watsonville

Have a longhaul trip in WT+ soon. No availability to upgrade to CW. Fair enough. But I was wondering, do spaces ever get released a week before the flight etc?

madfish

Yes. Can appear at any time, and sometimes a day or two before travel.

mikeyfly

I have found a lot less of this with J longhaul recently.

However, Y/J on shorhaul still comes up loads on day / day before.

Vinotraveller

Back in April 2016 I managed to miss my VRN-LGW flight. Made a mad dash to VCE and did a quick check on the app as I arrived there (about 2 hrs prior to departure). To my surprise I was able to get us two reward tickets in J. By that point the Y single fares were around 400 Euros each so it was a great relief.

Behindthecurtain

On my regular MOW-LHR I find it is there for a period, disappears and appears a few days before again

port21

Yes I often see on the day availability released, usually when I have Seat Spy or Reward Flight Finder alerts enabled.
You can also use expert flyer for more specific or timed releases.

Joeykins

A few years ago I missed a FRA-LHR flight due to a combination of S-bahn delays and then (what felt like deliberately) slow security at the gate. It was a work trip and for a number of reasons I was afraid of drawing their attention to this as well as being less aware of the airline's processes and my own rights. I didn't even get as far as speaking to any of the ground staff before I saw that there was a reward flight saver option departing in a couple of hours so just booked myself on to that and glossed over the whole thing.

g289t

Are the mileage costs ever different for last minute reward availability?

alexwuk

Not as of yet. The avios scheme doesn't currently use dynamic pricing. Alex Cruz has suggested this will change in time.

As for the OP's question: nowadays in general it is very common to see last minute avios availability appear on shorthaul flights and increasingly rare on longhaul.

dnajockey

Another observation that agrees, my experience in the last 18 months is that long haul last-minute UUAs are less frequent - though have not totally gone.

parklife

I use reward flight finder for this - well worth the £3 per month for the hourly check IMO

golfmad

Some threads for you:

Last minute award/upgrade availability?
Has Last-Minute Award Availability Been Drastically Changed?
When do last minute award seats open up?
Does BA open more award seats closer to departure?
When Will BA Open Up an F Award Seat
First / Business Award Availability...

yb90

I am a subscriber but came across this site via flyertalk https://seatspy.com/index and the search option and results are a lot more comprehensive.

CX828

Absolutely, just a couple of days ago I snagged 2 J seats to BKK with an AMEX 2-4-1. It was clearly a cancellation !

parklife

I'd signed up but never used it. Just had a little play around and both have pros and cons!

Seatspy shows the number of seats in all classes on any date there is availability
Rewardflightfinder shows the avios needed for that class

Combine the 2

Interesting what their price point will be once they are out of beta. I wonder how they have Virgin as well.