Is International Virgin Reward availability now worse that QANTAS?

[serfty]

Re: Help with Virgin Air velocity redemption's - massive points needed?!

300-320 days, 4-7 days.

 

[unfunkable]

Re: Help with Virgin Air velocity redemption's - massive points needed?!

thanks for that
I will have to start planning for 2018 it seems like :shock:

 

[jbman]

Re: Help with Virgin Air velocity redemption's - massive points needed?!

How have people found making bookings when the VA system shows dates shorter than say SQ?

For example VA shows the furthest date you can book for at the moment is Dec 7 2017, while SQ shows Jan 1 2018

I looked and saw EY shows the Dec 7 2017 date as well, so I am guessing unless you are lucky you should always be transferring VA > SQ to make first release bookings

 

[andye]

Re: Help with Virgin Air velocity redemption's - massive points needed?!

There are usually some SQ seats available on the VA website at release but agree KF likely to give wider availability. You will usually gain in points but lose in fees doing so

 

[Denali]

Re: Help with Virgin Air velocity redemption's - massive points needed?!

thanks for that
I will have to start planning for 2018 it seems like :shock:

I already am, just waiting for the flight dates to open

 

[deva22]

Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

So I know these will be popular, but does anyone have any experience booking them?
I've been following availability of 2x J in each direction since December last year.
They are being released roughly 318 days in advance up until now.
But as of the end of January, they appear to have stopped being release.
Does anyone know how this works? Do they release no seats after mid December?

Any advice?

 

[CJEMNMAC]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

So I know these will be popular, but does anyone have any experience booking them?
I've been following availability of 2x J in each direction since December last year.
They are being released roughly 318 days in advance up until now.
But as of the end of January, they appear to have stopped being release.
Does anyone know how this works? Do they release no seats after mid December?

Any advice?

Most people try and resolve this query.

I think the fact is, no one really knows what the heck goes on with these reward seat releases.

Unfortunately, it really has become a matter of checking daily and contacting the call centre as sometimes availability does not show..

There have been a few threads discussing similar things and a lot of success has been around 300 day mark.. not guaranteed

I suggest you will have to keep on checking, as annoying as that is..

 

[Limewood]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

Using Award Nexus is a good idea, when they know you'll know.

 

[deva22]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

Most people try and resolve this query.

I think the fact is, no one really knows what the heck goes on with these reward seat releases.

Unfortunately, it really has become a matter of checking daily and contacting the call centre as sometimes availability does not show..

There have been a few threads discussing similar things and a lot of success has been around 300 day mark.. not guaranteed

I suggest you will have to keep on checking, as annoying as that is..

Yeah I thought this was going to be the case
I guess I'll just have to check every day... Or sign up for award nexus..... I wish they had a consistent approach (which I thought they did until recently).

 

[deva22]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

Any idea how to find VA availability on AwardNexus?
They don't appear to give any info on non-alliance airlines....

Using Award Nexus is a good idea, when they know you'll know.

 

[hummel]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

FWIW I looked 300 days out for 1 seat (wanted 2) LAX-BNE/SYD for any date around 14th Jan this year - No dice.

I checked everyday up until 1 day out.

In the end we flew SFO-SIN-MEL on SQ

 

[deva22]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

This makes me very sad

FWIW I looked 300 days out for 1 seat (wanted 2) LAX-BNE/SYD for any date around 14th Jan this year - No dice.

I checked everyday up until 1 day out.

In the end we flew SFO-SIN-MEL on SQ

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

So I know these will be popular, but does anyone have any experience booking them?
I've been following availability of 2x J in each direction since December last year.
They are being released roughly 318 days in advance up until now.
But as of the end of January, they appear to have stopped being release.
Does anyone know how this works? Do they release no seats after mid December?

Any advice?

CJEMNMAC is right on the money.

In addition to the comments, it's important to note that award seats are NOT to reward you for being a loyal, or valuable customer.

They are there purely as a mechanism to drive revenue to the loyalty program and airline.
The loyalty program (Velocity, in this case) wants you to take out more credit cards.
The airline (Virgin Australia, in this case) is allowing the purchase of seats using Velocity Points in place of cash, to fill the planes.

As such, the airline will release award seats when the flight is under-sold, or the chances of selling a seat for cash are lower than usual.
There is no requirement, nor incentive for award seats to be released at set time-frames.

 

[hummel]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

CJEMNMAC is right on the money.

In addition to the comments, it's important to note that award seats are NOT to reward you for being a loyal, or valuable customer.

They are there purely as a mechanism to drive revenue to the loyalty program and airline.
The loyalty program (Velocity, in this case) wants you to take out more credit cards.
The airline (Virgin Australia, in this case) is allowing the purchase of seats using Velocity Points in place of cash, to fill the planes.

As such, the airline will release award seats when the flight is under-sold, or the chances of selling a seat for cash are lower than usual.
There is no requirement, nor incentive for award seats to be released at set time-frames.

spacebar

Please stop being so logical TTR, they should be opening seats for us during peak times

 

[Dannyism]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

Using Award Nexus is a good idea, when they know you'll know.

Do you use Award Nexus ? Would you recommend it ?

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

www.pexportal.com

it's free

 

[Dannyism]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

www.pexportal.com

it's free

Cool. Thanks . I'll have a play tonight.

On a different note. Suits is back on after the mid season break which is sweet.

 

[deva22]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

I'm starting to think I'm going to have to cancel my trip... Got flights sorted BNE > HKG > JFK. Can't get reward flights home it seems

 

[hummel]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

I'm starting to think I'm going to have to cancel my trip... Got flights sorted BNE > HKG > JFK. Can't get reward flights home it seems

spacebar

What other points have you got? And also what is the cancellation policy for CX?

 

[deva22]

Re: Reward flight BNE > LAX > BNE - Xmas time in J

Have got 30K MR, (Another 110K soon if I manage to get the explorer signup bonus today/tomorrow)

CX flights were booked on QF, so whatever their cancellation policy is (5K points?)