Zero miles flights available 3 weeks away, even Economy?!

A trip has come up for 20 days out, needing NYC to LHR flights, and of course prices are insane ($2000 in basic Economy!)

miles is showing no availability for then or any date near, even in simple Economy. But... if I look for next week, there's plenty, in every class.

I'm wondering, do VS zero out any reward seat allocation 3 weeks out, but... open up seats closer, like 7/10 days out?
It sure looks that way. Do I have to play roulette with them on this?!

Thanks

[mitchja]

Have you considered using miles + money? You will still be on a revenue fare so will earn miles + tier points but can reduce your fare cost by adding miles to it.

Thanks.

Yes I looked at that - Nothing at all a week either side. miles or miles + money, r/t or 2x one-way. Zip.
BUT look for the next 10 days and there's plenty.

Today's May 29th, and up to 12th June its wide open, lots of seats on many flights, but after then it all vanishes. Nothing.
I suspect they just remove all allocation and put it back something like 10 days out.

Of course the VS website is so... funky, this could just be a glitch that gets rectified tomorrow!
I'm going to wait it out. Seriously think it will open up.

Firstly, 20 days from now is 18 June and I can see reward availability in Premium on four of the five red-eye JFK-LHR flights that night. Nothing in Y or J though.

Secondly, there doesn’t have to be any reward availability to use miles+money. You just buy a normal cash fare in any cabin and use miles to discount it (in increments of 3,000, each 3,000 gets you a $20.95 discount). You can use miles+money on any of the six JFK-LHR flights that day.

It’s not the best use of miles but if you’ve lots to burn and need to fly on a specific date when reward availability is non-existent, it’s a viable option.

Thanks for tip.

You are right - there is PE availability! I just looked at Economy and Upper . There used to be a 'show me all' option, but that's gone.

Personally I've always felt PE is the worst of both worlds - you pay the expensive higher level Passenger Duty, almost same as Upper, but... just get a bit bigger seat, with fixed armrests. A few times I've been in PE red eye, and walked myself back to Economy to lay across a row of those seats - a voluntary downgrade!

(Also have you noticed how 2 x one way reward flights are much cheaper than a round trip? in this case (PE) it's $738 vs $887. A $150 saving!)

If you use rewardfinder there does seem to be Gs available during June and July

Isn’t it at 3 weeks out all the cheap fares disappear too? Eg, all K’s and Z’s will automatically disappear (sorry, don’t know economy fare codes). With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happens with reward avails.

If I was in your shoes, I’d happily gamble. There’s not often you can’t pick up a reward to NYC a day or few days before.

Isn’t it at 3 weeks out all the cheap fares disappear too? Eg, all K’s and Z’s will automatically disappear (sorry, don’t know economy fare codes). With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happens with reward avails.

If I was in your shoes, I’d happily gamble. There’s not often you can’t pick up a reward to NYC a day or few days before.

I’ve actually managed to pick up a reward (upgrade) the day before a flight to NYC

Just to update: nothing has appeared in Economy. Still zero reward availability for a 4 week period mid June to mid July. Surprising!

I think it might have something to do with school holiday break up in USA: everyone jumped into reward seats months ago, maybe?

I'll book PE, and downgrade/ change date if it opens up. I'm Au, so its a free change, luckily.
(As I mentioned before, to me PE is a waste of time/money, but... ymmv)

I was in a similar dilemma to you a few months ago. I'd been watching the behaviour of reward fares to Shanghai and they routinely opened up day by day as the date got closer. I was nervous as I was flying around bank holiday period. In probably the week I expected them to become available nothing happened. I gave it a few more days and again nothing. I gave up and booked Qatar and am in Shanghai now. I did carry on watching the availability and nothing did open up even the day before so I'm very happy I chose to duck out.