neilsr

What are the chances of getting 2 reward return tickets LHR to Hong Kong in Feb/March 2020.
We won't have any flexibility on dates as we will be cruising from singapore to Hong Kong.
We will also need to add an additional flight to singapore after spending a couple of days in Hong Kong, what would be the best way of doing that?
The current requirement is 115,000 miles for UC returns at that time of year , is that likely to change and how much would the tax be on this?
Thanks for any help on this.

Vivalasvegas

Nottingham Nick

Agree with everything Vivalasvegas has said. I have booked mt Wife and I half a dozen or so return reward flights in Upper to HKG and back over the past ten years (the most recently being outbound in Oct 2019 and back at the end of November 2019),. The only time I had a problem with availability was when my return was smack in the middle of the Easter holidays - even then I kept checking and eventually two Gs appeared on my first choice dates.

Keep stalking the website as your release date gets closer, and you will see the pattern of releases - in my experience, there are usually at least two Upper reward seats released around the T- 330 day mark - weekend seem to be a tad problematic, but the pattern of release prior to your dates will give a good steer. I always understood that the massive differential in taxes is due to HKG not allowing the 'carrier imposed surcharges' that VS and other British airlines are so fond of. I remember reading in a recent thread though hat they have recently eased this ban, so the taxes on the return trip may jump up soon.

Nick

Vivalasvegas

neilsr

Thanks both for your help.
Looked at a dummy booking for november and reward seats available with taxes at £1100+/-, so that's re-assuring.
I do have another option of flying direct to Singapore on Singapore air and home from hong kong on VA, would i need the same amount of miles to do that?

Edit: I see singapore air do not allow VA reward flights in business/first

greenarmy

If you book it as a round trip, the taxes and fees are £565 per person.
If you book London - Hkg as a single the fees are £367 per person, and then Hkg - London as a single comes with 350 HKD, which will be about £35 (assuming the exchange rate doesn't collapse in the mean time).

So yes, if you book as a round trip for 2 then £1100 is about right, but you can save some cash booking as two singles as there is no (BS) fuel surcharge added to the departing Hong Kong ticket. However this saving may disappear as Virgin could start to adding a fuel surcharge to awards ticket originating in Hong Kong whenever they like.

roussell

I am searching HK availability and I am finding very limited availability. Nothing in July, August or September at all. Seems a tough route.

I am also looking at Dubai flights and there are no scheduled flights after March - anyone know why this is?

Nottingham Nick

Trying to book for the main summer holiday period this close to departure will always be difficult - quite simply any reward seats will probably have been snapped up quite a long time ago.
VS have pulled their Dubai flights - there was quite a long thread about it some months back.

Nick

Theirin

I think it is timing, yes. I have a reward flight booked to HK in September and there was plenty of availability when I was looking (early October), but once I'd booked most of it was already gone.

neilsr

Our ideal travel dates fall on a monday for both outward & return flights.
Looking at availability at the moment there is good availability for most weekdays but not so good for Monday's , any idea why that would be?

Nottingham Nick

I remember that when I was looking to book, the same days of the week never seemed to be available each week, I always assumed that they don't release seats on days they think they can sell them all, but that is only my guess.

Nick

neilsr

I was looking to book return flights to Hong Kong in upper class for 2 passengers departing february 2020 & returning March 2020 but didn't want to book outward until return flight was showing as didn't want to risk not getting the flight i wanted as we needed exact dates within 1 day.
The outward reward flight appeared but has now gone before return flights come out, is there any chance of more reward flights appearing on our outward date?

Nottingham Nick

neilsr

i have been able to get 2 seats in upper on hold but only for 72hours, the return flights won't be released for 5 days.
Is there any way of extending the time i have them held until return flights are released?
I have been using rewardflightfinder to check on availability & i see that it is showing that there are still 3 reward seats available in upper after i have 2 on hold, can i trust that info?
Thanks for any help

Theirin

I think in the past people have been quite successful at booking them as one ways and then converting into a return once flights are available.