UC Reward US West Coast Availability

Hi All

I'm new to booking reward flights and wondering if anyone can give me some tips. I have saved up enough miles or will have done in a few months time for some reward UC flights to the West Coast of the US.

I don't need the actual flights until September 2020 so still a way off but I am wondering what availability is like for UC Reward seats to any of the West Coast destinations in Upper from experience and any tips on when I should book etc?
I'm flexible with which airport I fly into (LAX, SFO, SEA)

Thanks
ZJC

Standard advice is to

(a) be flexible on dates and airports and that includes flying into say LAS and back from SFO etc And being willing to have a 6 or 8 day holiday instead of the usual 7

(b) check at least once a day once flights are put on sale (usually 333 days before departure)

(c) consider getting an Economy or PE reward (so you know you have flights booked) and look to upgrade at a later date

(d) If you see rewards jump in immediately as others will also be looking

to add to Tonty use https://rewardflightfinder.com to keep an eye on those seats opening up. Pay the premium option of £3 a month and they check hourly for you instead of daily.

Mdhayes beat me to it.

Reward flight finder is the way forward, you can select number of seats, class and departure city and it will show you all available seats / dates on a month by month basis with out bound and rtn right next to each other!

Flights come out circa 11 months prior to departure (the more experienced travellers can tell tell you how many days exactly before departure flights are realised)

Getting return rewards from west coast always take forward planning as the the return “red eye” back to London is always popular in UC.

Just had a quick look and for next year going out to LAX there’s a fair amount of availability but less coming back.

Last thing to consider is how many miles you want to spend, do you want future flights in UC? Only say this as the taxes are crazy on US rewards so if cash allows you might be better off booking a PE and upgrading, not only will you save a lot of miles you also earn miles (which you don’t on reward flights)

Hi Guys

Thanks for your help its really appreciated as I am new to the reward booking and this will be my first UC reward booking.

Good tip on booking premium and then upgrading to Upper Class I had never thought about that, does anyone know roughly what the uplift is in surcharges if I went down this route?

I would be happy in Premium on the way out, just want Upper on the return flight.

Thanks
ZJC

So to check the difference I do “dummy” bookings on reward flights / pay with miles. Then look at the extra cost in tax between the two. Every time I’ve done this and then rang flying club it’s been pretty accurate to what I end up paying.

Only thing to watch out for is booking prem tickets that can be upgraded. Some times the cheapest ones online are not upgradable with miles so it’s worth calling flying club, 9 times out of 10 they are super helpful