Which Airlines Release Last Minute Award Space?

One of my best tips to redeeming miles & points for premium travel is to book last minute. Airlines often release first and business class award space as the departure date approaches. A reader recently asked me if I could recap which airlines often release last minute award space, so that’s what I wanted to do in this post.

Why airlines release last minute award space

Before I talk about airlines that release award space at the last minute, let’s first talk about why airlines release award space as the departure date approaches.

In an ideal world, airlines want to minimize the cost associated with the miles that people redeem. Inventory and revenue management is a delicate balancing act for the airlines. When it comes to award space, they want to release enough availability for members to stay engaged, but at the same time don’t want to cannibalize ticket sales whenever possible.

Airlines generally prefer to release seats as saver award tickets when they think they otherwise couldn’t sell those seats, since that has the lowest opportunity cost. That should mean that airlines would ideally release award space as the departure date approaches, when it becomes clear that those seats can’t be sold anymore.

So while airlines often release some award space when the schedule first opens (though they don’t always — that’s a myth), I think it’s pretty logical when airlines release award space at the last minute.

I should acknowledge that we’ve definitely seen a trend whereby airlines are releasing a lot less saver award space than in the post. This is probably for a few reasons:

• Folks working in revenue management and in loyalty are often at odds with one another; revenue management people will claim that seats last minute cost the most when paying cash, so award costs should reflect that
• Airlines don’t want to cannibalize any last minute ticket sales, or get business travelers consistently relying on airlines opening up award seats
• With the games that many mileage brokers play, there’s a risk to having too consistent of a pattern with releasing award space

The airlines releasing last minute first & business class awards

With the above out of the way, let me share the airlines that most consistently release award space in first and business class at the last minute. This post is intended to reflect the current reality.

Many may wonder how last minute we’re talking, when it comes to airlines releasing additional award space. Usually space is released within a couple of weeks of departure, though the exact details do vary by airline. Sometimes airlines even release space a day before departure, or even the day of departure. Yes, there’s often award space very last minute.

With that in mind, below are my top picks for which airlines are best about releasing last minute award space, roughly ranked in order (and if I missed any, please let me know!).

Lufthansa (first & business class)

Lufthansa is probably the most consistent airline when it comes to releasing last minute award space:

• Lufthansa first class awards can only be booked through partner programs up to 15 days before departure; more often than not, nowadays space only opens up even closer to departure, typically within three to four days of departure at most
• Lufthansa also often releases more business class award space as the departure date approaches, assuming there are a good number of unsold seats

SWISS & Austrian (business class)

SWISS and Austrian belong to Lufthansa Group, and seem to take a similar approach to inventory management. I find that both SWISS and Austrian do regularly open up more business class award seats as the departure date approaches, assuming there are a lot of seats left for sale.

United Airlines (business class)

United also frequently makes last minute award seats available in business class. Just keep in mind that on US airlines, premium cabins are often full, given the people who have upgrade instruments they can use to upgrade to business class. So there won’t be availability on all flights, but you’ll find space a fair amount of time.

American Airlines (first & business class)

While my general preference is to redeem American AAdvantage miles for travel on partner airlines, the reality is that American is also good at making reasonably priced first and business class award seats available in the weeks leading up to departure. Pricing is almost always better for connecting itineraries rather than nonstop ones.

The important thing to understand is that American has dynamic award pricing, so even the well priced awards can have a bit of variability in terms of pricing. It’s not uncommon to see last minute one-way transatlantic business class awards priced in the range of 60K-70K miles, which I’d consider to be a great deal. Just keep in mind this space often isn’t bookable through partner programs.

British Airways (business class)

British Airways is great at releasing business class award space close to departure. The catch is that British Airways is known for its high carrier imposed surcharges, though they’re a bit lower when booking through British Airways Executive Club, though you’ll pay more Avios.

Fortunately British Airways has a solid business class product nowadays, at least on planes with Club Suites. When it comes to booking British Airways awards, also keep in mind that the airline guarantees a certain number of award seats. Specifically, at least four business class award seats are available when the schedule first opens.

Emirates (first & business class)

Emirates tends to release more award seats close to departure (awards and upgrades come out of the same inventory), though in my experience the trend is generally different in first vs. business class:

• In business class, I find that Emirates usually makes most seats available as awards as the departure date approaches, and it’s often around the two week mark where a lot of seats open up
• Emirates first class award trends are a bit different; while we do sometimes see last minute award space, it’s typically only if the cabin is really empty, so don’t expect the last one or two seats to be made available as awards

Bottom line

Airlines take different approaches to releasing award space. Some airlines consistently release award space close to departure, including in premium cabins, while others don’t. Trends have changed pretty significantly since the start of the pandemic, between some airlines shifting their strategies, and Asia capacity continuing to be constrained.

Hopefully the above is a helpful rundown of the current airlines that do frequently release award space at the last minute in premium cabins.

What has your experience been with booking last minute awards? Any airlines I missed that are pretty consistent?