chistery

I was about to book a flight SFO-SEA in October, but since I last checked a few weeks ago, all flights seem to now show only a refundable F fare, so the price has jumped up.

Looking at prices for flights in Feb, there are lower prices, so have they changed their policy to only offer refundable fares until a few weeks before the flight?

VegasGambler

I've had this problem in the past. I can't really figure out what their pattern is. I just waited, and eventually some much cheaper non-refundable fares become available, and I bought.

chistery

I guess I'll wait, but whilst I understand some fare buckets may sell out, this now seems to be every flight. Will wait and see what happens nearer the time and have a backup plan ready.

Eastbay1K

I just booked an SFO/JFK in J on AA because I wasn't willing to risk that a decent discounted VX F fare wouldn't go into inventory at some point.

MikeBOS

I just got off an SFO/JFK AA flight in J and the hard product beats VX F by a mile. Far superior lie-flat seat, comparable entertainment, and much more space. There is no comparison, IMHO.

VegasGambler

This is a bit of a noob question, but what does "hard product" vs "soft product" refer to?

gaobest

Hard - seat, leg room.
Soft - service, food

The lie-flat seats on aa / ual are even better than LH BarcaLounger seats, except soft service is always better. Well usually :-). I think VX soft is better even though I've not flown VX since 09!

Eastbay1K

I just flew AA eastbound and VX westbound on the route. No question that the AA seat is better, but I probably enjoyed the VX flight a bit more.

GrayAnderson

I'll concede that other airlines probably have better products on the NYC-LAX/SFO routes. Where I've found that VX shines is that they also have the product WAS-LAX/SFO, LAX-MCO, and...well, everywhere else. WAS is more convenient for me...and since I'm not in a mood to split my business several ways, VX wins out across the board.

VegasGambler

People talk a lot about lie-flat seats. If I'm on a red-eye, I'd absolutely prefer a lie-flat, but, if I'm flying during the day, I see that as a useless feature. I just want a comfortable leather recliner.

NEMMIE

Having the same issues as OP. All seats look to be available yet only refundable fares in the region of $1750 on the LAX-MCO route. Last year they were $500.

Colin

Using Expert Flyer, I am noticing very odd premium cabin inventory on Virgin America. Looking around at LAX-BOS/DAL/CUN starting June 2015 onwards (for instance), I see:

All flights show C1. C is mid-range discount first. This is typically C5 or C6 for far out flights with no other first bookings.

All flights show D0. D is deep-discount first. This is typically D4 for far out flights with no other first bookings.

This change happened in the past month. My guess is this is a mistake. On the LAX-DAL route, one-way first is $900 in J, $700 in C, $500 or lower in D. There is no way VX will sell all but one of its 8 first class seats for $900 on this route.

Expert Flyer for LAX-DAL VX on June 17th - all flights show:
J7 C1 D0 W7 Q3 Z0 Y7 V7 B7 H7 E7 U7 M7 I7 L7 S0 N0

VegasGambler

This is common with VX. I'm not sure if it's a "mistake" or just a not-very-sophisticated inventory pricing algorithm. They seem to start with all F seats being full-fare, and then release seats into cheaper buckets one at a time, as the travel date gets closer.

It's kind of annoying but I've managed to work around it.

Colin

Less than one month ago, I booked two deep-discount D first class fares at near end of schedule. I was monitoring flights using Expert Flyer for adjacent days. All flights showed were ~D4ish. Something is different now.

VegasGambler

I've seen this before, though (more than a month ago). I think it is dependent on travel dates.

They certainly do this for dates when they expect heavy travel. Sometimes it pops up for days that aren't obviously going to be busy though. Perhaps their algorithm is using some historical data and giving it too much weight?