Originally Posted by
JJ804
Question regarding dummy booking of the return leg that's not yet available to book: has anyone done the dummy leg before the outbound, then switched it later to after? Seems like it would be necessary in order to book the outbound on T-330.
Example: let's say I want to fly to Japan next year from July 8-18. I can book the July 8 outbound on August 6, 2019. On August 6, can I call and book TYO-USA for July 6 and USA-TYO for July 8, then once booking for July 18 opens up, call and change TYO-USA from July 6 to July 18? Can I do that even though it would technically change which is the "outbound" and which the "return"?
1) According to my calculations, July 8, 2020 - 330 = August 13
2) Flyertalkers have told me directly that yes, they were able to switch the order; and no, they weren't able to.
But why bother? Instead, call August 6 and put a hold on just as you described, but don't finalize. On August 7, call back and change the reservation with a dummy return for July 9 in the "right" direction. The only risk is that VS isn't able to switch the order, has to release your hold, and the award availability disappears. But you also run that risk if you fully ticket in the wrong order and then try to switch it.