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

[Mattg]

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 through many other programs of United partner airlines (e.g. Aeroplan, KrisFlyer, LifeMiles, etc.). But the Velocity website only shows itineraries with at least one stop.

E.g. with Velocity I can book EWR-LAX-LHR or EWR-IAH-LHR, or even IAD-EWR-LHR - but not simply EWR-LHR.

The exact same thing happens if I search for different United trans-Atlantic routes and dates. There are plenty of reward seats available on non-stop services, but none are available through Velocity.

I wonder if United or Velocity is blocking the non-stop flights systematically?

 

[TMP]

Good question. Your experience is similar to mine over a number of months recently of looking. Perhaps you can get some kind of official answer.

 

[Mattg]

Good question. Your experience is similar to mine over a number of months recently of looking. Perhaps you can get some kind of official answer.

What routes have you been looking for?

 

[MELso]

I couldn’t find availability on IAD-AMS when I went looking last year despite the flight I was wanting to book showing X9 on United’s website.

IAD-EWR-AMS showed up but not the non-stop option.

Using Velocity Points For United Trans Atlantic or Domestic Reward Seats - No Direct Option

This seems really strange to me, and I understand yield, through availability etc but to me this is beyond that as it *never* shows. When searching for reward seats with United on the Velocity engine, whenever I search United flights within the USA or to Europe it only ever gives me itineraries...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[justinbrett]

I’ve found a lot of international UA flights that don’t touch Australia aren’t available to VA. Ringing doesn’t help either. When I called about flights to GUM and SPN, VA said none of those routes are released to VA (even though UA has reward seats available).

 

[TMP]

What routes have you been looking for?

Anywhere from Europe to North America via seats.aero to use some points up.

Availability of reward seats has dried up, even within a month.

And all routes have a stopover within North America - it's never direct.

 

[elanshin]

What routes have you been looking for?

Wasn't there a thread about skiplagging a couple of days ago because the OP couldn't find MEL - LAX direct on UA through VFF but SYD/BNE - MEL - LAX existed for the same UA flight?

Edit: Ah this one.

Is it possible to drop first leg of international reward ?

Hello. Wondering if anyone has faced similar situation. I booked an award ticket from Syd to lax, operated by united airlines. There is an overnight layover in Melbourne. Will it be possible to call virgin and get them to drop the first leg so my flight will be from Mel instead of Syd. Regards

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Gredgy69]

I was looking for flights from Sydney to Canada (Halifax) and then on to Ireland in J for May/June or August/September next year. Started looking 11 months out and continued for 3 months solid. Could not find a single seat either to Canada or to Ireland on the Velocity website. Also tried the same search last year and had no luck. I gave up and transferred my points to Krisflyer and booked J to London then Paris home in F.

 

[justinbrett]

VA don’t get all reward seats. Just because you can see it on partner websites doesn’t mean VA gets it.

Eg, anything in and out of GUM/SPN isn’t available to Velocity, even if the cheapest reward is available on the UA website or other partner airlines.

 

[madman2020]

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 through many other programs of United partner airlines (e.g. Aeroplan, KrisFlyer, LifeMiles, etc.). But the Velocity website only shows itineraries with at least one stop.

E.g. with Velocity I can book EWR-LAX-LHR or EWR-IAH-LHR, or even IAD-EWR-LHR - but not simply EWR-LHR.

The exact same thing happens if I search for different United trans-Atlantic routes and dates. There are plenty of reward seats available on non-stop services, but none are available through Velocity.

I wonder if United or Velocity is blocking the non-stop flights systematically?

Well, I've seen something similar when searching flights on United from Australia to US destinations (LAX, SFO, IAH) on LifeMiles compared to Velocity.

For example, I see business reward seats available on SYD - LAX today on Virgin Australia for tomorrow 10th December:



But when I search on LifeMiles on the same date, there's no Business reward seats:



I personally use and accrue LifeMiles and I frequently use this program to book reward seats. I always use Velocity Australia as a reference when creating alerts on those reward seats search engines like seats.aero to find business rewards availability but it no longer works for me because of this problem.

 

[QPProletarian]

The virgin search is terrible because it always shows options every day for 5,000,000 points or so.

But I did notice this issue also looking US-UK, not to mention the missing destinations.

 

[WilsonM]

Well, I've seen something similar when searching flights on United from Australia to US destinations (LAX, SFO, IAH) on LifeMiles compared to Velocity.

For example, I see business reward seats available on SYD - LAX today on Virgin Australia for tomorrow 10th December:

View attachment 417951

But when I search on LifeMiles on the same date, there's no Business reward seats:

View attachment 417952

I personally use and accrue LifeMiles and I frequently use this program to book reward seats. I always use Velocity Australia as a reference when creating alerts on those reward seats search engines like seats.aero to find business rewards availability but it no longer works for me because of this problem.

Lifemiles not showing availability is a pretty common issue nowadays, and the screenshot method no longer seems to work. It's why more and more people are shifting to Air Canada Aeroplan, as while it's more expensive it's much more reliable.

 

[AFF Editor]

Great news - this is now fixed

Velocity Adds Non-Stop United Trans-Atlantic Rewards

Virgin Australia has fixed a bug that resulted in many non-stop United Airlines flights being unavailable to book with Velocity Points.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[eidde2232]

VA wasn't showing any non-Australia international non-stop availability for United before (tried many routes). After this change, some other int'l non-stops are appearing on VA like EWR-YYZ — still not seeing anything for non-trans-Atlantic long-haul destinations