Upper Class reward flights not available in July

Having finally accumulated enough miles for a Reward flight I am planning on taking a LHR-LAX flight mid July before hoping over to Vegas
Virgin’s website seems to have most dates available all year on this route except the period from the last week in June to first week in August when absolutely nothing is available.

Does anyone know why this would be? Have these dated just not been entered yet or is it something peculiar to that time of year that flights are not available?

Thanks in advance.

Would suggest its likely due to start of School holidays throughout mid July, amongst other things. It's also a popular route, so likely the G's that were available have been snapped up earlier..

NH

[Neil]

Welcome.

There are only a limited number of reward seats on each flight, and it is highly likely that they just have all been booked. It is a popular time to head to the states with the 4th July weekend.

Reward seats are usually released close to the 11 month date when the flights go on sale, so it is unlikely they just haven't been released yet.

Do keep checking though, as reward seats do become available at any time, so if the loads are light, revenue management might decide to release some more.

Have you looked at SFO as an option and doing an internal down to LA or Vegas?

Thanks,
Neil

[Pete]

Surprising that the LAX route isn't showing any availability. The direct Vegas route I can understand, as that only has 14 Upper Class seats, but there should be approx 40+ on the VS07 & VS23.

Might be worth checking availability on ExpertFlyer (you should have a bunch of free queries if you check your profile page on here) - if there's lot of availability for sale, it could be that revenue management just haven't released reward seats yet. If the flights are all looking stuffed, then maybe it's just a case of they've all gone already (although that scenario does seem unlikely).

[Nottingham Nick]

Agree with NH and Neil - bet the G's are long gone. University term has ended and you are getting into peak holiday season.

There is VERY limited LAX availability, but seems to be plenty into the East Coast. If you are determined to hit Vegas this summer, it maybe worth considering going into BOS / NYC and getting a cheapie on VX, Jet Blue, SouthWest or other US internal airline - you could even boost your mileage balance with VX.

Nick

[Neil]

West Coast G availability seems to have been low for a lot of this year. When I was booking some for my parents for Sept/Oct dates were limited and this was back in November time, and things haven't changed since.

Maybe VS are being more stingy with their allocation?

Thanks for the comments.
When I spoke to the Virgin people on the phone the operator said that all he could tell was that no-one had yet booked a reward flight on those dates so either they had not gone up yet or just were not available at all.

SFO is worse than LAX.

ExpertFlyer says availability is R9 - wish I knew what that meant ?| .

I can understand that this is scholl holiday time although Im not going out until the 9th so 4th July stuff should be over. Surprisingly the M+M is a fairly modest £1491.

Didnt particually want to do the East coat option it seems a waste of 100,000 airmiles for a 7Hr flight when the connection is going to be 4-5Hrs.

Guess Im going to have to stop being tight and go M+M

[Nottingham Nick]

This has clearly been a strange year for Rev Management.

I used to preach the mantra that it is best to book reward seats as far in advance as possible, as this has always worked for me.
The facebook team deny there has been a change of policy, but it is clear that less reward seats are available when the booking opens, and they appear at strange, unpredictable times through the year.

I am going to Seattle on the West Coast in May in PE on rev tickets and found it a lot cheaper to go via BOS than SFO / LAX. ?|

There are a lot of reports on here, and other websites, of VS being far more expensive than BA on a lot of routes - but especially west coast routes this year. The exception to this seems to be M+M fares, where some bargains have been reported.

I would like to think rev management know what they are doing - the proof to this will be in the Summer '11 loads I suppose.

Nick

[Neil]

ExpertFlyer says availability is R9 - wish I knew what that meant ?| .

R9, means that there are at least 9 seats left that they are willing to sell in the R fare code.

You can find info about what it all means in the fare codes section of the site. It explains about each fare code and also about EF and the results it gives.

There is availability coming back from LAX on several dates in July. And, unusually, there is G availability going out to LAS direct on the 10th.

You could consider booking 2 one ways instead of a RT, maybe flying into an east coast destination (45,000 miles one way G and loads of availability) and then a LAX-LHR return for 50,000. The VX trip from New York to LAX is pleasant and feels like a very short 4 - 5 hours.

Regards
R3dV

There are still M+M flights available at amazing prices on that route. About a month ago, I booked LAX-LHR UC ret in July, for $2282. Prices have risen slightly since then, but are still a bargain. By comparison, the lowest Y fare at the same time is around $1300, and the lowest PE fare is $2500. But if you were planning a reward flight, then $2300 (or the UK equivalent) may be more than you wanted to spend.

[Scrooge]

Call the flying club, have them check availability on NZ.

From my experience trying to book a G fare for my gf in April, the available dates seem to change on a daily basis and more become available the closer we get to April. Most of February and March can be booked.

Of course, July is a different beast.