Reward flight help!

I have been a watcher of the forum for a while but this is my first post.

I really need some advice re when mileage routes become available. I dont know if I have just struck lucky in the past but am having no joy getting upper class redemptions to Manchester/Vegas return next summer. I have rang and asked about different routes but nothing- even when it was showing as available on the website.

This might be the $64000 question but does anyone have any advice as to when the redemption flights get rolled out? Are they done in stages over months or have I already missed the boat? One rep on the phone told me they had all gone, another that the hadn't been released yet. I am a bit lost and so any advice would be appreciated. Or do I bite the bullet and pay the full price when I have miles to redeem?

Thanks in advance!

supply & demand.
THe chances of a popular route having reward seats over cash seats would be less, compared to a less attractive route.
They could pop up daily. My guess would be there is some sort of algorithm based on previous flight history.

Vegas is probably one of them places that people book well in advance, so probably not a flight that has a flurry of late activity - compared to somewhere like NY or Dubai that is likely to have a lot of business travellers.

Rewards can be released at anytime. You may want to check for any events as well. Especially if there is any big concerts or sporting event.

[Neil]

Summer isn't usually the busiest time to Vegas, and August flights are only just being released currently, so it really is something you should check religiously every day and even if possible 2 or 3 times a day. With the UC cabin being only 14 seats they don't release many reward seats so once they are gone they don't usually release any more.

Although this summer they used an A346 on the MAN-LAS route instead of a 747, with more than 3 times the capacity in UC so reward seats weren't hard to come by.

Whether they'll do the same next summer, who knows - it was to free up a 747 to work the busy MCO routes during the peak holiday period but next year they should have an additional 747 in the LGW/MAN fleet.

Thank you for your help. I will start checking daily and hopefully will get there in the end!

Otherwise I need to start saving.....