gumshoe wrote:There is no apparent pattern for the release of reward seats. They can appear at random at any time from the day the flight goes on sale right up to the day before departure.
Availability on return flights from the US, however, is notoriously elusive, particularly in UC where demand is greater on overnight flights because of the flat beds.
The key is patience and persistence. If you keep checking for availability, daily if possible, your chances are good as many V-Flyers will testify.
I second this advice - we normally travel MAN-MCO-MAN in May, outside of the school half term week. In our experience, there is normally one "full" Upper Class return released not long after the flights go on sale - which we nab. There will then often be an outbound UC / inbound PE released a bit later - again, nab it.
Then it is a case - as gumshoe says - of checking daily for the inbound Upper Class reward to appear. We have yet to be let down too - sometimes it has appeared months out of travel, sometimes very close to departure. We have been lucky in that we have never departed the UK without knowing that both flights were in Upper Class.
On the LGW/MAN routes as long as you are looking for reward seats outside of school holidays, the availability is not that bad - in PE / Y. Upper Class has the problem that there are only 14 seats, so there will never be many released for miles a long time out - but as departure day looms and the if the flight is empty....
