Eurostar redemption

Hi - looking at the T&C's on VAA Flying Club 'Bookings can be made up to 11 months prior to departure'. Well that's news to me don't fares become bookable until 120 before travel?

Has anyone had any experience with this good or bad? a quick Google search brings up a several unhappy accounts, mainly regarding the 48hr FC call back i.e it doesn't happen.

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Business in Paris, Brussels or Lille? You can spend your Flying Co miles on a Eurostar ticket in Standard Class or Standard Premier and be there in less than three hours from London Waterloo.

Flying Co miles needed:

Destination Standard Class return Standard Premier return
Lille 13,000 26,000
Paris 18,000 30,000
Brussels 18,000 30,000

You can book Eurostar tickets by calling the Flying Co helpline at least 14 days in advance of travel. We'll call back within 48 hours once we've checked availability. Please note that, once booked, a ticket cannot be changed or refunded. Bookings can be made up to 11 months prior to departure.

A Eurostar voucher will then be sent out to the Flying Co Administrator/Secondary Contact within five working days. The voucher will need to be exchanged for a ticket at the Eurostar ticket desk on the day of departure.

It was a few years ago now but we used miles to purchase 2 first class tickets to Brussels.
I don't remember them calling me back, I think it was all booked while on the phone.
Then we got to St Pancras with plenty of spare time and picked up our tickets.
We could not get seat assignments til departure day but not a big issue, although it is nice to have the 2 seats facing each other with no one next to you.
Loved Brussels and Bruges. We went justs before Xmas so all the Xmas markets were on.

Hope that helps

L2H

A Eurostar voucher will then be sent out to the Flying Co Administrator/Secondary Contact within five working days. The voucher will need to be exchanged for a ticket at the Eurostar ticket desk on the day of departure.

Key sentences right there..

I would say think of the VS Flying Co redemption as a blank booking.. no assigned seating or anything, just a request from VS to Eurostar to seat their pax booked on the day of travel. Whether the usual fares have been released for sale is more or less irrelevant given the mileage amount needed remains the same.. suggesting an allotment that VS have on any given day.

Upon confirmation that they still have space in their allotment, they issue a voucher for you to then take along to the departure point and pick up your ticket that has been reserved in the VS block.. I would imagine VS need to give as much notice as possible hence the 14 day limit....

As for the 11month window... a rolling yearly allotment perhaps

I have never booked a redemption on Eurostar before but when spending the company miles on their 'spending partners' it usually takes a few days for the people at Flying Co to get back to you - I think it is a small team (only spoken to a few people and always the same) they must be kept pretty busy :w

Thanks for your help/suggestions.

Personally, I can't see how it would be possible to do this 11 months in advance

A) the fares are not even bookable until 120 days before travel

B) Eurostar would not be in a position to confirm availability see point A

Me thinks its a misprint but I can't be bothered spending 15 minutes on hold to check!

You can spend your Flying Co miles on a Eurostar ticket ... .

It looks to me that you are confusing Flying Co and Flying Club miles - they are different schemes with different rules.

The rules for flying club Eurostar redemptions are
flying CLUB rules

And these state

Please note that reward bookings on Eurostar can only be made up to 120 days before the date of travel subject to reward seat availability.

Possibly as I don't know the diffence I just Googled the T&C and what I originally posted came up. Anyway, I am not the only one confused as the agent I spoke to said that I was cool about it, but he also said that had had another call 6 months ago and that call was completely different.

If you are in Flying Co (it is for businesses) then you know you are and there is a separate phone line for it's members.

So I'll assume that you are just a member of Flying Club and so the T&Cs in the link I posted apply.