Lack of reward seats

I'm trying to book an Upper Class seat using miles going out 30 May and returning about 5-7 days later. Apparently there are no reward seats available in Upper from LAS, LAX or SFO from 1st till 10th June 2006!.

Any tips? (other than try more dates!!)

Regards

John

[preiffer]

John,

Personally, I'd do the following:

Buy an L ticket (approx. £450), and upgrade it to PE (20k miles) now.
Between now and then, and I mean right up until the day before, keep an eye on Upper Availability for that flight, just in case it opens up.
If it does open up, call FC and "pay" the extra 40k miles to upgrade to J.
If it remains closed, you have an upgradeable ticket type to try your luck at the airport.

This way, at least you're on the flight. Worst option is that you'll be flying PE. Best case, availability opens pre-departure and you can upgrade beforehand to J. 2nd best would be an upgrade on the day, at the airport, on your upgradeable ticket type. [y]


(PS - you'll also earn 13k miles on the revenue element of your "Reward" ticket as an Ag holder...)

[Scrooge]

This was a problem we had last year,we looked 4 months out and nothing.

We were told we could book two seats in PE and MAYBE 2 seats would open up.We ended up on BA,due to the fact that WT+ and VS pe are pretty much the same and BA was a heck of a lot cheaper.

Whenever I call to try and use my miles I am always told sorry everyone books 11 months in advance.

It is becoming nearly impossible to get anything just a few months ahead.

I know this isn't going to be what you want to hear, but you have left it rather late to get award availabilty. You can try what some of the others have suggested but be prepared to travel in the class you book.

Paul

[Scrooge]

To be honest with you,it's a lot better than it was a year ago when DL pax could book reward seats on VS,then it was next to impossible,I have found that the VS call cetners are pretty good at working with you to find a flight,of course it helps ifyour dates are a little flexable and yes,we did book our next reward flight 11 months in advance.

I managed to snag a G fare (PE to Upper) for my flight in March to SYD, and I only booked on Friday.
I did have to push the date out from a Wed to a Sun but as I said got the G. Lucky, who knows....

[Scrooge]

Yep you got lucky,as I siad above,you have to be a little flexible with dates,even when booking 11 months out,but to snag one from SYD is a good thing.

[Decker]

Yup I've been doing well if prepared to fly on non weekend dates!

[preiffer]

Originally posted by Decker
Yup I've been doing well if prepared to fly on non weekend dates!

To be fair, isn't there that hidden rule (that's never really used) about not being able to book reward flights at weekends anyway...? [}:)]

[Scrooge]

no it's not..it's Fri,Sat and Sun...3 day weekends are good,but not in this case.