V-Flyer

I'm doing some searching for milage availability, am I right in thinking the only way to do it is book my miles on the VA site, and if I click dates and anytime within 5 weeks and nothing comes back then that means there's nothing available? However I should keep checking in case something comes up!

In theory, you are correct. But it can sometimes be worth calling FC; I recently needed to change a reward flight from Atlanta to come back from Miami and the online search showed no PE for the Saturday I wanted but FC were able to do it for me, and refunded 20k miles as we were now coming back before peak season started.

Maybe a change is different to a new booking?

I find it much easier to search for one-ways on the 5-week calendar as am always flexible on the length of time away. Once you’ve found your combination of outbound/inbound availability you can then search those exact dates as a return to book it.

Online reward availability differs by territory - so, for example, availability for a JFK-LHR return won’t necessarily be the same as for a LHR-JFK return even on the same flights.

So as nkp85uk suggests, try searching for each leg separately - or call FC, as the agents should be able to see everything.

Thanks for all your help on this. Does anyone have any idea when they are likely to release more award seats (if at all!) looking at flying in March and there's nothing available atm. Although I'm after a very rare pair in UC for JNB to LHR so I'm not holding much hope