What to do at New Year? Faced with our offspring wishing to be with their partners, not wishing to have the "Shall we watch Jools?" conversation and having enjoyed New Year in Boston last / this year I reached for the "spend your miles" button to head for Boston again or NYC at the pointed end.
The clever little grid thing showed no availability for Boston, but was showing we could possibly do a few days in in NYC flying back on New Year's Eve (thus dealing with the "what shall we do?" issue). On clicking the "Show Flights" button I was returned to the home page with a "System Error" message. Initially I put this down to a knackered hamster, but after trying over a few days with the same end result, I opted to phone VS (whatever happened to that neat little "speak with an agent" IM feature?) to be told "the website often shows availability where they may be none when it interacts with the booking system, hence the error message" with a confirmation that they were getting the same result.
B*gger. An evening in the company of the modern day Andy Stewart was looking more likely. It also means that I will have to come up with a new present idea for MrsPJH's upcoming birthday.
Yesterday I looked again, on the basis that reward availability changes and yes, it was still showing availability out and back but thwarting me when I tried to check whether it was actually availability on Delta with a 10 hour layover in Atlanta or something similar. Spurred perhaps by a distant memory of a thread here I opted for a different approach. Two one ways. And yes, there are two seats available on VS001 out and VS002 back.
Rather than trusting to luck and finding that I book one and then find the other gone (or otherwise denied) I opted to phone VS an explain what I was trying to do. "That's odd that it doesn't allow you to do the return" said the agent "but yes I can book that combination for you". And so we went through the process, during which I was asked whether MrsPJH had a Flying Club account as they'd pick up her name details from that. I passed over said details, the tickets were issued and I could assign the seats (A346 both ways). I then began planning how to spring the surprise come birthday time, possibly accompanied by a relevant card from the excellent Dean Morris collection.
Feeling ever so slightly smug I returned home only to have MrsPJH say "I've just received an email from VS...what seats are we getting?".
B*gger (again). Clearly the act of pulling up MrsPJH's Flying Club membership had triggered an association with the booking and an email. Surprise gone out of the window. On the upside, a delighted MrsPJH (if a little early), more time for her to spend time looking for hotels. On the downside I now have to think of another present....
The clever little grid thing showed no availability for Boston, but was showing we could possibly do a few days in in NYC flying back on New Year's Eve (thus dealing with the "what shall we do?" issue). On clicking the "Show Flights" button I was returned to the home page with a "System Error" message. Initially I put this down to a knackered hamster, but after trying over a few days with the same end result, I opted to phone VS (whatever happened to that neat little "speak with an agent" IM feature?) to be told "the website often shows availability where they may be none when it interacts with the booking system, hence the error message" with a confirmation that they were getting the same result.
B*gger. An evening in the company of the modern day Andy Stewart was looking more likely. It also means that I will have to come up with a new present idea for MrsPJH's upcoming birthday.
Yesterday I looked again, on the basis that reward availability changes and yes, it was still showing availability out and back but thwarting me when I tried to check whether it was actually availability on Delta with a 10 hour layover in Atlanta or something similar. Spurred perhaps by a distant memory of a thread here I opted for a different approach. Two one ways. And yes, there are two seats available on VS001 out and VS002 back.
Rather than trusting to luck and finding that I book one and then find the other gone (or otherwise denied) I opted to phone VS an explain what I was trying to do. "That's odd that it doesn't allow you to do the return" said the agent "but yes I can book that combination for you". And so we went through the process, during which I was asked whether MrsPJH had a Flying Club account as they'd pick up her name details from that. I passed over said details, the tickets were issued and I could assign the seats (A346 both ways). I then began planning how to spring the surprise come birthday time, possibly accompanied by a relevant card from the excellent Dean Morris collection.
Feeling ever so slightly smug I returned home only to have MrsPJH say "I've just received an email from VS...what seats are we getting?".
B*gger (again). Clearly the act of pulling up MrsPJH's Flying Club membership had triggered an association with the booking and an email. Surprise gone out of the window. On the upside, a delighted MrsPJH (if a little early), more time for her to spend time looking for hotels. On the downside I now have to think of another present....
We can get better, because we're not dead yet
. Have a great trip
