Issues with using Velocity for J tickets originating US to Australia

[JoshuaL1997]

I'm stalking flights for a trip next year to the US and Canada and know that United J seats are loaded onto Velocity about 30 days in advance but that only seem to be the case for flights originating in Australia. Returning flights seem to only ever have availability in economy. Does anyone know why that is?

 

[TMP]

There are known experiences and issues with United J availability as outlined in many threads including this one:

Velocity trans-Atlantic availability on United: can't book direct flights?

I was just having a look on the Virgin Australia website for Velocity reward seat availability from EWR to LHR on United. United has around six daily flights on this route, and there's plenty of non-stop saver award availability in Economy on the many dates I looked at, which you could book...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[ben95]

Does anyone know why that is?

UA seems to be doing better with selling J and upgrades on the US departure compared to AUS departure. Make sense if UA wants to hold inventory for upgrade and cash fares

 

[SCM]

I'm stalking flights for a trip next year to the US and Canada and know that United J seats are loaded onto Velocity about 30 days in advance but that only seem to be the case for flights originating in Australia. Returning flights seem to only ever have availability in economy. Does anyone know why that is?

I don't know why, but I feel like this is every airline and even every reward program - it's always easier to find rewards outgoing than incoming. No idea why.

 

[Scr77]

I don't know why, but I feel like this is every airline and even every reward program - it's always easier to find rewards outgoing than incoming. No idea why.

Not sure that applies here. This is a case of availability incoming instead of outgoing, since it’s United.

 

[ozstamps]

330 million people there versus 10% of that here might be one reason!

 

[im.daniel]

I'm stalking flights for a trip next year to the US and Canada and know that United J seats are loaded onto Velocity about 30 days in advance but that only seem to be the case for flights originating in Australia. Returning flights seem to only ever have availability in economy. Does anyone know why that is?

Until very recently, UA releasing J availability (USA-AUS) via Velocity has been exceptionally consistent T7-14.

To the point where I was able to book my wife UA J LAX-SYD with 2 days notice, only last month.

I’ve just done a search LAX/SFO-SYD/MEL/BNE, and there’s literally nothing T7 - something might be up.

Conversely, BNE/SYD/MEL-USA on UA availability close in seems normal.