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VX Partner Award Availability on VS

PostPosted: 13 Dec 2014, 08:18
by GrayAnderson
I'm trying to get a handle on how much availability partner award space there tends to be on the US-LON flights for UC tickets. I checked with the Delta booking engine (it's the best choice I have for checking non-VS award options) as well as with VS's website, and what I generally get is the following:
-Very thin availability SFO-LON (20 days in the first six months of 2015 per VS's website)
-Very thin availability MCO-LON (11 days in the first six months of 2015 per VS's website, 9 of which are in late June and which probably coincide with VS running a larger fleet to/from MCO)
-Moderate availability IAD-LON (39 days in the first six months of 2015 per VS's website, with a modest bias towards the winter/spring)
-Similar availability BOS-LON (38 days in the first six months of 2015 per VS's website)
-Extreme availability NYC-LON (19 days in January alone per VS's website, and 20-21 days available per DL's website...though DL's was a mild pain to use and it is plausible that I counted a day twice or that some availability changed; 21 days of 28 in Feb per VS's website, 29/31 in Mar, 27/30 in Apr, 26/31 in May, and 28/30 in Jun for about 150/181 days of availability...as well as substantial availability in December (including spaces on 5 of 6 flights for today as of about midnight, and space through 12-16 and 12-23 to 12-31 per DL).

Does all of this sound about right and/or does VX have significantly less access than DL?

Re: VX Partner Award Availability on VS

PostPosted: 24 Jan 2015, 09:44
by poggsuk
THats actually better than most years.

Availability is good at the moment. Usually its a bit less than that. Im impressed you found 11 days from MCO though. Those are extremely rare.

Re: VX Partner Award Availability on VS

PostPosted: 24 Jan 2015, 10:05
by etk
Not sure how it maps to VX but trying to redeem VS miles on DL I found that the availability was different (read "less") than what was shown on the DL website. It took a phone call to flying club to find out what was open to book with flying club miles.

Re: VX Partner Award Availability on VS

PostPosted: 27 Jan 2015, 18:04
by MarkedMan
It can also change back and forth quite a bit on the longer US routes, SFO and LAX. LAX got a whole lot harder this winter from what I can see with VS going down to one flight. I'm on a VX challenge to Gold and a couple of weeks ago a G popped up for SFO-LHR so booked a PE S and upgraded (had some miles left from way back when). I was coming back into NYC, that was no prob at all. I did see a lot of variability on the SFO route from week to week.