LA The land of no return

I'm planning a trip to LA next April / May and want to spend 100,000 points for UC. (First time UC. Trip of a lifetime etc)

I realise that seats tend to get released closer to departure so I wasn't that surprised to find very little availability. Well, outbound there are quite a few, but none for return.

So, to put my mind at ease and to confirm that seats are released as time goes on, I checked back in Feb and March and there is only one return flight in UC. Moving back towards November this year there is also nothing available coming back in UC. I find this both strange and frustrating.

What's even more strange is, if I look for a certain date span and get availability on those dates, changing the span to one or two days either side does not give me the calendar to choose, just a message saying "Nothing available". Surely it should give the calendar to choose the date that I know is available?

Can some kind soul enlighten me?

Thanks a lot.

L

[Neil]

Hi and welcome.

Reward seats and their release are one of life's great mysteries. Gone are the days when the flights were released that an allocation of rewards seats were released also. Nowadays they tend to be released at any random time/date right up until the flight date. As for the VS IT system and it's workings, that is an even greater mystery.

Unfortunately if you are looking for a full miles G it might nit be that easy to book in one go. We recently did a flight to LAX and back from SFO using miles (although we upgraded from a paid economy fare not a straight reward), when we booked last November only the return flight had UC miles seat, then on Xmas eve, some PE reward seats became available so we upgraded to them, then on the 25th June the UC miles seats became available.

The whole process took a lot of checking (2/3 times daily I would check for UC seats) and a lot lot patience. Don't get me wrong, with flexibility on travel dates it can be a lot easier than my experience.

Hi Neil.

From what you're suggesting it sounds like the economy fare I buy would have to be the flexible one with the ability to upgrade, which would be a small fortune.

The price of flexibility, as well as having to check the website many times a day, is possibly not getting the accomodation at the other end due to last minute changes.

I might have to forget about the points and just buy an economy fare. I'll keep an eye in it for a few months though.

L

The G avaiability ex West coast USA has been very poor for sometime and I've moaned about it several times here ( availability from other US gateways isn't brilliant either). There is virtually nothing LAX/SFO for next year save for the odd date ! .
I'd look at booking the G out and either a flexible Y seat or miles Y/ PE seat for the journey home so that if a G does appear you can get it booked pronto. I'd hoped that reward availability search function would improve with the website development tha VS have done ( albeit it's taken them years).
Unfortunately it hasn't .
Good luck.
DL

You can often find return tickets to LA in the cheapest upgradeable economy bucket (M) for about £800, so I guess it depends on your definition of a small fortune. To me, that's not a bad price if you can find reward seats as a cash UC fare outside sales typically comes in at well over £3k.

Why are UC reward seats harder to find on UK-bound flights than US-bound ones? Well as Neil says it's a dark art, but I suspect it's because there's more demand for UC and its flat beds on the long night flights than there is on the day flights. I know there are companies that won't allow business class travel on a day flight but will on a night flight. So if VS know they can sell more UC seats for cold hard cash on the night flights, they won't release as many reward seats.

Having said that, anecdotal evidence suggests it's often possible to use miles to upgrade at the airport if there are still unsold seats in UC, so that's always worth considering if Gs don't crop up. But they often do, at random - it's just a case of being persistent because clearly demand outstrips supply.

[Neil]

Hi Neil.

From what you're suggesting it sounds like the economy fare I buy would have to be the flexible one with the ability to upgrade, which would be a small fortune.

The price of flexibility, as well as having to check the website many times a day, is possibly not getting the accomodation at the other end due to last minute changes.

I might have to forget about the points and just buy an economy fare. I'll keep an eye in it for a few months though.

L

Just to clarify, you don't need the full flexible economy fare (Y) to upgrade with miles, as mentioned above, you can buy an M class economy fare and that is eligible for upgrading with mile. While an M fare will cost you more than the cheapest economy fare, it won't be anywhere near as expensive as the fully flexible Y fare code that the main search engine on the VS site gives you.

This page on the VS site lets you select specific fare codes so that is a better search engine to use if looking to buy a fare that can be upgraded with miles.

Thanks,
Neil

I got my west coast G's for next June/July by booking exactly on the release date of the flights 335 days ahead, got a pair of G's no trouble in both directions. ( I'm coming back from Miami, but G's were avail from lax and sfo also.) booking early worked well for me.

........
This page on the VS site lets you select specific fare codes so that is a better search engine to use if looking to buy a fare that can be upgraded with miles.

Thanks,
Neil

OK. Thanks Neil. I remember this page from a while ago and thought it had disappeared.

L.