ButcherBird

Been thinking about doing a quick trip on FC miles Sydney to Hong Kong return in December. I realise that close to Christmas is a no–go, but plug in some dates early in the month to check availability. Nothing in economy. Decide to have a look at Premium Economy – still no award seats. Okay, lets have a look at January in either Economy or PE. Still nothing. November?, nope – not a single award seat. Okay now I’m intrigued – I start looking for seats in Economy, Premium Economy or Upper Class starting this month and rolling forward. I’m hitting “Your Choice of reward seat is not available…” for every class of award seat for October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June. I finally get lucky when I plug in some dates for July 2010 – the system pulls up the calendar indicating that award seats are available from mid August 2010 (and the good news is that they are available in all classes!).

Basically, the system is telling me that they have no award seats available in any class for 10 months on the SYD-HKG-SYD route.

This is dumb. I’ve been a member of Flying Club for about 2 years and have taken half a dozen flights SYD-HKG-SYD on award tickets. They always have good availability – I’ve been able to fly weekends at short notice and have also secured seats reasonably close to public holidays by choosing to fly mid-week. I checked availability a couple of weeks ago and there were seats available in December and January (and also reasonably close to Easter).

I assumed it was a system fault and fired off an email to customer services via ‘contact us’. This was over a week ago - I have not received a response to the email.

It would seem that on this route it is now necessary to book award seats 10 months (300+ days) in advance !!!!???. Meanwhile they continue to release award seats (one way) on the day of the flight – these aircraft are not full, they have seats available but are choosing not to release them to be assigned to award bookings until the day of departure.

Any ideas what is going on?

topulatis

Try calling to check availability... I just booked a reward flight HKG-LHR and the website showed no availability. There were seats available, however, when I called.

ButcherBird

Thanks topulatis

I tried phoning today, unfortunately with the same result – there is not a single award seat available SYD-HKG-SYD in any class until mid-August.

The phone agent seemed a bit surprised, she agreed that award availability was generally very good. American Express are currently running a 20% bonus redemption promotion in Australia – her suggestion was that everyone had converted their credit card points and snapped up seats. Highly unlikely. They may be converting their points but it does not automatically follow that they will book flights at the same time. Public Holidays, School Holidays, Chinese New Year sure, but mid-week flights in low season?. Virgin Atlantic and AMEX have run the same promotion for the past couple of years and it has never unduly impacted award seat availability.

Virgin Atlantic have one flight a day in and out of Australia (SYD). If Australian based members of Flying Club can’t get award seats on these flights without planning 10 months ahead I would seriously question the value of VS offering a loyalty scheme in this country. I guess it would also be unwelcome news for any UK or Hong Kong members planning to visit Sydney on an award ticket.

I am highly sceptical that all award seats in all classes are fully booked on this route 10 months out (and then award seats suddenly become available in all classes for virtually every flight). I believe it is a system error, but am frustrated when Customer Relations do not respond and nobody appears willing to investigate.

If there are any VS staff monitoring this forum who can help it would be greatly appreciated.

slinky09

Perhaps VS is so popular and people are redeeming miles more frequently in the current economy that this is true ... on popular routes it does pay to plan ahead. It gets a bit much to challenge the whole validity of offering FC to people just because you can't find a flight that suits you.

However, VS recently tweaked their Web site and I have heard that it has knocked off some functionality vis reward bookings, sometimes, on some routes.

I'd try and call the Premier Service team and ask, firstly about UC redemptions then others. See what they say (better to get through to the UK team if you can!).

ButcherBird

Interesting. Can you advise where you heard this?

I went looking for seats approximately 3 weeks ago. Nothing close to Christmas, no flights into SYD in January, but flights were readily available in early December, in February, and there were even flights (mid-week) close to Easter.

The next time I went looking (approx 10 days ago) there was absolutely nothing. That was when I started systematically searching and was unable to any seats in any class for 10 months.

Your suggestion of a recent software upgrade would seem to correspond with the timeline of my experience.


I don’t have access to CX, but QF and SQ still seem to have reasonable availability for award seats. There is no 10 month all classes blackout there.


My comment wasn’t spurred by some hissy fit because I couldn’t find an award seat on a date that suited me. As previously reported I have booked redemption flights on this route about half a dozen times. My observations over approx 2 years are that availability is generally very good – flights are available close to public holidays if booked mid-week etc. Talking to the agent in VS Australia she agreed that availability was generally very good, and yes it did seem a bit unusual, but no there was nothing to indicate that there was a system error.

You report hearing that some functionality has been lost following a software upgrade. Everything about this episode screams system error to me. No seats in any class over a 10 month period is suspect, doubly-so considering that VS normally stands out as offering good availability.

If I’m blowing raspberries at FC it is firstly because Customer Services are not responding to my email, secondly the response from the phone agent is to deny the possibility that a system error could exist. If this situation is regarded as being normal, and all future award bookings will require 300 days plus notice then yes I do question the value of this loyalty scheme.

JohnK

I had the same issue when looking for award seat availability in economy or premium economy in June 2010 for a SYD-HKG return. The only available flights were for August 2010.

I generally find award seat availability for a SYD-HKG return poor on VS....

ButcherBird

They’re baaack !!!!

VS revamped their website last night (Australia). Front page only – don’t appear to have touched the booking engine but magically we now have an abundance of award seats. October, November, limited seats in December and January, then plenty of seats for every month going forward.

Situation normal.

I’m a bit disappointed that I have still not received a response from Customer Services. VS telephone agents in Australia also seem to have been left in the dark and could not offer assistance to FC customers. A simple, honest ‘Sorry …. We’re working to fix the problem’ was all that was required. Refusing to acknowledge a problem or to engage with customers is a bit shabby and unexpected.

Polynesian

@ButcherBird Just spoke with Flying Club who advised the website was being updating and a system glitch meant that availability was being affected!

You should try speaking to customer relations in regards to your concerns. Im sure the two minutes you spent writing your responses wouldve acquired the response you were looking for.

aurigakb

Thank goodness. It would have been really bad to go from excellent availability whenever I have looked before, to nothing showing for ten months!^

kamchatsky

I booked in August 2 * PE SYD-HKG award for early Jan 2010. Plenty of availability in UC at that time in Dec/Jan. Also I looked at March and April 2010, plenty for all classes as well.

A few days ago, my friend told me that they called Customer Service when he encountered the same problem. VS CS said they can still see the awards in their system.

Good to see all the availability is back.

pschafer

Great thread - I too was re-considering FC (transfer from Amex) due to the "sudden" lack of availability - good to see all is well.