Milenomics² [No Annual Fee Edition] Episode 70: Booking Summer Award Travel for Four

Usually I lock up a summer trip as far ahead of time as possible. But due to the current award travel patterns and my need for 4 seats I found myself without a summer booking and a family wanting to travel. Today Robert and I chat about the ups and downs of the search for a summer trip, award space scarcity, alliance and search engine fragmentation and more. - Enjoy! 01:55 Let’s talk about the Constraints of this trip: We didn't have a single destination on our list but rather a short list of places to go 2 Adults 2 children. 3:00 Summer, during Summer Break (June/July) Prices and awards rise dramatically in Jun/Jul and award space dries up even worse than it is during other parts of the year 4:24 No flexibility in cabin (I couldn’t even pitch premium economy) As we’ve gotten older we’ve taken less trips, but put more into them.&nbsp; Last year we spent 36 years on vacation, but we’re trending into longer trips 6:45 Don’t want to reposition Saw some options through IAH, PHL. Also saw flights through Canada I don't like clearing customs and then having another flight, with little kids that is a pressure point 9:00 Point balances:  I’m a non-hoarder. I have about 250,000 Alaska, 400,000 AA and very little other miles on hand.  I do have a large MR and UR balance I can draw down. Otherwise I’ll cash them out 9:53 AA out of LAX, comparing AA vs BA. points yeah served up LAX-LHR on AA with Alaska Miles: But AA wouldn't show this for a similar 'low' price But adding a leg--searching LAX-CPH showed the low price for the whole flight. This seems like a 'married logic' issue. It means pricing is end to end (LAX/CPH) vs segment by segment. This has become VERY common with dynamic pricing. This makes the old 'get over the pond' mentality dangerous. Searching between city pairs only for long-haul flights won't show you the whole picture (Not just on AA, across most airlines now). This is also a search engine fragmentation because you are relying on the search engine to do the routing logic. 15:41 Let’s talk about award space out of LAX I’ve had an eye on LAX long haul routes for more than a decade. I’ve never seen it this thin That’s on top of more capacity than ever, with better cabins than ever The 64,000 point question is: Will those seats get sold, or will they be released closer to the dates of travel Current space isn’t a great indicator. There are very different people wanting to go to Europe in the next 2 months than in Jun/July 18:00 Quick discussion about the ‘loss’ of partner award space This has made it more important than ever to hold flexible currencies like MR/UR/Cap 1 One ways with different currencies helps spread out the search net Ultimately you still need that triangle of flexibility <a hre