V-Flyer

I had my first-ever disappointment with availability in G last week: I flew on VS 008 from LAX to LHR on the 10th in an L fare-basis seat in Economy, having failed to find availability in G, despite checking more than once per day every day and buying the L seat weeks before the flight.

The FC Gold telephone support line told me on the morning of the flight that there were 4 seats in J still unsold, and that to upgrade, I'd have to ask at the airport. Apparently, those all went to revenue customers on the day of the flight. When I arrived at the airport (uncharacteristically early, at 5 PM before a 7:45 PM scheduled departure), I was told that J was fully sold, and that there was a waiting list for upgrades in case of no-shows, on which I was second. I was never called, and don't know if the person ahead of me on the waiting list was. (If he was, I didn't hear any announcement in the Air NZ lounge in LAX.)

I've had very good luck with upgrades previously, on flights from LAX, SFO, and IAD. In fact, in 3 years as an FC Gold member, I don't think I *once* failed to upgrade after buying an L fare-basis ticket.

All of this leads me to want to learn to do a better job of catching G availability promptly when seats are released. I accept that if I buy an L seat when there's no G availability, I'm taking a risk that I'm paying more than I have to for an economy seat, and that no upgrade will ever materialize. I've not worried about that possibility thus far because it had never happened to me! No longer.

So, a couple questions to anyone who knows more about VS's inventory control than I:

1) Has VS tightened inventory in G this year as compared with in the past?

2) Is there a particular time of day when seats are released to G inventory? Can it happen multiple times per day? Basically, what I want to know is how often I should check and what time of day, to maximize my chances of finding the odd released G seat.

I'm wondering if I should just write a screen-scraping application that logs me into my FC account on the VS web site and checks G availability every 10 minutes using the standard FC web form, and emails or texts me when a seat becomes available...

All advice on how best to find G availability appreciated.

Thanks!

1. I was going to ask the same thing. Recently I've found the availability ex-US to be really really sparse, especially out of NYC. It seems to have got worse since spring, in my experience.
2. I don't think so. What I've noticed is that around about a week in advance they clearly have a good look at the upcoming flights and at that point there is a chance that more seats will be released. But not always...

They do appear to be cutting back on the G fare release ahead of flights. The past couple of times I have flown I have upgraded either the day or so before when their pre flight team call to see if I am ok (still alive and will be flying) or at the airport.. have yet to come across a 'no space' answer.

This is probably due to them wanting to get the most out of the seats - by releasing less G fares it allows them to increase the amount of Js & Ds on offer. These are the real revenue earners, which they really need at the moment.

I have not noticed a logical pattern yet - A rule of thumb that I personally follow; end of the week (Friday) is when I have seen reward fares crop up across the board most, so check on friday afternoon. If no joy, as at240 says, in the week and a bit preceding your flight take a look back as they update at least once every day - no guarantees on availability though n( n(

If you are flying on an 'L' fare ticket it does increase your likelihood of the the op-up (not into UC though). As does being AU..... lots going for you on that front - never give up is my advice y)

Data scraping is an interesting way forward..... takes the fun out of the chase though

If you are flying on an 'L' fare ticket it does increase your likelihood of the the op-up (not into UC though). As does being AU..... lots going for you on that front - never give up is my advice y)

Data scraping is an interesting way forward..... takes the fun out of the chase though [/quote]

The wife and I are booked on an S fare on our SFO-LHR leg of our NZ trip next year, and will be AU so fingers crossed for something.

I have been checking for G's twice a day since booking the flights last month, not sure there's much fun left in the chase.

I know that revenue management is a dark art, but you would at least hope there was a reasonable correlation between the number of FC miles being issued on an annual basis, and the number of reward seats made available.

My worry - hopefully unfounded, is that miles are being thrown around like sweets right now in terms of compensation for any complaint. There are also various bonuses such as the 50%/100% increase for your next 2 flights, and so on which again increases the number of miles in circulation. Does that mean that more reward seats are made available, or are there more people out there with lots of miles that they can't spend because of the lack of increased reward inventory...

VS are cutting capacity by rolling out smaller aircraft (A330's) which may well impact reward availability.

ratechaser wrote:...increases the number of miles in circulation. Does that mean that more reward seats are made available, or are there more people out there with lots of miles that they can't spend because of the lack of increased reward inventory...

There was an interesting article someone posted on here a few months back about the depreciation of miles in airline frequent flyer programs, will repost if I can find it.. or someone else have it to hand?

You are right though, with the increased allocation of miles should come the increased availability of rewards. Unfortunately VS finances won't stretch to allocate more reward seats cross cabins - some routes are more open than others granted but given the amount of seats and aircraft flying certain routes, I would wager there is a set percentage of miles redemption seats initially released into circulation - then revenue management take over ):

I try to only sit on around 250,000 miles in my FC account - given the earning-spending ratio I usually hit, sometimes I transfer miles to partner programs or book random reward flights places. Makes travel cheaper for me, book into economy, pay the taxes and surcharges, then at the airport I usually have the opportunity to upgrade too Why 250K I hear you ask.... well its a nice round number :w ...enough to 'buy' most things and I don't think miles are one of those things you should stockpile for a rainy day, next to the baked beans and iodine tablets

joeyc wrote:
There was an interesting article someone posted on here a few months back about the depreciation of miles in airline frequent flyer programs, will repost if I can find it.. or someone else have it to hand?

Here...

forum/index.php?f=4&t=276840&p=825712&hilit=devaluation&rb_v=viewtopic#p825712

ratechaser wrote:I know that revenue management is a dark art, but you would at least hope there was a reasonable correlation between the number of FC miles being issued on an annual basis, and the number of reward seats made available.

That's interesting -- I don't make that assumption at all. I think they just issue miles in a quite carefree manner (within limits, obviously) knowing that they can always throttle redemption availability depending on predicted loads.