Originally Posted by
cityflyer369
Are you suggesting that as a Flying Blue member one should carry out a query via all ST FFPs that the KVS tool can query, in the hope that one of these programs shows award availability that Flying Blue can find only via "Long Selling"?
Yes, if the FB Engine has a technical issue with a particular carrier/route, then a different Engine should be used.
Originally Posted by
cityflyer369
To me this approach seems to rest on the assumptions that (a) there is a type of award seats (let's call them "ST awards") that are available via all ST FFPs. (With ST FFPs typically offering more seats on their own airline to their own customers, on top of those available to all customers of all other ST FFPs.)
This has already been addressed in Post #21 above.
Originally Posted by
cityflyer369
And that (b) Flying Blue's search machine gives only an incomplete record of these "ST awards", but that other FFPs may have a record of award seats that is more complete, at least partially so.
That is correct.
Originally Posted by
cityflyer369
In other words: I doubt that the concept of "ST awards" exists in a way similar to *A awards. But I am happy to hear about it if I have overlooked anything over the past 10 years.
There is no conceptual difference between *A & *S Partner Awards, but *S is more prone to technical issues with Partner Award Availability.