How to actually find American Airlines award space

Overview

American Airlines offers some of the most jaw-dropping deals in award travel, particularly on its own metal. The best way to find award seats is often directly through AA. But to lock down those tricky high-demand routes, ExpertFlyer is a true travel hack.

In this post, we'll look at how to find award seats operated by American Airlines (not its partners).

How to search for American Airlines awards

To quickly find American Airlines award space, your best starting point tends to be aa.com. That's because American Airlines allows you to search for award space one month at a time. ExpertFlyer's Premium subscriptions allow you to search in one-week increments, typically enough for those with rigid travel dates, but if you're simply chasing deals and have the luxury of traveling any time of year, AA's own tool may suit you best.

Here's how American's award search works.

Step 1. Enter your travel details

On aa.com, enter your origin and destination airport and desired travel dates. Then check the "Redeem miles" box and click "Search."

Step 2. Choose the calendar view

You'll then be brought to a results page with a top bar showing availability across five days. Click the calendar, though, and you'll get to search in one-month increments.

AA will conveniently highlight the lowest price for each month to help you get the biggest bang for your mile. From here, you can also stipulate whether or not you'd like a nonstop flight, as well as which class of travel you'd like to fly (Main, Premium Economy, etc.).

However, this calendar shows flights for both American Airlines and its partners, you can't narrow your search to AA metal. That means those who want to fly specifically on American Airlines will have to click on each date and examine the list of itineraries to see the price of flights operated by American Airlines.

Step 3. Filter by airline

On the results page, you can choose to view exclusively AA flights. Simply uncheck all airlines except American, and you'll be left with the flights that meet your criteria. Fairly straightforward.

When to use ExpertFlyer to find American Airlines flights

ExpertFlyer is proficient in finding available AA award flights, but again, the American Airlines website is a simpler first step.

Still, ExpertFlyer can save the day in two big ways that the AA site just cannot.

Before we get into that, check out the table below for a quick reminder of the award fares you can typically expect to encounter when booking through American Airlines. Just tell ExpertFlyer which fare bucket you're looking for and let it do the heavy lifting.

Here are the scenarios where ExpertFlyer can find you a seat when AA can't.

There aren't enough seats

If there's still a seat available aboard an American Airlines flight, you can book it with AAdvantage miles. But because AA uses "dynamic pricing" when assigning a miles value to its award seats, the number of miles you pay can vary dramatically based on demand.

If you're a frequent traveler, you've almost certainly run into a flight that's completely sold out in the cabin you want. Take a look at the flight below from Miami (MIA) to Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR). Not a single seat available in business class.

Because this is an international business class flight on AA metal, you can expect the award fare bucket to be "J."

Head to ExpertFlyer and enter the same travel details into its "Awards & Upgrades" tool to find this specific flight. You'll see that the search results accurately reflect zero available business class seats for this itinerary. But if you click the bell icon under the "Actions" column, you can easily set an alert to be notified as soon as a seat becomes available.

This is also handy for the instances when award seats are available, but there simply aren't enough to accommodate your entire travel party.

You want a specific seat on the plane

Not all award seats are equal, even in the same class of service and on the same plane. For example, depending on the airline, the quality of a business class seat can vary dramatically by:

• Location in the cabin. Some business class seats are preferable depending on your travel style, from more legroom to improved privacy.
• Aircraft you're flying. An airline may operate multiple aircraft along the same route, which can mean different cabin layouts and quality of seats.

All to say, even if seats are available, you may prefer a specific location. This is where ExpertFlyer's Seat Map comes in handy. It'll help you find the exact award seat that suits your upcoming travel.

To find it, click the seat icon in the "Actions" column on the results page.

You'll then be taken to a seat map of the aircraft that serves your route. You can select the specific seats you'd like, and ExpertFlyer will tap you on the shoulder as soon as it becomes available.

Bottom line

To quickly view all available American Airlines award seats, the best place to start is the American Airlines website. It allows you to view awards in one-month swathes, highlighting your cheapest options to help you save miles.

If AA has no (or not enough) available seats for your desired flight, use ExpertFlyer to set alerts that will ding you as soon as some open up. It's the most surefire way to lock down your ideal itinerary with AAdvantage miles.