Reward Seats - when are they released?

Hi, does anyone know approximately how far in advance VS release reward seats? I am looking at booking a trip to the Caribbean December time UP class reward and no reward seats are currently available.

I have searched online and notice that the only reward seats available are between Jan - May 2011 (to Barbados) and there are no seats at all between June-Dec 11.

I have just spoken to the Flying Club and have been told that they do not know when seats will be released "just keep checking online...". They checked a few flights in November and no bookings at all in UC and no rewards seats have yet to be released.

Does anyone have prior experience of generally how far in advance do they tend to release them - say 5 months before??

many thanks

[Neil]

There reall isn't a rule or (apparent) system to how and when they are released. Sometimes they are released straight away at the 11month out stage, other times they are none right up until a couple of days before the flight and literally it can be any day in-between.

Popular destinations at certain times of the year, like MCO during school holidays, NYC close to Xmas, reward seats are like gold dust and none might be released at all. Do bear in mindthat the LGW/MAN fleet only have the small UC cabin, and therefore rewards in UC are even harder to find due to less being released in general.

So basically, what you have been told by FC is correct, check back every day because they do suddenly appear.

Good luck
Neil

Thanks Neil, I appreciate your advice
regards
Ollie

I guess I am in a similar position and I am asking if the situtaion would apply to Economy reward flights. I wanted to travel to Washington and back from NYC around the 6th July and back the end of the following week. There are no reward flights showing to Washington but there are flights back from NYC, I was just wondering if there was to be any likely hood of any seats becoming available to Washington in anyones experience.

Thanks

[Neil]

Again, there is a chance, it will depend on how busy the flight is, and it revenue management decide to release some more, all you can do is keep checking.

Your first problem is there is only one daily flight to Washington, so that limits availability. The other issue I see is your dates. Obviously the 4th July is a popular time to be going to the USA, the airlines know this so increase prices and reduce reward availabilty as the chances are the can fill the a/c with revenue paying pax.

Thank you neil for the prompt reply.

I was aware that the 4th July was close to my outward travel date and hence was going to wait a couple of days beyond that before trying to set off. I guess I could always book a return to NYC and maybe get the train down and back to Wshington. A family member is getting married on Saturday 9th July in NYC so we thought that we could perhaps spend a couple of nights in Washington as our time in NYC is pretty much taken up with family events. There is some availability to NYC on the Tuesday so that might be an option.