Best way to book an American Airlines (ex US) flight

I booked a bunch of AA domestic first last week
Did you find any decent fares?

Apart from a short hop ORD-BOS in AA whY, a QF reward & some QF codeshares in AA F, 6 of 10 upcoming US flights are booked on AS First. They were so much cheaper but still none of pre Covid value. Best we found found transcon was ~US$500+ (still cheaper than SYD-PER…).
 
Did you find any decent fares?

Not really but compared with QF domestic J for same distances felt ok to me. On dates I needed nothing direct from NYC-LAX under US$899 (USD $1100 if wanted actual first).

But ended up with: DFW-MSY (40SCs), MSY-DFW (40SCs), JFK-IND (40 SCs), IND-DFW (60 SCs)
and DFW-LAX (100SCs) total 280SCs for ~AU$2.5k.

Could have saved about AU$300 if willing to travel at ungodly hours (i.e. 5am or 6am fligtsout of NYC or DFW), but Im on vacation so late morning works better, also for arriving at hotels and being able to check straight in.

I was procrastinating, if I booked a week earlier there were a few more sale options. Thats what I get for hoping some availablity would open up so could add at least the NYC-IND-LAX leg to my OWA.

I checked Alaskan but they dont fly out of DFW so not helpful for MSY (mind you Dallas Lovefield to MSY on Sprint with 2 checked backs was super cheap; but id rather collect SCs). The flights they had to SFO were via SEA and arrived very late at night, will check them out more on a future trip if Im planing to spend time in Pacific North west.
 
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I did note that JFK/LGA to LAX via CLT always seemed to be the cheapest. It is easy to get NYC-ORD and ORD-DFW on points, but nothing free ORD-LAX/SFO on days that I could use. Although funnily enough IND-ORD-LAX was available some days (just not when i needed it).

Im sure if it was 10 months out like last year no drama, but only 5 months out fewer award flights.
 
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Did you find any decent fares?

Apart from a short hop ORD-BOS in AA whY, a QF reward & some QF codeshares in AA F, 6 of 10 upcoming US flights are booked on AS First. They were so much cheaper but still none of pre Covid value. Best we found found transcon was ~US$500+ (still cheaper than SYD-PER…).

I rarely find myself needing to choose between AA & AS, unless flying intra-West coast, which I rarely do. There isn't a lot of overlap between the carriers (which I guess is why they can both play nice in oneworld and remain competitors)

Actually found AS F quite expensive, I was going to fly ANC-HNL one way and the price jumped from US$700 to US$1400 on the day I wanted to travel. I ended up having to juggle my plans to fly the next day.

Also originally was looking at a great connecting flight on AS from LAS-SEA-ORD but prices went up massively, so just booked AA LAS-ORD direct.
 
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I rarely find myself needing to choose between AA & AS, unless flying intra-West coast, which I rarely do. There isn't a lot of overlap between the carriers (which I guess is why they can both play nice in oneworld and remain competitors)

Actually found AS F quite expensive, I was going to fly ANC-HNL one way and the price jumped from US$700 to US$1400 on the day I wanted to travel. I ended up having to juggle my plans to fly the next day.

Also originally was looking at a great connecting flight on AS from LAS-SEA-ORD but prices went up massively, so just booked AA LAS-ORD direct.
Yeah, pre joining OW I never looked at them and these flights will be my first AS experiences.

The fact that we’re in the NW on one trip and YVR on the next, makes it work. Looking forward to comparing AS F SEA-JFK / JFK-SFO against AA 2 class.

Whilst they don’t have the central hubs like AA, the string of hubs down the west (YVR, SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX and SAN) do open up some interesting options. JFK-SAN First non-stop was $500 - relatively cheap but nothing like some of the fares pre Covid.
 
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