Reward seat showing available but not actually available to

Long time lurker, first time poster...

Firstly, let me just say as a lurker I have gained some valuable advice on here from a number of you over the last little while so thank you all for your help.

Anyway, point of the first time is post is that I cant see that anyone else has encountered this, or at least I couldn't find it when I searched the board.

OK, so I have an itinerary from London to Barbados return on hold with upgraded seat from economy to upper on the return. I check availability on the return leg and there is plenty of upgrades available for most dates at the time I want to go currently including the day after I currently have on hold.

So, I want to change the reward seat on my hold booking to the following day. I can see it's 'available' using the site's home page checker thing. However when I call up FC they tell me there is no availability on the return on the following day.

Following a bit of to and fro-ing it appears that the web site isn't completely accurate when it comes to reward availability. The guy on the phone told me that they make some reward availability available for the country of origin of the flight only so when I check availability one way it shows available, but when I try to use that availability on my itinerary which originates in the UK I cant have it. It's to do with being fair by allowing residents of the Caribbean opportunity to take those reward seats rather than UK residents grabbing all the upgrades.

I don't doubt the FC agent was telling the truth (and he was as helpful as can be when he's telling you something you don't want to hear) but if this is the case then it invalidates a lot of what I have previously read on here (and been told previously by FC) about how to check for reward seat availability. It essentially means that their system can show you there is a reward seat when there isn't and the only true way to know is by calling them, which is impractical to do on a daily basis when hunting for upgrades.

Has anyone else encountered this before?

Hi poobar1 and welcome to V-Flyer!

Have a look at this thread, it explains a little bit about online reward availability.

The showing availability but holding it off for residents of another country sounds odd to me, and I'm sure that sort of behaviour would be against EU Law (London 2012 wasn't allowed to preferentially sell tickets to those in UK)? I'm sure there is someone on here with much better understanding of these types of things and will be along shortly and ISTBC.

Have had same http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?f=4&t=283662&start=0&rb_v=viewtopic experience VERY frustrating!

Have had same http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?f=4&t=283662&start=0&rb_v=viewtopic experience VERY frustrating!

OK, so at least I'm not alone in having experienced this.

The most irritating thing about this is that I can search reward seats every day and yet I have no idea whether they are available or not unless I spend 20 mins on the phone to check.

I guess for me, I'm going to have to stick with what I've got on hold because I cant wait it out and risk losing the seat I've already got. I'm glad you got rewarded for your patience and nerve though!

I experienced this just last week. I would search for an upgrade in November via the VS website and KVS tool. Both told me there were Gs available in November.

When I phoned FC I was told by multiple agents on multiples dates that there was no availability on my chosen day and one guy even said there was no "Upper class rewards seats between London and New York in November" which is hard to believe but who really ever knows these days?

I ended up having to call them multiple times last week...very frustrating.

I do think it's time for VS to explain this as the current response " Those seats shouldn't be showing up on your country's offerings" is not a great answer. If we are all trying to equitable use our miles for reward seats, surely we are all in the same pool to retrieve them?

I'm not suggesting you've done this for one minute but just saying I have on a couple of times.

I'm regularly checking for an Upper reward on a particular day so all the details come up when I log into Flying Club.
One day I look for something else so when I go back to check my original booking I have to re-enter the details.
I forget to tick one of the boxes and either check for PE or pay with money. Then up come the flights dates I'm after and all excited I phone up to upgrade only to be told they are not available. "But it says they are on my screen" I say.
Then at some point I realise my mistake and eat humble pie.

Dick D

I have done that a couple of times yes, but then I realised that the actual results screen is different if you are paying with money, so it's only the accidentally checking PE with miles that is a problem as you suggest.

We ran out of time for the change so we had to book the previous day as was the itinerary on hold. We've now got to keep checking to see if they release them for the UK market and pay a £100 date change supplement which is a bit of a pain in the backside, but there's nothing we can do about it.

I suppose I shouldn't complain too much, we're still travelling Upper on miles so it'll be lovely whichever day we travel!