Reward seat discrepancies: internet vs phone

Many of us have seen a G online, only to discover it's not actually there when we phone up to snag it even if we're looking at the G whilst on the phone.

I was given quite a detailed explanation for one reason this might happen by a VS FC customer service agent last night. I was looking for some NYC-LON M-G seats, so I'll use that as my example.

She said it's because for r/t bookings there are separate/discrete (and perpetually shifting) allocations for US-originated reward seats, and for UK-originated reward seats.

Frequently I look at one-way dummy bookings to see what reward seats are available. I saw one G each on my two preferred flights (JFK-LHR; LHR-EWR) and phoned up, only to find the inbound leg of the US-originating r/t (LHR-EWR) wasn't available... except that it would be available if that leg was an outbound sector of the r/t (i.e. a UK-originating r/t). There was nothing she could do about it!

I'm sure some people here know this already, but it was a surprise to me!

I do recall a discusion a few years back about this. I believe it was roadrunner who ran into problems booking rewards flights to and from Boston for the same reason... will have a look to see if I can find the thread.

Yes, it's been discussed here before albeit a while back.

The moral of the story is when looking for reward seats, always search (and if necessary book) individual legs rather than a return.

Sadly that's not possible with M-G upgrades though, as they have to be returns to qualify for the cheaper fares.

Just as VS (and all airlines) charge different fares in different markets, so they also have different reward availability in different markets.