Jenn0625

Does anyone know when VX will be releasing their flight schedule for dates past April 24th? I know there has been a slight delay as AS and VX are still trying to figure some things out, but it should be soon right?

dayone

Perhaps in late September, coordinated with the next stage of AS/VX systems integration?

Jenn0625

Oh wow that would be a huge delay then! I would think they would want to get those flights released as soon as possible to keep people from booking with other airlines....maybe not. I think even Southwest will have their late April-May flights released by then! Good grief.

eponymous_coward

90% of travel is booked within 90 days, according to the folks who did the AA/US merger. Southwest's schedule is only current through March 7. That's less than nine months out. The sky won't be falling if there's nothing for summer 2018 until September (and Virgin America never did full year out schedules in all their years of operation).

sfozrhfco

Even if they released the schedule there is still no guarantee that you will be on a VX plane anyway so either be patient or prepare yourself for disappointment. They are still moving flights from VX to AS and vice versa for flights in the fall. They have already disabled bookings through the VX mobile app and redirect to the VX website which will also soon be gone. A year from now, it is anybody's guess what will happen.

Jenn0625

True. But I had been tracking the release of VX flights for awhile and they seemed to be in sync with AS flights until April 25th, 2018. At that point AS has continued to release flights on a daily basis but VX has ceased. So there was a pattern change. Normally we do not need to book this early but planning a trip to Hawaii next summer so with this trip yeah we are looking to book flights a lot earlier than normal.

It's not so much being on a VX or AS plane at this point but more so the starting point of the flight. There are no direct flights from DAL to HNL so we have to do a stop over. With that in mind we were wanting to spend a day or so in SFO or LAX. VX did have that non stop from DAL on their past routes, AS does not show that on their routes. So no disappointment on what plane so much as not knowing if that route is going to be available.

sfozrhfco

You might end up on a Skywest regional jet, an Alaska plane, or a VX plane and by then there will be no Virgin America app or website so you will have to look for AS schedule releases to book that far in advance. I doubt Virgin will even have the schedule go beyond what it is now and Alaska will just do everything through their own site. By the end of the year, there will be no reason to book anything through Virgin as elevate and all that entails will be gone.

Jenn0625

Alaska is the site I have been going to, that is how I was aware that AS was still releasing flights on a daily basis but VX flights ceased to show up past 4/24/18. I have a AS mileage account and miles. After 4/24/18 VX is no longer an option and only AS flights are available at this point. And that does not include routes to SFO and LAX from DAL, which is what we were looking for. I assumed the reason the VX flights were not continuing to load on the AS website was because AS will be in control completely at that point and not sure what routes they want to continue with those planes. Understandable. But I would hope that regardless of who the actual carrier is that AS would keep those west coast routes.....I was just wondering if anyone knew when and if those would be released. I realize it's still a long way away but AS has continued to release it's own routes daily up to mid June now. Again normally I would not even bother looking at flights this far out but Hawaii is a different beast than other trips and not something that people typically book 90 days out...I don't think anyways. I was just curious if anyone had some more definite time frames that's all.

sfozrhfco

People at AS have no idea yet and nobody here does either. Fleet routing decisions are not going to happen this far ahead. They are still learning about what is working and what is not. If the smaller plane service to DAL fails, they may decide the whole experiment is not working and just withdraw from DAL completely.

Merging fleets, crew, IT systems, etc is a messy proposition. If you want certainty, just fly another airline instead of stressing about it for the next year.

Jenn0625

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my questions. If I gave a vibe of stressing over the next year that was not intended lol. I'm just a avid researcher and I sometimes ask a lot of questions to things I am tying to understand. We have never flown AS or VX before and I am unaware of how these airlines work and was just trying to get a rough draft game plan

Eastbay1K

FWIW, most airlines load inventory @ 330 days, but for the most part, these flights are just "holding spots" and are likely to change (times, flight numbers, sometimes routes discontinued) several times prior to departure date.

formeraa

On the investor call, AS stated that the flights will eventually be released into the AS reservation system. They are apparently working towards this as quickly as possible. Given the inherent difficulty in merging two airlines, it may take longer and, who knows, they might release more dates into the VX system.

eponymous_coward

https://skift.com/2017/07/27/alaska-...rkets-by-2018/

So the answer to "when will the VX summer schedule be published" is apparently "never, it will be the AS schedule".

brettsir

Don't expect the schedule to ever be loaded on the VX side. The single res system switchover is expected a couple months before the end of current schedule.(see AA 90 days claim) Best you can do now is wait for an AS1XXX flight to pop up and book that.

Colin

any news on booking Virgin routes for next summer?