Originally Posted by
mitchmu
I started a new thread but my post was moved to this thread.
A key distinction is that I am seeing reductions in all Saver inventory, both close in and far out. I'm simply seeing much less Saver inventory the past few months than I ever saw before, regardless of time horizon.
I don't fully understand your comment about miles and co-pay. Doesn't that strategy require R space, which they've also drastically curtailed?
We all know that they don't fill the premium cabins with paying passengers.
It seems like the only remaining path to sit in a premium cabin, short of shelling out an obscene amount of cash, is to be selected by $mi$ek's SHARES algorithm for an HOD offer.
Ive been able to grab some BF seats a few months ago for flights that were 11 months out. When I recently tried doing so for some friends Zippo showed up (not the same flights or dates as mine are). Another friend grabbed SleasyPass in Y for his son heading overseas for a yr of schooling. @ T-23:55 he was able to get BF saver on the same flight saving a bunch of miles, Saver Y didnt appear
So it seems CO has changed how they did things which before 1/1/13 was to allocate some Saver seats at 11 months out to almost Zippo and only when they see they wont sell them open them to Award and UPs miles & copay.
Yes the UPs need to be in whatever bucket but they also can see if anyones on the WL and then decide what they want to open Award seats or UPs for the $$ and miles. If no one is on the WL then award seats it will be. I have no proof to this just my feelings, that they would rather grab the $$ from the UP then give the seat away for just Miles.
Im sure certain routes they do sell some J,D and Z while others next to nothing at the last min. And I dont blame them for holding back, after all thats where their $$ are. It doesnt work with me since my Game is to grab whatever is available when its available even in Y and to constantly check thuings and switch Dates or Routings whenever something better shows up.Its extremely rare for me to not have 6-12 changes made to each of my Intl Award reses and as a 1K its all Zippo
Its really no different then what LH does with its F cabin, we dont see it till its apx 1 week out and thats if theres anything left, I found even LH holding back on flights that were closer to empty then full but it seems they too are palying the same game as CO is
So I learnt to grab say a JFK-IAD-XXX-YYY which I really dont want but would do if nothing else should open. Then when I see say JFK-XXX or JFK-YYY or JFK-IAD-YYY I switch or should something out of EWR or PHL open that works better.At times its all Zippo even during Off-Peak times.
We need to acknowledge the Game thats being played and learn how best to work with it and around it