Expensive VA flight redemptions, one year out

[Mattyana2003]

But still nothing at all for 2017!

Oops meant MARCH 2017!

 

[Skrambled]

I think I am going to give up on ever being able to use my points for J fares. Very frustrating.

 

[travelislife]

I think I am going to give up on ever being able to use my points for J fares. Very frustrating.

Why? With adequate planning anything is pretty much possible.

 

[serfty]

The Trans-Pacific seats have always been a rarity. None of these are EY operated.
...

Not really true - I have always been able to secure a J seat transpacific when I was after 'em.

A couple of years ago, J seats transpacific were prolific.

Although, moire recently this tightened and by stalking at 330 days I was still easily able to procure said seating ... last year this seems to have changed and daily searching from about 300 days has been more productive.

Work on it, be flexible and you'll likely be successful.

 

[anat0l]

Not really true - I have always been able to secure a J seat transpacific when I was after 'em.

A couple of years ago, J seats transpacific were prolific.

Although, moire recently this tightened and by stalking at 330 days I was still easily able to procure said seating ... last year this seems to have changed and daily searching from about 300 days has been more productive.

Work on it, be flexible and you'll likely be successful.

If this is the only way you can secure such seats, then that should be classified as rare.

"Rare" doesn't mean no chance of success, but you need to tell people in the game this kind of thing when they are starting with a huge stash of Velocity points which they may want to use. Just having the points alone doesn't instantly give you a Business Class ticket that you want (cf. cash).

 

[Mattyana2003]

I wonder why 300 days out works better than 1 year out? Still nothing in March!

 

[cjd600]

I wonder why 300 days out works better than 1 year out? Still nothing in March!

They've never released them a year out, 330 days is the maximum as far as I'm aware

 

[theblank]

Ilast year i found that its better to search for one way flights. I have searched for return reward seats before for Australia to Europe on Etihad and found none in both directions, but when searching one way separately, heaps are available. I havnet noticed this recently as I have never bothered to look for return flights for ever since

 

[CJEMNMAC]

I am not sure why these are classed as rare ?

On the weekend after reading this thread it took all of 10 mins to locate the following. I only searched 1 pax.

12 outbound seats in J between 1 January and 15 February either SYD-BNE-LAX, SYD-LAX or BNE-LAX

3 inbound seats in J Between 1 January and 30 January LAX - BNE

Only 5 days ago in this thread there were random dates in October and September as well.

Definitely up to around 300 day mark is right.

I guess we all have different definitions of no availability

 

[BriarFlyer]

I am not sure why these are classed as rare ?>

I've had recent luck as well. At the weekend I booked a J seat LAX-BNE-SYD in late July and released a LAX-SYD seat I had booked earlier back into the system. I'd been checking pretty much daily for my preferred return date and was rewarded. Worth paying the cancellation fee for that extra week's holiday. FWIW, in the month or two I've been checking I saw the odd J seat come and go (both directions) on other July dates, probably from cancellations as plans firm up, so you can get lucky if you stay vigilant.

 

[serfty]

If this is the only way you can secure such seats, then that should be classified as rare.

"Rare" doesn't mean no chance of success, but you need to tell people in the game this kind of thing when they are starting with a huge stash of Velocity points which they may want to use. Just having the points alone doesn't instantly give you a Business Class ticket that you want (cf. cash).

As I indicated, the Trans-Pacific business class seats have NOT always been a rarity.

Up until about 18 months ago the J seats were generally there for the taking - often more availability than economy.