I rarely use reward travel because there is usually very little Standard rewards available. I checked today because of the price increase for an upcoming trip and lo and behold....Standard Awards GARLORE! I change a couple of dates find a great return flight and back click to start the booking process. I grab the outbound no problem.....then the return page comes up............NO Standard Awards!!! Return has become completely emaciated, I panic and back click then forward click and a few Standard rewards reappears, but not on my dates. I desperately try everything, new browser launch, different dates....nothing. Back to a totally white field for the return flight.

Is there a trick to this? Or am I some lab rat involved in some kind of mental torture test or marketing study. Are there CO IT guys on the other end looking at live redemption attempts just laughing their asses off? Is there a trick so that I can snag a flight that I see? Why do dates appear, disappear and reappear in some sort of lotto jackpot fashion? As I change dates to accommodate rewards, the computer changes availability to just outside my traveling parameters. I truly have become the dog chasing his tail.

I'm confused. You're complaining about a lack of SleazyPass availability?

EasyPass redemptions are not supported discussion topics here. In fact, they are potentially grounds for permanent banning from FT.

Moderators - please close this thread.

Shadow availabilty is my main point.

Oops my mistake....everyone LOVES Easy Pass!

I have no idea what this means.

I am confused - there are almost always some easypass option or the other available (if you chose to call that reward travel). Or do you mean Standard rewards?

um...isn't easypass akin to "pleasetakeallthemilesthatIhaveinmyaccountPass "?
or maybe akin to "I'm easy Pass" ?

Just curious

I apologize, I did mean Standard Rewards. My excuse is that my head was swimming with Reward data.

Is there such a thing as "Standard Reward"? I have not seen one in ages.

Yes there definitely is. Yesterday I got a standard reward to go to UK BF this weekend returning with VS in coach also on a standard reward. Also bought a ticket for a friend LHR-EWR-LAX-IAH-LGW to travel in 2 weeks, also Standard reward. Certainly for Europe there is a lot of standard award availability for almost all permutations I was checking. I don't know whether availability increases closer to the travel as I booked both within 2 weeks of travel.

Call CO and ask. They should find the availability on the outbound, and for the return, you can try partners or multiple connections.

Thanks so much for your help Channa. You were correct (again). A call to CO yielded me flights on the exact days that I originally wanted. For some reason Standard Rewards show up on the agent's screen but not on the internet screen. I'll call for now on when looking for Standard Rewards.

I think Easy Pass should be renamed - GREEDYPASS

Here's a hint I recently discovered. Depart from a nearby city (if possible) that is more readily served by NW than CO. Using a NW connection, I was able to get a reward flight on CO connection that CO wasn't even offering. (CO from HNL to Truk to Palau was offered if I took NWA from SFO-HNL, but not if I took CO from LAX-HNL as the first leg)??