Originally Posted by
jd20
Ha, that's rich... when you called them, was it better or worse availability?
I'm probably expecting too much of the CX search, given all the past complaints about their IT department. Digging a bit deeper, I'm also baffled by the Choice and Tailored awards... used to, the higher priority tiers implied better award availability, but now I'm struggling to find a single route where the Choice / Tailored awards offer anything over Standard. It's the exact same award seats, you just pay way more miles (in exchange for being able to book 360 days out, instead of 353). For awards <353 days out, I can't figure out what advantage you get by paying the extra miles... it's almost like an IQ test, to see if you're really paying attention.
Whenever STANDARD is available, then CHOICE is also available. Of course, it would be a stupid selection. But there are many times when CHOICE is available, but STANDARD is not. I have been heavily monitoring flights over the next 10 weeks for several trips, and there are definitely MANY days where CHOICE is available, and STANDARD is not. For example, I looked at CX873 departing the week of Nov 12. On each day you can book a CHOICE (J) seat, but would be waitlisted for a STANDARD seat. If you jump to the following week, and look on Monday 11/19, you can see that a STANDARD (J) seat is available on CX873. Of course, the CHOICE seat is also available, and THAT would be the IQ test you mention. :-) (And all of this could change by the time you read this, but I'm sure you get my meaning.)
I'm not sure I'm following the meaning of "REGULAR". Do you mean "FIXED DATE"? If you are searching were there are multiple days within +/-3 that have availability, then it will display those options. But if nothing is available within that window, it forces you into FIXED DATE, where you must check day by day.
It really is a horrible, cumbersome system.