dirtnap101

I am looking to fly EWR-LAX one way on Aug 23rd, 2015. Recently this date became available to choose at virginamerica.com. Virgin America seems to have 3 daily nonstop flights from EWX-LAX (Flights 161, 165 and 169). The only one that works for me is Flight 161 at 9:10am.

When 08/23/2015 first became available, it showed only flights 165 and 169. 8/22/2015 also did not have all three flights but it is missing flight 169 and shows 161 and 165.

Every other day in August 2015, they show all three flights, including Aug 24-27th. So not a change in schedule or removing flights entirely.

Then I checked their nonstop flights from LAX-EWR. They normally have 3 but on 08/22/2015 they only have one listed.

Is this normal? Some sort of plane maintenance where they drop regular flights from the schedule for just one day? Do I bother to wait to see if the flight I want shows up, or should I just book another airline?

When I called Virgin America reservations the agent initially told me it's because Flight 161 only operates weekdays. I pointed out it was available every other weekend in August. Then they said they weren't sure and couldn't speculate on if it would be available.

I just checked weekends the rest of spring/summer 2015. Flight 161 is not available on the following days: Jul 4/5, May 31, May 24, May 17, May 10, May 3, April 26.

So it seems like it's not offering Flight 161 on Sundays up until June. Not sure why it's unavailable Jul 4/5, but available all of June, the rest of July and all of August except 23rd. Is it just a flight they add for the summer season?

gooseman13

Things could change, this is really only a preliminary schedule. I do generally see them reducing Saturday night/Sunday morning flying so it may be a flight that doesn't operate. In general, I think booking a flight this far out is unnecessary unless there is a particularly great fare sale going on.

dirtnap101

Thanks for the input gooseman! I don't fly a lot, and when I do it's generally very popular non-stop routes, so I like to buy as far in advance as possible as I usually only see prices go up, even factoring in the cost of "cancel for any reason" trip insurance for my family.

gooseman13

No problem. My general (perhaps unscientific) view on this is that airlines sell very few seats 10 months out. Generally two things control the price that you see: the actual prices set by the airline, and the availability of each price level. This far out, I would be confident in saying that prices won't increase due to availability going down - there just aren't that many buyers so far in advance. So if you're going to buy far out, make sure you're doing it while the airline is having a sale rather just selling it lowest "rack-rate" fare. For example, on EWR-LAX I probably would expect to see the fare drop to $149 at some point in the next few months during a sale. Of course no guarantees, but it would surprise me if it went up before the end of the year.

gooseman13

Also keep in mind that if you get the VX credit card, change fees are waived. Makes it a lot more palatable to make speculative bookings.

dirtnap101

Thanks man, interesting points especially about the credit card. However I don't think they will be offering that 9:10am flight I need, I think they only keep it for the summer. United right now is at $189 for a one way to LAX that meets all my needs, except the fact that it's not Virgin America I will hold off for a bit and see what happens though.