CNY availability
 

I'm trying to get to Singapore the week after Chinese New Year (23-27) and almost every day is blanked out, and what isn't is extortionately priced.

Am I missing something here? CNY is the week before - where there is availability every day.

Chinese workers in SIN getting back after extended leave?

As my colleagues say- CNY only ends when it's March ;)

On 27/2 some flights are J9 C9 D9 I9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9 ...I think CX is just trying to sell seats dear until last minute again.

(can't stay roll on Jetstar HK cos) Jetstar Asia (3K) is selling tix for $318++ one-way ($564)

Seems to be the case. All days have miraculously come available again but all in full fare Y.

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/china/

Keep in mind for mainland China, the CNY holiday is a whole week from Feb 18 - Feb 24. So hundreds of millions of Chinese have the week off and are on the move going home and returning back to work at the beginning and ending periods of that time.

So pretty much travel the last 3 weeks of Feb is a zoo.

Seems like Economy Save (V) is available now for travel 25 Feb or later.

That seat guarantee is so wonderful I don't know how I ever flew without it.

With the BAEC changes I'm getting ever close to switching over to MPC^

I've now put seats on reserve at a hefty price.... lo and behold on the seat selector the aircraft is half empty :rolleyes:

Seat guarantee will get you a seat but won't the price be extortionate also?

Well, no because in practice the exorbitantly priced seats are actually just higher fare classes; V fares will still be just as cheap as they are usually. Most times, when a friend tells me the seats are really expensive, it's usually because there are only Y/B fares left, so of course it's expensive.

Well at least it works on CX because we can book cheaper fares (all the way down to V fares). I have seat guarantees on CA as well, but I can only use it to book Y fares which depending on routes can get pretty nasty (for most domestic routes, it's okay).

Typical CX trying to sell seats until the last minute.

I don't quite get.
If a CX V is available you don't need a seat guarantee to book it
If a CX V is not available won't they give you a Y seat but charge you Y?

But if CX V is not available for sale (i.e. only Y, B, L are available), you can use your seat guarantee to book it at V price - that's how I understand the MPC seat guarantee to work. Is that not right?

I would assume it works the same way as the BA seat guarantee. If the cabin is completely sold out, they will sell you a full Y ticket and kick somebody else off. I don't think it can be used for getting cheaper fares.

Hmm. I was told differently anecdotally - a friend went online, saw that a roundtrip only had L outgoing and B return, and then called MPC to book both segments as V class, and got the discounted V price. The friend was DM (but I assume it is the same whether DM or GO), and she was told that the seat guarantee was good for any Economy fare class, as long as it had 100% mileage value (i.e. good for V class but can't go to O or any of the other super-discount-saver classes).