Is there a pattern What time do the reward seats get loaded?

Early bird gets the worm and all that but does anyone have any idea at what time the reward seats tend to get loaded for the first time?

Possibly an impossible question, just need to know if I need to be on the PC at 1 second past midnight on the day in question.

Also
As I'm booking 8 seats, is it better to try to book on-line (takes time to fill in all the details) or if I ring do they hold the 8 seats whilst they take the details??

Of course they have to answer the phone proto

There is NO pattern. People have tried to see if there is one then all of a sudden VS change when they release them.

8 seats? I would say you have no chance of getting 8 seats on the same flight being released at the same time.

[Nottingham Nick]

I thought exactly the same as Tonty, but I have just done a dummy booking for 8 pax to NYC in June next year and amazingly Y and PE came back with 8 seats on the dates I asked fro and for Upper I could fly any day but Thursday Friday and Sunday - obviously NYC will have by far the most seats, I wouldn't think it is possible anywhere else, but would be happy to be proved wrong.

Nick

There is NO pattern. People have tried to see if there is one then all of a sudden VS change when they release them.

8 seats? I would say you have no chance of getting 8 seats on the same flight being released at the same time.

So there was a pattern as you said VS changed it

And for your info there are several routes that allow 8 seats to be booked at once, even in UC

Take a look at LHR-ORD

obviously NYC will have by far the most seats, I wouldn't think it is possible anywhere else, but would be happy to be proved wrong.

Thanks Nick, hopefully in a week I will prove you wrong

Several routes seem to be updated by 08:00 every day-well that's the earliest I've checked so far.

And for your info there are several routes that allow 8 seats to be booked at once, even in UC

Take a look at LHR-ORD

Thanks Nick, hopefully in a week I will prove you wrong

Do let us know how you get on. Thanks for the ORD tip; there does seem to be a lot of availability (just not when I can fly).

Can't help with the time of release but just wanted to add that I've managed to get 7 UC reward seats on a Man-Bgi flight a few years ago (7 this was in the 747 so only 14 seats available). I think we booked over the phone.

Do let us know how you get on. Thanks for the ORD tip; there does seem to be a lot of availability (just not when I can fly).

Bagged 8 reward seats (4 UC and 4 PE) on an August outbound LHR-SEA. There were 8 in EACH cabin for Tues-Thurs and usually 4 in each cabin for Frid\Sat\Sun\Mon

Bagged 2 UC for the return-Similar to the above.

Rewards loaded about 05:00-06:00ish daily.

Bagged 6 (1 UC and 5 Y ) for a SFO-LHR return. Seems there's a daily release of 1 UC for each flight and 8 Y. No PE as of yet.
Rewards loaded again early AM.

LHR-LAX None for August
LAX-LHR Daily at about 13:00-14:00 1 UC and 1 Y released.

All booked through Call center as they put tickets on hold as they worked out the details

Used 3 separate accounts and 2 Upgrade vouchers and involved an open Jaw on different dates for some-not all of the party so not a simple process.

Booked over 3 separate phone calls and have 5 different PNR's

Hope to bag the upgrades to PE or UC later in the year.

Majority of the miles used were gained from 4 family members opening Both the Black and White CC when the bonuses were big.

Thanks for that. Good luck with the follow ups.

Thanks for that. Good luck with the follow ups.

Update
I checked UC availability on the return leg (SFO-LHR) a few days ago [as it was a slack day at work pre Xmas ]

Lucky I had a fixed date [as the new rewards Calendar is $£%"&***] so not too arduous

Saw there was at least 1 seat so rang the CS-expecting -and got -a long wait-20 mins??

Inexperienced CS staffer (drafted in to cover huge increase in calls?) finally put me through to the Upper class line (??)
Anyway got ALL 5 Y's upgrade to UC on the SFO-LHR leg as there were 9+ UC reward seats available

Not a simple task as there were 2 PNRs involved and 3 separate FF accounts from which to draw miles.

So despite-or maybe because of- the horrendous IT "upgrade" of both the Web interface and flying club T&C's
there seems to be LOTs of UC rewards from SFO-LHR in August in Mid week.

Happy bunny (well apart from the "taxes") in that I got these final seats before the shameful 50% increase for reward seats to the west coast.

So with the recent shambles of IT, huge hike in FF miles and ever diminishing routes I may have to say Goodbye to Virgin

Having been to all 50 sates in the US I think their time is up for me.

Not that I'm a fan of BA but it looks like Ex-Eu cash fares (on a One World Carrier) and maybe Avios RFS fares are the way forward for us now.

It was good whilst it lasted.