Man has this become more difficult. We have Alaska Air miles and when I booked the September 2010 double Safari to Namibia and Zambia I was able to book first class on Alaska and British Air by booking each leg exactly 355 days out on BA and 330 days out on AK Air.

This time around it's been a hit or miss nightmare.

At present, just to secure definite travel, I have first out of Vancourver to Heathrow and Premium Coach Heathrow to Lusaka. Neither of those were available 255 days out. Seems they are really getting stingy with their mileage awards.

Anybody else notice this?

Hopefully the Vancourver departure won't make too much of an increased "sporting arms" hassle for us.