V-Flyer

Hi,

I was looking a bit of advice on getting to either Vegas, la or San Fran in upperclass return next July for myself and my wife.

Is it realistic that there will be availability or are the summer months a no go? I wouldn't mind flying in and out of any of the three.

I got a good deal and just paid this summer to Vegas but I have a lot of airmiles so would like to make use of them.

I appreciate any advice,

Thanks

For to say I live in Belfast so any uk airport is easy for departure or return!

Welcome to the forum!

Sure - all three of them should have availability over the summer. The best piece of advice I could give is to be as flexible as you can with your dates as there may not be reward seats available on every day.
Regarding Vegas, it's worth noting that the 747s in service on that route have only 14 Upperclass seats, so reward redemptions, especially for two people, might prove more tricky. LAX on the other hand has two services a day, SFO twice daily from LHR and three times a week from MAN.
Unfortunately there's no direct service to any of those destinations from BFS, so you'll need to position yourself to either LHR (which serves LAX & SFO), LGW (for Vegas) or MAN (for SFO & Vegas).
Finally, seats become available for sale/redemption 11 months (I believe?) in advance so you should be able to start looking as of next month!

Best of luck with the search!

Hi and welcome to v-flyer. Never say never on availability of G's. You need to start checking regularly as soon as the dates you're looking for are loaded, some people check 2-3 times per day. If you do a search then save it in your favourites folder you can keep returning and refresh so you don't have to start from scratch every time. Be flexible on dates and prepared to either shorten or extend your trip by a day or two, and be prepared to fly into one place and return from another.

For instance I got 2 G's to LAS in November and the return dates weren't available but I found returns from SFO so turned the trip into a multicity holiday.

There's no rhyme or reason to the way G's are loaded, unlike BA who release a set number at a specific time. So be prepared to pounce when you see something because an hour or two later it might be gone.

Best of luck, and if you're successful please post a victory message; we love to read of poeples' success here.

Hi and welcome Mrherron!

With the Manchester to San Francisco flights starting next April there is currently lots of Reward availability across all classes, and they fly three times a week. If flying to Vegas as Slimpy says there are only 14 UC seats on that flight whether from Manchester or Gatwick - I pounced on mine for 28th May 2017 the day they were released, which was 335 days before.

If flying from Heathrow to San Francisco or Los Angeles I haven't picked up a pattern and then it is very much a matter of keeping an eye out and as both Bretty and SlimpyJones say being flexible on both days and USA arrival and departure airports - in 2015 we flew from Heathrow into Los Angeles, drove to Vegas, flew to San Francisco before coming home, this year we flew from Heathrow into and out of Los Angeles and drove around just a little bit , next year we are flying from Manchester into San Francisco, driving to Los Angeles, then flying to Vegas before heading home .

One thing I have picked up though is that in the summer Reward availability from USA to the UK seems to reduce, presumably as VS are hoping for tourists to the UK in those months - but never say never and if you see them grab them!

Also remember that those very nice people at Flying Club can put G's on hold for you whilst you check leave etc, and you never know the next day a better "date" might be released - that happened to me for our May flights which were originally on hold for March, then we switched to May, and finally we managed to get an extra night!

You 'll need to be flexible and consider say landing in SFO but departing for back home from LAX - or vice versa (plus combinations of LAS as well) and take internal DL/VX flights

You'll also need to be flexible on dates so whist you might like a 14 day trip you might have to settle for 12/13 or 15

And earlier in July will be better than later i.e. before the schools break up for the summer.

ScoobySu wrote:Hi and welcome Mrherron!

With the Manchester to San Francisco flights starting next April there is currently lots of Reward availability across all classes, and they fly three times a week. If flying to Vegas as Slimpy says there are only 14 UC seats on that flight whether from Manchester or Gatwick - I pounced on mine for 28th May 2017 the day they were released, which was 335 days!

Sorry to hijack the thread but are you flying from LGW or MAN , as I've also got a LAS G on the 28th may 2017 ,so if it's from LGW I'll see you at the bar

dragonflyer wrote:Sorry to hijack the thread but are you flying from LGW or MAN , as I've also got a LAS G on the 28th may 2017 ,so if it's from LGW I'll see you at the bar

Sorry dragonflyer but it's our return on the 28th & we're flying back to MAN

Mrherron wrote:Hi,

I was looking a bit of advice on getting to either Vegas, la or San Fran in upperclass return next July for myself and my wife.

Is it realistic that there will be availability or are the summer months a no go? I wouldn't mind flying in and out of any of the three.

I got a good deal and just paid this summer to Vegas but I have a lot of airmiles so would like to make use of them.

I appreciate any advice,

Thanks

For to say I live in Belfast so any uk airport is easy for departure or return!

I guess your planning to visit all 3 cities - so where you start/finish does not matter?
My only 'advice' is, it might be a waste of miles compared to the Ex-Eu/Ex-Dublin trick.
So worth checking (there is a long thread about it here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=287783&hilit=ex+dub&start=525 ) assuming you would fly from Dublin?
Basically UK taxes compared to EU countries is a lot more.

Thanks for the welcome folks and the pointers!

Last year I got a deal from Dublin into San Fran and out of LA (sampled the new lounge there which was only open 3 weeks or so it was very impressive and back on the Dreamliner which was also very nice).

This year I went from Dublin again in and out of Vegas via gatwick the transfer was pretty tight and they lost my case for 4 days.

I was thinking about just paying again but not sure about hedging my bets on the discount fares coming up again out of Dublin and then missing any reward seats that come up not sure what to do about that!

The San Fran option looks pretty good from Manchester, is it a Dreamliner route?

What's the best way to find out if the discount Dublin fares come on?

I wish I found this forum a few years back

Mrherron wrote:The San Fran option looks pretty good from Manchester, is it a Dreamliner route?

At the moment all MAN - SFO flights are scheduled on the A330's - but fingers crossed the rumoured UC refits will be done by next year! And of course equipment changes can happen at any time

Eggtastico wrote:Basically UK taxes compared to EU countries is a lot more.

The main savings arise from different prices from different markets and that is what generates the main savinngs of ex-EU not from not paying APD.

Every time I look at the differences in the fare breakdown (and I have done so several times and posted the results on here) between going ex-Eu and ex-UK the APD accounts for only 15-20 % of the savings. Leaving 80-85% being down to airlines charging different prices for different markets.

ScoobySu wrote:At the moment all MAN - SFO flights are scheduled on the A330's - but fingers crossed the rumoured UC refits will be done by next year! And of course equipment changes can happen at any time

I don't believe MAN crew are trained on the Dreamliner so it'll almost certainly be the A330.

I read somewhere recently that the 330 UC refits (to 787 config) will be done by next April, with the exception of two Gatwick based 330's.

Morning got my outbound flights Heathrow-Lax on the 4th happy days!

Any recommendations on favourite seats? Think I had A5 and 6 last time and they were good!?

Just got to get home now!

I got availability for my return flight home for myself and the wife from La on the later flight (might be able to sleep for a change) which is handy enough!

Well done on getting those G's!!

The consensus on Dreamliner seats is definitely the A side between 1A and 6A - there's a little debate whether 1A is too close to the forward galley but there are no "facilities" forward as they are all by the bar at the rear of the cabin. 7A doesn't have a window.

We were 4 and 5 last year on the way back choose 2&3 out and 3&4 back I'm a bit of a creature of habit and like that area. On the way to Vegas this year it turned into a bit of a session as you are basically sitting at the bar