Using Flying club air miles

I have been a Gold Flying Club member for many years and always fly Upper class when possible.
In November 2013 I attempted to book flights (EWR-LHR and return for January 2014 using flying club miles but all dates I wanted were blacked out. I then checked to see if I could use the miles in April/May 2014 thinking that 4-5 months advance booking would not be a problem.-WRONG!
As the price quoted by Virgin for my upper class January trip was about $1000 more than BA club class quote for same trip I booked with BA (the first time I have flown the Atlantic with anyone bu Virgin for over 10 years!)
I have just re-attempted to use my airmiles for my April/May trip but again was blacked out. I spoke with Virgin Gold booking on phone and was given vague explanation that Delta people can now use their airmiles with Virgin, so available seats go quickly!
Again due to massive price difference I have booked by flights with BA ($3500 vs $5000) and am becoming increasingly disillusioned with Virgin's attitude towards their good customers. (I am not happy about the cancellation of the Virgin overnight flights from EWR either, as I have no desire to wake at 4:00am and pay a couple of hundred dollars taxi fare to the airport rather than my usual $20 round trip Bus fare from Pennsylvania)

Am I being unreasonable or expecting too much?

The VS2 from EWR will still be a night flight to the UK.

The VS18 remains a day flight.

[Nottingham Nick]

A couple of comments, from one who has spent many hours trying to book Reward flights over the years - usually with a successful outcome I may add (unless you talk about partner bookings, but DON'T get me going on THAT subject v( )

You should start looking as far in advance as possible - usually at the -330 day mark.

Be flexible.

Avoid school holidays on the bucket and spade routes.

Avoid busy days - Fridays and Sundays, if you are looking for G's.

If you need two seats, and you see one on a flight you want - grab -t - there is a good chance another will open up at some stage in the future.

The appearance of reward seats appears random - there is a thread somewhere charting the hours of the day that they open up, but I think it could be any time.

The BIG new factor here is Delta - very much unknown as to how many UC seats Delta flyers will grab - my guess is it will be a lot, so transatlantic G's may become a lot scarcer in the near future.

Some routes have better availability than others - some have next to none.


Good luck.


Nick.

The last few weeks I've seen lots of availability for reward flights this month - maybe they release more if the flight bookings are quiet?

Maybe I got lucky - I booked onto today's SFO-LHR as a G Upper Class reward only on Thursday. ^)

Keep trying - good luck!