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. 
• 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 we’ve talked about forever here: Dates, destination or class of service. You have to flex one (or more) of them. 

Flights Have to Exist in order for you to take them

• Flightconnections.com is still the place i go to start any search
• I look for ALL long haul options out of LAX (remember I don’t like to reposition)