Award space on VX through VA

[edy4eva]

Was going to book an award to JFK (VA then VX - coded as VA), but as of today cannot see a single seat available on any VX operated flight even in economy. Could this be a temporary glitch? and should I just call to book? I was seeing seats up to last week, and plenty of them. Now it seems that the search engine only pulls up DL :evil:

Thanks

 

[rtyuiop]

I've been keeping an eye on availability to NYC, and the VX flights seem to come and go at random, maybe every few days or so (although I haven't really kept a close enough eye to know if there is any sort of pattern).

Really quite disturbing!

 

[edy4eva]

Still no luck so far. Let's hope the current update will rectify the issue.

 

[jneufeld]

IME when it comes to partner rewards don't trust the website, always call up.

 

[edy4eva]

I've been checking daily for the past month. 2 seats came up for LAX-BOS which I booked immediately (As part of CBR-BNE-BOS). Lo and behold after the payment screen, points got deducted and my credit card charged but it gave out an error asking to call VA. The booking comes up fine although all sectors show 'on hold'.

I called VA support who advised that the VX sector returned as unconfirmed, hence why the ticket wasn't issued. She redposited the points and said that there are NO redemption seats for coast to coast VX flights, even in economoy for the NEXT YEAR (WTF!) and that they're aware there's no availability showing online.

This is ridiculous.

 

[Clivem]

Agree ridiculous ........that aside is there any particular reason you specifically want a VX option with no apparent interest in a DL option. .......Just asking

 

[edy4eva]

Agree ridiculous ........that aside is there any particular reason you specifically want a VX option with no apparent interest in a DL option. .......Just asking

Flight timing, and lack of availability on DL to begin with (on top of having to go 2 stops!)

I just tried to rebook on the same flights, I get an error saying there's a duplicate booking (not really it was cancelled).

 

[edy4eva]

Suspecting the issue lies with having the VA codes on the VX flights, I rebooked the same itinerary -had to switch the order of passengers to overcome the earlier error, then called VA.
I asked the agent to rebook under the VX code, no luck. She kept on referring to the later dates that I could see online. But when she tried selecting those they come back as not available. So then I asked her to do a manual NN (need need) request on the exact flight even though they don't show as available. After the initial objection she tried it. No luck.
Upon asking her, she said she tried under the VX code but I doubt she did it because all she kept referring to is the VA codes. I felt that she didn't want to bother with this anymore.

I had her try LAX-BOS as standalone, no VX flights AT ALL!

This is quite frustrating. VA seriously need to sort out the issues with VX OR remove all reference to redemptions on VX.

 

[edy4eva]

Further to the above. VA book the VX sector under the Z bucket and VA codeshare, which is non-existent! I'm on the phone with VX who are looking into this booking from their end (had to ask VA for the VX record locator). Will keep you posted with the outcome.

Update: From VX end, the flights should book in K (which as I'm told by VX is award for F), and there ARE available seats! Back to the board with VA.

 

[Clivem]

I just googled 'tenacity' edy4eva and I'm pretty sure it is your picture that popped up. Two thumbs up.

 

[edy4eva]

Now VA say they cannot do a manual flight selection or a NN request (and never were able to, which indicates either this agent or the first one I spoke to is/was lying!), and that it's only possible to pick up a flight that shows up when they search by sector.

So to sum up:
VA book Z under VA code, VX metal. Somehow the allocation shifts to K under the VX code but only from the backend.
VA cannot manually select K under VX code.

 

[edy4eva]

Bottom line: VA have a poor booking system that the Velocity agents use. It gives them very little control. The agent can only input departure/arrival airports and date, then select whatever flight the system spits back.
They cannot feed the flight details or RBD into it, unlike a GDS.

The VA agent I last spoke with said that VA's technical support are quite aware of issues surrounding availability on partner airlines. Their only recommendation is 'try again, later'. There's no manual turn around or a process through which the VA agent could request specific flights if they are available but not showing up on their system.

In my case, doing a sector by sector search, the agent found some horrid connections on DL (even DL own website does not show these routings) going LAX-SLC-TUL-DTW-BOS! None at all on VX on ANY day.

I'm going to keep trying. Meanwhile I'll write and encourage others to write to the Airline Customer Advocate and to VA about VA misleading customers into believing that one could redeem velocity points onto VX flights. Perhaps that'll get the smart folks in their IT team to find a real solution.

Now where's that lurking Virgin rep?

 

[edy4eva]

Hopefully this will help others.
As mentioned earlier VA book F reward seats on VX in Z fare bucket under the VA codeshare for international itineraries. VX do NOT have Z fare bucket, instead what they see is K under the VX code.

Looking at a SYD-LAX-BOS redemption for 2 in business. I cross checked several dates with VX AND VA customer service and found a discrepancy for the VX sector.

VX366 J7 C2 D1 W7 Q3 Z0 Y7 V7 B7 H7 E7 U7 M7 I7 L7 S0 N0
VA5226 J4 C4 D4 I4 W4 R4 O0 Y4 B4 H4 K4 L4 E4 N4 V4 Q0 T0

VA cannot see a single reward seat whether looking up online or through the phone when looking for LAX-BOS as a standalone leg. But when they search for SYD-LAX-BOS 2 seats pop up. Upon selecting those seats and processing payment/points deduction the process fails (both online and over the phone). The VA agent gives up and refunds claiming it's the only way.

VX by contrast see K1 (so only 1 seat available), which at first can be seen correlated with D1, but not necessarily because on other dates we see D1 but K0, and even other dates can see K2.

I still haven't given up on this. I'll try and get to a human in SYD/BNE VA call centres instead of the off-shore hopeless call centre.

Another tip, if you're trying to view the booking from VX side, their new website gives an error whether it's the VA booking ref or VX's. After trying out every single partner airline pages, I stumbled across the old VX website which just worked (it pulled the reservation using both booking refs): http://o3.virginamerica.com/

 

[edy4eva]

Just made a paid booking for a passenger in D on that specific VX flight to see how availability changes:
Before
VX366 J7 C2 D1 W7 Q3 Z0 Y7 V7 B7 H7 E7 U7 M7 I7 L7 S0 N0

VA5226 J4 C4 D4 I4 W4 R4 O0 Y4 B4 H4 K4 L4 E4 N4 V4 Q0 T0

After
VX366 J7 C1 D0 W7 Q3 Z0 Y7 V7 B7 H7 E7 U7 M7 I7 L7 S0 N0

VA5226 J4 C4 D4 I0 W4 R4 O0 Y4 B4 H4 K4 L4 E4 N4 V4 Q0 T0

Availability on VA website for SYD-LAX-BOS was 2 then went down to 0 while SYD-LAX remained at 2.

Edit: cancelled the VX booking and got this
VX366 J7 C2 D1 W7 Q3 Z0 Y7 V7 B7 H7 E7 U7 M7 I7 L7 S0 N0

VA5226 J4 C4 D4 I4 W4 R4 O0 Y4 B4 H4 K4 L4 E4 N4 V4 Q0 T0

AND SYD-LAX-BOS went back to 2 seats available!

 

[Bofter]

Interestingly I can see my VX reservation (VA redemption) on both the old and the new site, however the old site provides better information about it. The new site layout seems limited to two sectors, so really struggles with my MEL-SYD, SYD-LAX, LAX-IAD booking. The old site layout has no such problems.

 

[edy4eva]

After last night's update VA removed all VX flights from the online award booking options. Strange isn't!

 

[rtyuiop]

VX flights have always seemed to come and go randomly anyway, they might be back soon!

 

[medhead]

I'm just trying to search SYD to AUH and there are only VA flights, no EY flights. Coincidental if there was an update last night.

 

[edy4eva]

I'm just trying to search SYD to AUH and there are only VA flights, no EY flights. Coincidental if there was an update last night.

I haven't seen EY flights for a while, probably since early Jan?

 

[medhead]

I booked an award flight earlier this year, perhaps January. Was able to see EY flights when searching for options.