Is International Virgin Reward availability now worse that QANTAS?

[serfty]

Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays.

Also, look at ~300 days out, not 330.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

Booked my July/August BNE-LAX flights on Business Reward, however availability is still tight. Heading out on VA7 on 18/07 and coming back on 03/08 ex LAX, however no availability on VA8, but availability on VA2, connecting through to VA936 a few hours later. Spoke to the Gold Call Centre and was told 2 reward seats available on VA7, and 2 seats back on VA2 but I could wait and see if availability on VA8 would open up if I wanted to. Figured that the risk of waiting for VA8 to open up and potentially losing VA7 on the outbound was too much, so booked it and am just resigned to the fact that I get an extra 1.5 hours in Business plus the domestic flight on the way home.

 

[razors_girl23]

Booked my July/August BNE-LAX flights on Business Reward, however availability is still tight. Heading out on VA7 on 18/07 and coming back on 03/08 ex LAX, however no availability on VA8, but availability on VA2, connecting through to VA936 a few hours later. Spoke to the Gold Call Centre and was told 2 reward seats available on VA7, and 2 seats back on VA2 but I could wait and see if availability on VA8 would open up if I wanted to. Figured that the risk of waiting for VA8 to open up and potentially losing VA7 on the outbound was too much, so booked it and am just resigned to the fact that I get an extra 1.5 hours in Business plus the domestic flight on the way home.

I would have made the same call. Worth a couple extra hours travel for sure.

 

[pythonisman]

I would have made the same call. Worth a couple extra hours travel for sure.

When you check in on your return for VA2, check to see if there's any available seats left on VA8. This year, I was offered to "fly direct" onto VA2 rather than VA8 (booked in a Y+ seat upgraded to J award) as there was space on the other flight, the ground staff said there'd be no problem in changing, but because I wasn't there very early (for VA2) I wouldn't have had time for a shower in the lounge which I really needed, so I stuck with my original routing.

When I landed in BNE I got a text saying that my connecting flight to SYD had been cancelled, so I was on the ground even longer, so next time I'll definitely make sure I'm there with enough time in case that's possible again...

YMMV- HTH!

 

[Quickstatus]

Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays.

Also, look at ~300 days out, not 330.

Correct, as of 31 Dec the availability for VA1 is limited to Tuessdays wednesdays and thursdays

occasional one on monday and one on sunday. There were absolutely none on friday sat sun. Status does not increase availability

 

[rfc4eva]

I have 280k to spend and was hoping for business class I leave on the 27th-29th of Feb this year and arrive back on 14th March,Cannot find one single day that is available which is ridiculous.
I see that they have 6 seats left on all days on particular flights.If not sold do these become available to Velocity members? I remember seeing about a month ago business becoming available when it previously wasn't just a few days before the flight.

 

[Quickstatus]

I have 280k to spend and was hoping for business class I leave on the 27th-29th of Feb this year and arrive back on 14th March,Cannot find one single day that is available which is ridiculous.
I see that they have 6 seats left on all days on particular flights.If not sold do these become available to Velocity members? I remember seeing about a month ago business becoming available when it previously wasn't just a few days before the flight.

Generally it won't be converted to award. But as you say occasionally you may find the odd award. Problem is if you don't get the award seats then you have to pay top dollar as discounted seats will have been sold

 

[Deewhy]

I've only just woken up to this issue. Going to book annual-ish end of year flight to LAX only to be dismayed with zero availability. For the past four years I've had no issue with redeeming 4x Syd-lax and back again. So I called the plat line and got a lady who was quite hesitant (waiting for a barrage I suspect) and ready with the boiler plate response. I went easy on her and she thanked me for it... She said you're not the only one that is not happy and the best thing to do is let their customer relations know.... So I have and we'll see where that gets me. If this is the new normal, I'm going to have to rethink the loyalty.

 

[ozjuice]

i can't find a single LAX reward seat available in business or PE.....so what are the points good for?

 

[theevilmuppet]

There are multiple problems here:

* Virgin's website is extremely primitive when it comes to making bookings - I cannot think of a single other non-LCC airline that does not offer a calendar view for reward and/or revenue bookings. The only instance I've seen of Virgin's website offering this is cases where I'm searching for a reward seat on a partner that isn't available on the date originally specified.
* Reward seats and upgrade rewards come out of the same pool, which sees Gold and Platinum members competing for upgrades against Red and Silver members with an easily acquired points balance purchasing rewards seats.
* No recognition in terms of status actually occurs when it comes to acquiring PE or J seats with points
* Reward availability has been massively impacted in the last 6 months for no reason that is justifiable, and no communication on the issue has been attempted by Virgin or Velocity
* Partner availability is non-existent for comparable flights - Air New Zealand release only Economy seats for reward bookings to partners and cannot be booked online
* Upgrades for fares booked with partner airlines cannot be performed with Velocity points
* Upgrades for fares booked as a VA codeshare on a partner airline can also not be upgraded with Velocity points

The prices Virgin charge for J to the US compared to Air New Zealand are also just crazy - at present they're offering departure from only 2 cities with narrow-body connecting services from other cities, multiple checkins unless you start from SYD or BNE and massively inflated prices.

There are many things here that really aren't that hard to fix.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

a bunch of seats became available last night to and from lax in April. you have to keep monitoring... i snapped up a couple

 

[gwilli1]

There are seats available all the way up to early November ex AUS on both VA1 & VA7 . The majority at the stage are between April-July and then tapers off through to November . The majority are Sun-Thurs . I saw 1 or 2 Friday's and No Sat at all . Flexibility is your key to picking up a seat.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I managed to get flights to LAX and back from MEL for April now. Just kept monitoring it. very happy

 

[ozjuice]

the site isn't even showing me any reward seats at the moment.

 

[cjd600]

the site isn't even showing me any reward seats at the moment.

it is if there are some available.
Try SYD-LAX 27 July, 1 pax

Looks like if no Reward seat available, it isn't even reflecting the column

 

[ozjuice]

But 2 days ago the column was there saying "Sold out" So what am i missing? Not even a reward seat column now.

OK that date shows 2 extra columns......strange they must have changed it recently.

 

[cjd600]

But 2 days ago the column was there saying "Sold out" So what am i missing? Not even a reward seat column now.

Yeah, that's what I mean, its not even reflecting the column......which it usually does....not sure whats going on there
However, IF Reward seats are available for the date, it will show them

 

[serfty]

But 2 days ago the column was there saying "Sold out" So what am i missing? Not even a reward seat column now.

OK that date shows 2 extra columns......strange they must have changed it recently.

I suspect they have indeed changed it recently.

 

[Deewhy]

I suspect they have indeed changed it recently.

It was done two days ago. I suspect it's there way of not trying to let people think they aren't missing out something as it *never* existed...trying to get us into their new way of thinking...

 

[justcallmeryan]

I nabbed a SYD - LAX J upgrade in March just this past week. I had a flexi Y booking that was done ages ago with zero availability. I kept checking the website and found one day with a seat available, rang up straight away and had it processed. They are coming available, but slowly... Be patient I guess!