Is International Virgin Reward availability now worse that QANTAS?

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I’ve just looked right up until the end of the release calander and can’t find a single seat either out of MEL or SYD to LAX.
 
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I spent some time this weekend coding a tool to search for award availability. Given some time, and if I can host it somewhere without it costing too much, then I'll attempt to convert it in to some kind of web-app.

As a test run, I ran it across all remaining days in the year for MEL-LAX:

Previous reports are very much correct (unless of course the tool isn't working, which is quite possible and wouldn't surprise me :p ) - no Z availability, and limited P availability.

<redacted>
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Guess that explains why I can't find any Business class awards. Virgin's availability truly is worse than Qantas for Business Class to America.
 
MEL-HKG on the other hand (especially for flights in the next week) - wow!


MEL-HKG February 2018 Award Availability as of 11/02/2018 by flyer.tools
Z = Business reward, P = Premium reward, X = Economy reward
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
...
1
n/a
2
n/a
3
n/a
4
n/a
5
n/a
6
n/a
7
n/a
8
n/a
9
n/a
10
n/a
11
n/a
12
VA85:
Z9
X9
13
VA85:
Z9
X9
14
VA85:
Z9
X9
15
VA85:
Z9
X9
16
VA85:
Z9
X9
17
VA85:
Z9
X9
18
VA85:
X9
19
VA85:
X9
20
VA85:
X5
21
n/a
22
n/a
23
n/a
24
n/a
25
n/a
26
n/a
27
n/a
28
n/a
....
 
Last edited:
Both illuminating and incriminating at the same time. Thanks Sludge321, looks like you put some serious effort in there.

Sad to see this. It really takes the gloss off Virgin's allure. I don't suppose SYD-LAX would fare any better?
 
Nice work Sludge321. Be a nice app that many of us wouldn't mind buying, if that's your intention.

Will it work for QF as well for a comparison?
 
SYD-LAX February 2018 Award Availability as of 12/02/2018 by flyer.tools
Z = Business reward, P = Premium reward, X = Economy reward
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
...
1
n/a
2
n/a
3
n/a
4
n/a
5
n/a
6
n/a
7
n/a
8
n/a
9
n/a
10
n/a
11
n/a
12
n/a
13
n/a
14
VA1:
P8
X9
15
VA1:
X9
16
n/a
17
VA1:
X9
18
VA1:
X9
19
VA1:
X9
20
n/a
21
VA1:
X9
22
VA1:
X9
23
n/a
24
VA1:
X9
25
VA1:
X9
26
VA1:
X9
27
VA1:
X9
28
VA1:
X9
....
 
SYD-LAX March 2018 Award Availability as of 12/02/2018 by flyer.tools
Z = Business reward, P = Premium reward, X = Economy reward
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
...
1
VA1:
X9
2
n/a
3
VA1:
X9
4
VA1:
X9
5
VA1:
X3
6
n/a
7
VA1:
X9
8
VA1:
X9
9
n/a
10
VA1:
X9
11
VA3:
X9
12
VA1:
X9
13
n/a
14
VA1:
X9
15
VA1:
X9
16
n/a
17
VA1:
X9
18
VA1:
X9
19
VA1:
X9
20
n/a
21
VA1:
X9
22
VA1:
X9
23
n/a
24
n/a
25
VA1:
X2
26
n/a
27
VA1:
X9
28
n/a
29
n/a
30
n/a
31
n/a
.
 
clipped_wings said:
Both illuminating and incriminating at the same time. Thanks Sludge321, looks like you put some serious effort in there.

Sad to see this. It really takes the gloss off Virgin's allure. I don't suppose SYD-LAX would fare any better?
Click to expand...

I ran the next 3 months SYD-LAX, and it's pretty much the same as MEL-LAX. Lots of 'X' (economy) award availability, a few 'P' (premium) awards here and there, and no 'Z' (business) that I could see.

The forum wouldn't let me post the table for April as it's over the message character limit, but it's a similar pattern of availability.

swanning_it said:
Nice work Sludge321. Be a nice app that many of us wouldn't mind buying, if that's your intention.

Will it work for QF as well for a comparison?
Click to expand...

Cheers, I'll probably turn it in to a web app at some point (time permitting). There are additional considerations to take in to account when doing this, such as caching/rate-limiting as I don't want to adversely affect the VA website.


TSOOBI said:
amazing work !! What’s the search engine address
Click to expand...

Cheers, there isn't one right now, I'm just running it on my local machine as a test/experiment. It will probably end up on flyer.tools at some point.
 
Great work, the results are of concern as previously when I have looked 14 days in advance I could find something on Z.

Clearly there is a problem with Z to lax or they are not releasing anything for redemption
 
Last edited:
From expert flyer Feb 14

VA (**) 1 SYD 11:15a → LAX 6:05a
J7 C7 D7 I0 W7 R7 O7 Y7 B7 H7 K7 L7 E7 N7 V7 Q7 T7 S7

Looks like there are J seats on offer just not as award redemptions
 
jbman said:
Great work, the results are of concern as previously when I have looked 14 days in advance I could find something on Z.

Clearly there is a problem with Z to lax or they are no releasing anything for redemption
Click to expand...
They are probably after cash however they can get it. Unfortunately that means no award seats on LAX routes as they presumably believe they are very likely to get money. HKG OTOH looks concerning...
 
I realised I could post April (get under the forum character limit) if I removed the 'handy' links to the VA booking engine for each item, so seeing as I had already run this search, here is April - you'll just have to do the search manually on the VA website.

SYD-LAX April 2018 Award Availability as of 12/02/2018 by flyer.tools
Z = Business reward, P = Premium reward, X = Economy reward
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
......
1
n/a
2
VA1:
P2
X9
3
VA1:
X9
4
VA1:
X9
5
VA1:
X9
6
VA1:
P3
X9
7
VA1:
X9
8
VA1:
X9
9
n/a
10
VA1:
X9
11
VA1:
P3
12
n/a
13
VA1:
X8
14
n/a
15
VA1:
X9
16
VA1:
X9
17
VA1:
X9
18
VA1:
X9
19
VA1:
X9
20
VA1:
P3
X9
21
VA1:
P1
X9
22
VA1:
X9
23
VA1:
X9
24
VA1:
X9
25
VA1:
X9
26
VA1:
X9
27
VA1:
X9
28
VA1:
X9
29
VA1:
X9
30
VA1:
X9
......
 
Does anyone have issues with expert flyer alerts? I haven't been able to check my alerts for a few days now:upload_2018-2-12_16-40-20.png
 
Trying not to go off topic, but yes there seems to be an issue with award searching with VA via expert flyer.

I tried HKG as well with an error that said it had been logged with the expert flyer team
 
For you @clipped_wings (although I know this isn't as useful as an ongoing check/alert):


SYD-LAX October 2018 Award Availability as of 12/02/2018 by flyer.tools
Z = Business reward, P = Premium reward, X = Economy reward
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
1
VA1:
X9
2
VA1:
X9
3
n/a
4
VA1:
X9
5
VA1:
X9
6
VA1:
X9
7
VA1:
X9
8
VA1:
X9
9
VA1:
X9
10
VA1:
X9
11
VA1:
X9
12
VA1:
X9
13
VA1:
X9
14
VA1:
X9
15
VA1:
X9
16
VA1:
X9
17
VA1:
X9
18
VA1:
X9
19
n/a
20
VA1:
X9
21
VA1:
X9
22
VA1:
X9
23
n/a
24
VA1:
X9
25
VA1:
X9
26
VA1:
X9
27
VA1:
X9
28
VA1:
X9
29
VA1:
X9
30
VA1:
X9
31
VA1:
X9
....
 
For you @clipped_wings (although I know this isn't as useful as an ongoing check/alert):


LAX-SYD October 2018 Award Availability as of 12/02/2018 by flyer.tools
Z = Business reward, P = Premium reward, X = Economy reward
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
1
n/a
2
VA2:
X9
3
n/a
4
n/a
5
n/a
6
VA2:
X1
7
n/a
8
n/a
9
n/a
10
n/a
11
n/a
12
n/a
13
n/a
14
VA2:
X9
15
VA2:
X9
16
VA2:
X9
17
n/a
18
VA2:
X9
19
VA2:
X9
20
VA2:
X9
21
n/a
22
VA2:
X9
23
VA2:
X9
24
VA2:
X9
25
VA2:
X9
26
VA2:
X9
27
VA2:
X9
28
VA2:
X9
29
VA2:
X9
30
VA2:
X9
31
VA2:
X9
....
 
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