Airlines Keep Throttling Biz & First Class Award Space for US Travelers

After years of record-setting credit card bonuses, American travelers have piled up more credit card points and airline miles than ever. But even points and miles millionaires are facing more and more roadblocks to actually redeem those points – particularly for top-dollar business and first class seats .
That hinges on the black-and-white issue of award availability: Is an airline allowing you to book that seat with miles or not? And airlines abroad are increasingly blocking travelers in America – whose credit card and frequent flyer ecosystem dwarfs the rest of the world – from booking their best seats. 
It's not exactly a new phenomenon, but the issue has accelerated in the last year. Consider this:  

Booking Qatar Qsuites to or from Doha (DOH) for just 70,000 American AAdvantage miles is one of the best deals in the world, but that's become virtually impossible in the last year or so
The same goes for Etihad business and first class, whether you redeem American Airlines or Air Canada Aeroplan points transferred from banks like Chase , American Express , or Capital One
Ditto for EVA Air business class , which was once a cinch to book two-plus seats using miles from many airlines but now all but requires using EVA's own hard-to-earn (and even harder-to-use) mileage program
Booking Iberia business class to Madrid (MAD), you'll never see more than one seat available using American miles … even when two (or more) are bookable using other, non-U.S. airlines
As it joins the family of airlines using Avios like British Airways and Iberia, Finnair has taken it to a new extreme. You can also only book one seat in Finnair business class from the States … unless you're booking from an account outside of North America, in which case you can book two seats on the same flight. 

 
Photo courtesy of Finnair
 
These behind-the-scenes games with award availability are becoming a bigger hurdle for redeeming credit card points and airline miles. Increasingly, travelers with points saved up aren't just contending with nonstop devaluations and award rate increases  … but whether they can find those seats at all. 
 
What Are Airlines Up To? 
In some ways, these kinds of games are nothing new. But let's back up and set the stage for how this works – and, increasingly, why it doesn't.
There are two essential elements of booking every award ticket using miles:

The award rate,  or how many miles you need to book a flight from point A to point B
The award availability, or whether that flight is actually bookable using miles

The airline whose miles you're redeeming determines the award rate, but it's up to the airline whose plane you'll eventually board to decide whether to make those seats bookable using miles. And they don't always play nice – especially for the ultra-valuable partner award bookings when you use one airline mileage program to book a flight on another carrier for fewer miles. 
Airlines routinely grant more award space to travelers redeeming their own frequent flyer programs than to their airline partners. Singapore Airlines, for example, practically requires you to use their own KrisFlyer miles to book business and first class award tickets. Just recently, Live and Let's Fly pointed out that United has begun restricting many Star Alliance partners from booking award space that was previously easy to score.
But this trend has escalated within the last year, taking an even sharper turn for the worse. It's dogged travelers with their hearts set on flying one of the world's best business class seats.
 

 
American Airlines charges just 70,000 AAdvantage miles and a few bucks in taxes and fees to fly Qatar Qsuites from the U.S. to Doha (DOH) or even the Maldives (MLE) or just 75,000 miles to get as far as South Africa. That makes it not just the best way to book Qsuites – it's one of the best deals in the world of points and miles , period.
But those award rates only matter if you can find the award availability … and flyers using American miles have been shut out. Aside from a random spurt, Qsuites have been virtually impossible to book with AAdvantage miles for the last year and change. You can easily book a Qatar economy seat with American miles, but here's what you'll likely see for business class: nada, a blank calendar. 
 

There is award space out there, however – particularly if you're looking 10-plus months in advance. You'll just only see it if you search through British Airways or Qatar using either airline's Avios miles, including for that exact same route that came up empty for American Airlines flyers. 
 
QSuites award availability booking through British Airways
 
Read more: The #1 Tip for Booking Qatar Qsuites Right Now
Iberia business class won't take the mantle of world's best from Qatar Airways anytime soon, but it's a hard deal to beat for as low as just 34,000 miles each way. But while American's website is easily the best for zeroing in on this deal, this trend of throttling award space has made that much harder. 
Nowadays, you'll never see more than one Iberia business class seat bookable through American's website … 
 

 
… even when there are, in fact, two seats bookable on that exact same flight through Iberia or British Airways. 
 

 
The same trend carries over to Finnair and its fancy new business class seats – but in this case, the motivation is crystal clear: American travelers rife with points are getting less availability than others. 
Get this: Search from AA.com for any Finnair route, like Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Helsinki (HEL), and you'll never see more than one business class seat. The same goes for searching directly through Finnair.com with your location set in the U.S., as you normally would. 
 

 

 
But if you simply switch your location on Finnair's site to Finland or elsewhere in Europe, everything changes: Booking business class for two on that same flight is suddenly available! 
 

 
This isn't a fluke: It's intentional. Trying to book Finnair business class through my normal British Airways account, you'll also see one seat available at most. 
 

 
Replicate that exact same search from an account registered outside the U.S., however, and you can magically book two seats instead! 
 

 
If that doesn't tell you what's happening here, I don't know what will. 
 
But Why?
The pattern is clear – and so is the rationale, if you ask me: Airlines abroad are fighting back against the explosion of credit cards and points in the States.
What was once a standard 60,000-point welcome bonus on *amex platinum* has steadily grown to as many as 175,000 points. Chase has upped the ante with its most popular travel cards coming out of the pandemic, with bonuses of 75,000 points on both the *chase sapphire preferred* and the *chase sapphire reserve* … though that's gone as high as 100,000 points in the past. Travelers barely bat an eye anymore unless Delta or United offer at least 100,000 miles as a bonus on their co-branded cards.
All the while, social media influencers and, yes, websites like ours, have promoted those credit cards and the so-called “travel hacks” to redeem them for seats that typically cost $5,000 or more. What was once a niche hobby confined to online forums has exploded into public view: More Americans are collecting points (and more of them) than ever before.
 

 
Much like inflation for frequent flyer miles, airlines have raised award rates to offset that influx of points.

United Airlines repeatedly raised mileage pricing last year and recently began doing it again for other routes across the globe this year.
The sweet spot-laden ANA Mileage Club finally raised award rates this spring on many of their best premium cabin redemptions
Emirates , Virgin Atlantic , Alaska Airlines , and countless other airlines have all raise award rates on some of their best redemptions within the last year or so

It always stings for travelers, and more of these devaluations are around the corner.
But maybe it's not enough. So airlines are turning to the intricacies of award availability instead, making it harder for Americans flush with points to book their top-dollar seats in the first place. 
If nothing else, all this reinforces the importance of leaving your favorite U.S. airline's credit card in the drawer – not swiping it everywhere you go. It doesn't matter if you've built up a mountain of AAdvantage miles or Delta SkyMiles if you can't actually book the flights you want. Earning transferrable credit card points from banks like Chase or Amex gives you the flexibility to pivot to an airline program that actually gives you access. 
Read more: Quit Charging Everything to Your Favorite Airline’s Credit Card
 
Bottom Line
As if the constant devaluations and rising award rates aren't enough, airlines are increasingly making it harder for U.S. travelers to book business and first class tickets using miles.
They're doing it by turning to the opaque yet critical world of award availability, keeping their priciest seats off-limits – or giving us just a subset of what the rest of the world can see.