for Europe flights.

As demonstrated below, Seats.aero can be useful for finding close-in award availability for a broader range of dates and routes. The free version supports searches 60 days from the search date. The paid version provides the ability to search for flights up to a year in advance and contains other features.

It’s important to understand that third-party tools aren’t completely reliable for determining current award availability. One concern is that searches utilizing saved data from previous searches—rather than checking real-time award availability—often show awards that are no longer available. Before transferring points, you always should check award availability directly in the program you plan to use for booking. Another concern is that third-party tools may miss some available awards.

Another way that some travelers use third-party tools is to set award alerts and receive notification when awards meeting alert criteria are available. The number of active alerts a user can have and the specificity of the alert criteria vary depending on the tool. If you’re using alerts to find highly coveted awards, there may be many other travelers being notified about the same flights.

Direct Airline Searches

In other situations, third-party tools don’t provide much benefit, so it may be better to begin searching with the operating airline(s) and/or booking program(s) you would use. Situations in which direct airline program searches makes sense include:

• Flights options are limited in terms of operating airlines, booking programs, routes and/or travel dates.
• Airlines and/or booking programs of interest aren’t supported in third-party tools. Each tool has different programs that are included or excluded, and supported programs change over time, so we recommend checking which programs are covered when you use third-party tools and filling in gaps with airline program searches.
• Airlines and/or booking programs of interest have useful calendar search functions that display award rates and availability for a week or month at a time. This can be especially useful for travelers who are open to a wide range of dates but are considering limited routes. Programs that show availability and lowest rates for about a month include Air France-KLM Flying Blue, American AAdvantage and United MileagePlus.

Perform Periodic Searches and Make Booking Decisions

How often to repeat searches is a personal decision based on the amount of time you’re able and willing to spend on this.

A general approach to consider includes repeating searches at approximately the following intervals before desired the travel date (abbreviated as T):

• Search monthly from the time you begin your award search (assuming this is less than 10 months before travel) up until one month before travel.
• Search about one month before the beginning of your travel window (T-30 days).
• Search three weeks before the beginning of your travel window (T-21 days).
• Search two weeks before the beginning of your travel window (T-14 days).
• Search more often within two weeks of travel dates increasing frequency as you get closer to travel dates. Some travelers will search daily (once or multiple times). Some individuals may conduct searches at specific times of day to coincide with when they believe inventory is released (this varies by program).
• Continue searching until the number of days before travel that you would be comfortable with as a date to finalize plans. Beyond personal planning and preparation, it’s important to allow enough time for transferring points if needed and completing booking and ticketing. While these things often are nearly instant, that’s not always the case.

Award Examples

Let’s look at some examples of searches performed.

North America to Japan

Airlines operating most of the nonstop flights between the U.S. and Japan unsurprisingly are the three major U.S. carriers—American, Delta and United—and two Japan-based carriers—ANA and JAL.

Besides booking awards through each of these airlines’ loyalty programs, it’s possible to book through other partner programs. Ultimately, the decision about which program to book through is based on the type and number of points and miles you have, award availability through each program and personal preferences.

We’re not discussing Delta flights below, because we didn’t see any competitively priced business-class awards through Delta SkyMiles or selected partners.

Search Approach

Given flexibility to consider multiple airports in the U.S. and Japan, we started our searches with the Seats.aero tool and verified availability initially through AAdvantage or MileagePlus searches. We also checked other programs for selected flights as well.

We’re sharing two approaches using Seats.aero, even though we primarily used the second option. 

The “Explore” feature is useful for broader regional searches when users don’t want to select specific airports and for searches covering more than 14 days with the free version of Seats.aero. Users select a program, enter the origin and destination regions, and optionally use the “search” window and sorting capabilities to find flights of interest.

The criteria below shows flights bookable through the AAdvantage program, regardless of which airline operates the flight. Entering a full or partial date in YYYY-MM-DD format or a particular airport code in the search box refines results. 

In this example, flights from July 20 to July 29 are displayed. We also sorted results by business class to show available awards, in order from lowest to highest price. Flights from Honolulu (HNL) are shown first because AAdvantage partner awards between Hawaii and Japan require fewer miles compared to awards between the U.S. mainland and Japan.

The second option involves a more specific search where the program(s), origin, destination and dates are specified. 

In the example below, for United MileagePlus, we entered multiple airports that have nonstop flights on ANA and/or United. You can view up to two weeks availability by choosing a date and selecting +/- seven days from the dropdown with the free version or up to almost a year (+/- 180 days) with the paid version. Filtering and sorting options also are available.

Oneworld Airline Flights

Flights on American and/or Japan Airlines can be booked through American AAdvantage, Atmos Rewards (new loyalty program for Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines), Avios programs (such as British Airways and Qatar Airways), Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank and Qantas Frequent Flyer. 

Some additional considerations are:

• Award rates for JAL flights generally are lowest (except for first class) when booking through JAL Mileage Bank and second lowest through American AAdvantage. The other programs have distance-based rates, so rates vary depending on the U.S. airport.
• Award availability is best for booking American flights with AAdvantage miles or booking Japan Airlines flights with JAL Mileage Bank miles. It’s unusual to find American business-class awards that can be booked through partner programs. Japan Airlines releases more premium-cabin awards (in general and close-in) to partners, but it’s not always uniform across all partners.

In our sample searches, awards sometimes were available more than 14 days in advance. Searches on July 10 for JAL flights from Chicago to Tokyo found several days with business-class availability between July 11 and July 24, but there also was availability on July 29, as shown on the American AAdvantage calendar.

Let’s look at flights on July 24 from Chicago (ORD) to Tokyo. The JAL flight to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) has award availability in main cabin, premium economy and business. A second flight to Tokyo-Narita (NRT) has availability in premium economy only.

We checked multiple programs, and award rates for this route and date are summarized below. Qantas Frequent Flyer wasn’t included, because distance-based award rates effective beginning Aug. 5, 2025, are higher than other programs shown.

Airline program	Main	Premium economy	Business
Alaska Atmos Rewards	37,500 points + $18.10	50,000 points + $18.10	75,000 points + $18.10
American AAdvantage	35,000 miles + $5.60	50,000 miles + $5.60	60,000 miles + $5.60
British Airways Club	31,000 Avios + $200.80	62,000 Avios + $200.80	92,750 Avios + $200.80
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	40,000 miles + $201.02	Not available	89,000 miles + $201.02
JAL Mileage Bank	27,000 miles + $196.30	40,000 miles + $196.30	55,000 miles + $196.30

JAL sometimes releases first-class award space to partners, but there’s less availability compared to business-class awards. In most cases, we saw first-class award availability within one to four days of travel, but there were exceptions. Chicago had better availability than other U.S. airports. The example below was found one day before the flight.

Star Alliance Airline Flights

Both ANA and United are Star Alliance members, and flights can be booked through their own loyalty programs and other partner loyalty programs. Besides booking through ANA or United programs, other options may include Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. 

Some additional thoughts are:

• Award availability is best for booking ANA flights through ANA Mileage Club and United flights through MileagePlus.
• In several searches, Aeroplan didn’t show ANA awards that United showed.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has the lowest award rates for booking ANA flights, but you have to call to check availability, and since early 2024, it hasn’t been possible to book business-class awards within 14 days of travel between the U.S. mainland and Japan.

We used Seats.aero as a starting point for ANA and United award searches. Here’s an example of the search criteria. We selected airports with nonstop service and used July 21 to July 27 as the date range. We chose specific programs—Aeroplan and MileagePlus—that are supported by Seats.aero and can be used to book ANA and United flights.

Our search on July 7 (14 days before the beginning of the travel window) showed a few options for ANA business and ANA first available through United MileagePlus. Examples for flights on July 21 from Seattle (SEA) in business and New York (JFK) in first are shown below.

These business- and first-class awards—and other ANA flights available through MileagePlus—weren’t available through Aeroplan.

If you have American Express Membership Rewards points, transferring points to ANA Mileage Club opens up more award flights and lower rates compared to United MileagePlus. We saw the Seattle to Tokyo flight above and other dates outside 14 days available for 82,500 miles + $175 in business class. ANA economy- or first-class awards from San Francisco to Tokyo were available for 36,000 miles or 150,000 miles, respectively.

Another option with lower award rates is Avianca LifeMiles. We saw availability 10 days in advance for first class from San Francisco to Tokyo for 120,000 miles. Similar to Aeroplan, many ANA business-class flights available through United MileagePlus weren’t available through LifeMiles.

Close-in ANA business-class awards typically are released to partners closer to travel dates compared to Japan Airlines. For example, our July 13 search showed business-class award availability on several routes within 10 days (July 21 to July 23), but none beyond July 23.

For United flights, some business-class awards are available for booking through United or partners. The lowest award rates observed for business-class awards were 100,000 miles through United MileagePlus, and the award rate was the same for flights checked through Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles. The booking code I indicates business-class availability that should be bookable through partner programs.

We chose a specific city in Europe, because both Lufthansa and United operate nonstop flights between selected U.S. airports and Frankfurt (FRA). Lufthansa even has first-class on some aircraft.

Once again, we used Seats.aero for initial searches. The following search criteria includes the airports with nonstop flights and covers our date range.

Our July 11 search revealed several award options for business-class flights between multiple U.S. airports and Frankfurt for July 21 to July 27 travel. The lowest business-class award rates through MileagePlus were 80,000 miles for flights on United and 88,000 miles for flights on partner airlines. Economy award rates for Saver awards on United flights vary but seem to start at 40,000 miles. Economy award rates on partner flights are 44,000 miles.

The following example shows MileagePlus awards for United and Lufthansa flights on July 21 from Washington (IAD) to Frankfurt (FRA).

The same flights had award availability through Air Canada and Avianca programs. Award rates for these programs were the same as MileagePlus for United flights, but certain Aeroplan and LifeMiles rates were lower for Lufthansa flights.

• Aeroplan award rates for Lufthansa flights were 40,000 points in economy and 70,000 points in business.
• LifeMiles award rates for Lufthansa were the lowest of the three programs at 35,000 miles for economy and 60,000 miles for business.

If you’re interested in first-class flights on Lufthansa, awards often were available for flights the day of or the day after the search date.

When using Seats.aero and choosing both Air Canada and United programs, some flights showed availability through one program but not the other, but the flights we checked were available through both programs. Individual program searches also found availability on other routes that didn’t show up in Seats.aero results at all.

Award rates varied by booking program and sometimes by route. Rates and some examples follow.

Through Aeroplan, flights were 90,000 points from some East Coast cities, such as Boston or New York, or 100,000 points from other airports.

Although Aeroplan has the best award rates, other booking options include Avianca LifeMiles and United MileagePlus. Through LifeMiles, Lufthansa first-class awards cost 128,000 miles from all airports checked. Through MileagePlus, some flights required 140,000 miles, while others (mostly from western airports) were 165,000 miles.

U.S. to New Zealand

We discussed the airlines, routes and award booking options between the U.S. and New Zealand above, and our search approach was similar to other examples in terms of search timing and tools.

Given the limited options for travel between the U.S. and New Zealand and the tendency of the airlines operating these routes to limit the supply of business-class awards, some of the options mentioned below fall slightly outside the July 21 to July 27 travel window.

On June 9, we found Air New Zealand business-class space available for a nonstop flight on July 30 through several programs, and the same flight was available when searching 16 days before travel. Awards were available from Houston (IAH) to Auckland (AKL) through Aeroplan for 75,000 points, LifeMiles for 100,000 miles and MileagePlus for 110,000 miles.

We also saw similar flights available for other dates more than two weeks in advance.

Air New Zealand sometimes releases true last-minute awards to partners. On July 23, we found same-day flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Auckland (AKL). Award rates were the same as above.

A July 11 search revealed business-class award availability on United’s July 24 flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Auckland (AKL). Award rates were 100,000 miles through each program (Aeroplan, LifeMiles and MileagePlus).

We weren’t able to find any business-class award availability using AAdvantage miles for the Qantas flight from New York (JFK) to Auckland (AKL), but economy and premium-economy awards were available on some dates.

North America to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Etihad

Etihad flies from several North American gateways to its hub in Abu Dhabi and is coveted for its first-class cabin. Routes include nonstop travel between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Atlanta (ATL), Washington (IAD), New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD) and Toronto (YYZ). A new route to and from Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT), is planned for May 2026.

While Etihad Guest is a transfer partner with multiple flexible currency programs, it’s far less expensive to book awards through American AAdvantage. Economy awards are available regularly on many dates between multiple North American airports and Abu Dhabi.

We focused our searches on business- and first-class options using American’s monthly calendar view and found that first-class awards appeared with some regularity within two weeks of travel from two airports. Toronto (YYZ) had the most availability, and New York (JFK) had some availability.

The monthly calendar views, as of July 11, for flights from Toronto and New York are shown below.

Here’s an example of a first-class award available for 115,000 miles on July 23.

Final Thoughts

While last-minute award space can be hit or miss, searching within a few days or weeks of travel often is a viable option to secure business- or first-class awards. Factors that increase the probability of success with close-in award searches include having points and miles in multiple programs and being flexible with travel plans.

We’ve shared an approach for searching for close-in awards and provided some examples of awards found through these searches. We found reasonably priced business- and first-class awards on well-regarded airlines to popular travel destinations. Travelers can modify this approach to fit their criteria and personal preferences.