Asiana Club - What is Going on With OZ *A Award Availability?

I've been trying to book OZ out of ICN within Asia using UA miles. Everytime I use the ANA search tool, it returns all flights with "-" as "Not applicable." I then called 1K desk and was told OZ wasn't making these flights available for awards (Note, it's different than not having availability). The reservation agent said that the only way to get seats on those flights is to purchase.

What gives :confused: What is OZ blocking so many flights for *A redemption? :confused:

What are the dates you are looking for? OZ has several blocks of peak seasons where they charge 50% peak surcharge on mileage redemption to their own members and I heard that they simply don't make any seat in those periods available for *A award.

For example, Dec. 7 to Dec. 21 is one of those peak season block. The peak seasons change yearly according to Korean holidays, many of which are (like New Year and Fall Holidays) based on lunar calendar. Refer to OZ website for 2008 and 2009 peak season blocks.

As you know, there're several black out date on OZ.. You can find black out date at us.flyasiana.com

And some route has no first class such as SFO-ICN, SEA-ICN..

Last, there're only one first class award ticket per flight.. Only limited route such as JFK-ICN, LAX-ICN sometimes have three seats on 1st class award..

As a loyalty customer of Asiana, it's too hard to book 1st class with mileage..

As others have commented above, if all classes show "-" then it is very likely to be a peak (for OZ members) / blackout (for everyone else) period and varies each year.

With OZ it seems there is more peak periods than standard days.

With OZ it seems there is more peak periods than standard days.

I understand your frustration, but it's not really that bad. From OZ webpage, the peak/blackout dates are:


2008
Domestic 1/1~1/4, 2/5~2/11, 7/16~8/24, 9/12~9/16, 12/30~12/31
International
Segment departing from the U.S. : 5/17~6/30, 12/6~12/21
Segment departing from the area other than the U.S. : 1/1~1/15, 2/1~2/7, 7/17~8/18, 9/12~9/14, 12/27~12/31

2009
Domestic 1/1, 1/23~1/28, 7/17~8/23, 10/1~10/5, 12/30~12/31
International
Segment departing from the U.S. : 5/15~6/30, 12/11~12/23
Segment departing from the area other than the U.S. : 1/1~1/15, 1/20~1/26, 7/17-8/18, 9/26~10/2, 12/27~12/31


Basically, it's based on travel patterns of Koreans. US-departure dates aim Koreans in the US (mainly students) going home for Summer and Winter break and the others aim tourists in Korea.

I understand your frustration, but it's not really that bad. From OZ webpage, the peak/blackout dates are:



Basically, it's based on travel patterns of Koreans. US-departure dates aim Koreans in the US (mainly students) going home for Summer and Winter break and the others aim tourists in Korea.

It still means there are almost 9 weeks in a year which are not available includinga big part of the northern summer.

Since there is no mechanism across Star Alliance to charge higher miles during certain periods or on certain flights, OZ don't exactly have a lot of choice in the matter. If they impose peak season rates on their own members but allow other Star carriers to use the reward seats for the same amount of miles as usual, that wouldn't be fair either.

It's frustrating, but I'd rather be working around OZ's blackout periods than SQ's blanket ban on 77W/A380/345 or other airlines that release ridiculously small numbers of seats for rewards and then have no availability throughout the year.

There's also (in addition to the limited OZ availability) a fair amount of Starnet blocking on OZ flights (using UA miles). I have a trip booked in OZ F but the dates arent ideal. The ideal dates pop up with F availability on the ANA tool but every single time the 1K desk cant see the flight.

Since there is no mechanism across Star Alliance to charge higher miles during certain periods or on certain flights, OZ don't exactly have a lot of choice in the matter. If they impose peak season rates on their own members but allow other Star carriers to use the reward seats for the same amount of miles as usual, that wouldn't be fair either.

It's frustrating, but I'd rather be working around OZ's blackout periods than SQ's blanket ban on 77W/A380/345 or other airlines that release ridiculously small numbers of seats for rewards and then have no availability throughout the year.

Totally agree with this - especially the second paragraph. ^

Since there is no mechanism across Star Alliance to charge higher miles during certain periods or on certain flights, OZ don't exactly have a lot of choice in the matter. If they impose peak season rates on their own members but allow other Star carriers to use the reward seats for the same amount of miles as usual, that wouldn't be fair either.

Fair would be to do what the other Star Alliance carriers do: Offer the same amount of seats for the same "price" throughout the year. UA, LH, AC, TG don't block award seats just because it is Christmas or Thanksgiving either.

Airlines don't offer the same quantity of seats across all dates/seasons, they manage their award inventory based on projected sales. OZ uses a crude tool, the more nuanced approach would be to manage inventory at the flight rather than the date level. But if they didn't have these dates and zeroed inventory instead (or offered the occasional stray seat) it wouldn't be all that different in practice.