Does being 'in' a dummy miles booking hold it?

Morning all.
Myself and the OH are off to SFO later this month. I'm in UC, she sadly in Y due to lack of money.
I've been checking G availability and finally this morning one came up for the OB leg. I left myself in the dummy booking and called up to upgrade her with my miles.
By the time I'd done so (literally a minute later) it had gone and apparently they'd 'sold' two G's already this morning.

So my question is - does it make a difference if you're 'in' a booking or not? Just curious.

Cheers
Andy

[Decker]

While you're in it is 'held' until it times out - generally between 5 and 10 minutes.

That's strange then, couldn't have been more than a minute.

[mitchja]

Trying calling back after 10 mins as VS wont be able to see the fares you have just done a dummy booking for either.

Once you start the booking process online, the fare is pulled from the main pool and placed in a seperate holding area only accessable to the online booking system. It will only go back into the pool once the online booking times out.

All ticket reservation systems work this way in order to stop more than one person buying the same ticket at the same time.

Regards

Thanks guys.

I came out of the booking when I was on the phone, went straight back in after he'd told me there was no more Gs and there was nothing showing. Just have to keep on trying I guess - probably end up in a miles-on-the-day job. Not ideal but hey.