Future Flight Credits on Business Class

[andrewpf]

I have been searching for flights over the last few weeks in an effort to use my remaining future flight credits (the credits you got in travel bank for cancelled flights pre-administration) up for business class flights.

Now, I've been looking at a few different routes out of Sydney - to Bali, to Cairns, and to Fiji in particular - and have found that while there is regularly economy seats available, there are virtually no business class seats (certainly not in the next few months at least).

While that might be par for the course for reward seats; it's a bit less palatable given these are credits for money I have already spent.

Finding seats is made all the more difficult by the inability to select 'business class' when searching - you have to look at each flight individually to see its business class availability.

Any suggestions, or is this just the way it is?

 

[TMP]

It's previously been suggested to use the United website for a different "view" of VA flights. And yes, there's limited seats within the next few months internationally - even paid - especially given VA's very limited international short-haul network

 

[odysseus]

I'm not sure of the selection criteria for future flight credit. Off hand, I suspect it would be more likely available when they have sold fewer seats.

As you mention, BC isn't shown upfront in the search which is annoying.

I'd suggest using a travel agent search engines to get what's available in BC quickly, where there are at least 6 BC seats left as a starting point. For example, here is one I set up for Cairns on Virgin BC for expedia. Just update the dates/destination with what you want and you can see which VA BC flights have 6+ seats left and pricing. Then double check if it comes up with the travel bank booking, and if so, it will be an easy way to find availability, or at least a good guide.

https://www.expedia.com.au/Flights-Search?leg1=from%3ASydney%2C%20NSW%20%28SYD-Kingsford%20Smith%20Intl.%29%2Cto%3ACairns%2C%20QLD%20%28CNS-Cairns%20Intl.%29%2Cdeparture%3A22%2F6%2F2022TANYT&leg2=from%3ACairns%2C%20QLD%20%28CNS-Cairns%20Intl.%29%2Cto%3ASydney%2C%20NSW%20%28SYD-Kingsford%20Smith%20Intl.%29%2Cdeparture%3A23%2F6%2F2022TANYT&mode=search&options=carrier%3AVA%2Ccabinclass%3Abusiness%2Cmaxhops%3A1%2Cnopenalty%3AN&pageId=0&passengers=adults%3A6%2Cchildren%3A0%2Cinfantinlap%3AN&trip=roundtrip

 

[andrewpf]

It's previously been suggested to use the United website for a different "view" of VA flights. And yes, there's limited seats within the next few months internationally - even paid - especially given VA's very limited international short-haul network

There are generally normal paid business class seats available - just not seats that you can book with Future Flight Credits, which presumably are a limited fare type.

The United engine isn't going to differentiate between regular business class and what is bookable with future flight credits, so isn't going to be much use unfortunately.

 

[andrewpf]

I'm not sure of the selection criteria for future flight credit. Off hand, I suspect it would be more likely available when they have sold fewer seats.

As you mention, BC isn't shown upfront in the search which is annoying.

I'd suggest using a travel agent search engines to get what's available in BC quickly, where there are at least 6 BC seats left as a starting point. For example, here is one I set up for Cairns on Virgin BC for expedia. Just update the dates/destination with what you want and you can see which VA BC flights have 6+ seats left and pricing. Then double check if it comes up with the travel bank booking, and if so, it will be an easy way to find availability, or at least a good guide.

https://www.expedia.com.au/Flights-Search?leg1=from%3ASydney%2C%20NSW%20%28SYD-Kingsford%20Smith%20Intl.%29%2Cto%3ACairns%2C%20QLD%20%28CNS-Cairns%20Intl.%29%2Cdeparture%3A22%2F6%2F2022TANYT&leg2=from%3ACairns%2C%20QLD%20%28CNS-Cairns%20Intl.%29%2Cto%3ASydney%2C%20NSW%20%28SYD-Kingsford%20Smith%20Intl.%29%2Cdeparture%3A23%2F6%2F2022TANYT&mode=search&options=carrier%3AVA%2Ccabinclass%3Abusiness%2Cmaxhops%3A1%2Cnopenalty%3AN&pageId=0&passengers=adults%3A6%2Cchildren%3A0%2Cinfantinlap%3AN&trip=roundtrip

Thanks for the suggestion ... I gave it a try, however, it seems that there are flight that even have all 8 business class seats available for regular booking, that have no availability with Future Flight Credits.

 

[serfty]

The way FFC's work as far as I know is there needs to be an underlying fare bucket available.

If it's available then there is no differentiation between business or economy class being bookable with FFCs

Given that understanding I think it more likely that with the relatively inexpensive business class fares around currently that business is basically sold out on those flights.

 

[odysseus]

The way FFC's work as far as I know is there needs to be an underlying fare bucket available.

If it's available then there is no differentiation between business or economy class being bookable with FFCs

Given that understanding I think it more likely that with the relatively inexpensive business class fares around currently that business is basically sold out on those flights.

Not all the business class fares are in the same 'inexpensive' bucket though. With the $299 fares, I've noticed flights on the same routes that are $399 and higher as well. I think only the first 4 seats are sold at $299, but it may also be peak and off-peak or a combination. So there are multiple buckets in use.

That said, as he's tried the query above, it's not clear what the criteria for future flight credit use is.

 

[deangelj]

From the Virgin site if it helps...

 

[serfty]

That said, as he's tried the query above, it's not clear what the criteria for future flight credit use is.

I could be wrong and there is a different fare bucket for Business seats using FFC's.

However, I believed if the FFC fare bucket exists then ANY available fare can be purchased using FFC's.

If the availability for the FFC fare bucket is zero then no fares can be purchased weth FFC's.

AFAIK, the underlying FFC fare bucket used by VA was U.

 

[andrewpf]

I could be wrong and there is a different fare bucket for Business seats using FFC's.

However, I believed if the FFC fare bucket exists then ANY available fare can be purchased using FFC's.

If the availability for the FFC fare bucket is zero then no fares can be purchased weth FFC's.

AFAIK, the underlying FFC fare bucket used by VA was U.

After a bit more looking around, my understanding is that FFC allow purchase of economy class fares from the U fare bucket, or business class fares from the D fare bucket.

There are two different buckets - one for economy class, and one for business; they are not the same fare bucket. There can be U fares (economy class bookable by FFC) available without any D fares (business class bookable by FFC).