Khabibul35

I was trying to book WAW-JNB and the 30% promo on Chase UR made choose Virgin Atlantic as the redemption partner. However, apparently KLM/Air France Redemptions are phantom seats, which an agent confirmed when I called.

Is there any way to know what the real award availability is? A lot of flights are showing on AF/KLM if you search directly through their site but the agent claimed only a limited amount of seats are actually released to Flying Blue and not all those seats get released to Virgin Atlantic. It'd be nice to be able to at least search it though. Any one have tips or is there some sort of logic to it (e.g - minimum a week in advance bookings, etc.?)

Khabibul35

Update: I called VS again and the agent looked up the award tickets by section and the ones not available are the intra-Europe flights to CDG and AMS. I literally asked to check the next 10 closest airports and none of them had availability for the next week. Meanwhile, these are very much available on Air France/KLM if you look directly on their site - leading me to believe that Air France/KLM are blocking this intra-Europe inventory from VS, and particularly flights within 1 week of departure. Not sure what the logic behind it is, but that's what seems to be happening.

Simflyer1776

Seems like youre right about them removing intra europe availability. I've been unable to book any flight on AF CDG - FLR. The flights wont even show up if I try to book with the cash option instead.

ceej123

So i think I'm having the same problem trying to book a simple LHR-AMS return on KL using VS Points. I keep getting the error Sorry, there are no longer seats available on your chosen flight. Please try another search.#100503A regardless of which flights i choose - i can see flights available and some that are greyed out which aren't available. Is this the same thing? Finally thought i'd found a way to use my Virgin points but alas i can't even seem to for this!

Simflyer1776

Try calling VS, they were able to book my flight even though I was unable to do so through the website.

Khabibul35

That's exactly the error message I got and in my case, calling in didn't help.

ceej123

Quick update on this; a call to VS got the seats booked without any issues.

bfwolf

Thanks so much for this thread. I had the same issue for a business class award from AMS to GOA and was able to book it by calling in. Probably wouldn't have tried if I hadn't seen this.

erik123

I can confirm calling still works. online KL flight errored out but by phone no issue. Note though that I have also had award bookings error out in the past due to the account needing a reset (unlock) or the credit card info not including all required address info.

g289t

I'm not quite sure in which forum this question belongs, but I am hoping to book a particular AF flight with Flying Club points for later next year. It's still a bit over a year out, so I cannot yet book. However, I am watching availability on the flight we want for as far out as is bookable.

For specifics, we (my wife and I) wish to fly CDG-BSL on AF1192 on a Sunday morning later in the fall in 2023. This flight is available to book on VS on July 02, 2023, but that is the last Sunday is is showing. On July 09 and later, only an afternoon CDG-BSL flight is showing. I thought maybe AF dropped the morning flight, but I checked their website, and AF1192 is showing as available on Sundays into September 2023, as far out as AF is booking now. FWIW, AF1192 is also not available on Sunday after July 02 on other sites like Google Flights, which I suspect is related.

Interestingly enough, AF1192 is available on weekdays after July 02, just not on Sundays. I could book it on Air France's website, but the award price is quite a bit higher, 45k via AF vs 9k via VS for J tickets.

Is AF not releasing this particular flight to outside booking for some reason? Are things like this normal? Is it likely to be available on VS later? It just seems strange to me that this particular flight is not available only on Sundays anywhere but with Air France.

36902BRF

AF is one of those programs that pretty much releases any seat for an award booking (though often at insane prices). Only the saver or lowest cost awards will be made available to partners. In my experience even some saver space is not released to VS. I'd check and see if you can see the flight you are interested in on the Delta site as an award booking. If it is not visible there then in my experience it likely won't be bookable by VS. If it is visible there then try calling VS and see if the CSRs can see it. But yeah in my experience at least for long haul flights not all AF saver spaces is visible to VS.

g289t

Thank you for the tip! Delta shows the same as VS; the flight is available on Jul 02 but not on Jul 09.

It's another couple months until the date we want next year is bookable, so I'll see if this particular flight is available when the date is available. If not, I'll make another plan.

g289t

Just for an update, VS is now showing AF flights in September 2023. And, on Sunday, September 03, the morning flight we want is available again. It seems to be unavailable on Sunday in July and August (besides July 02). So, I am expecting to be able to book it when our flight date in October 2023 becomes available.

Raffles

I have never met anyone who booked AF KLM online. Use the site to find availability, feel free to waste 10 minutes trying to pay, but then get on the phone.

Works ok though. Got 3J on Air France to Dubai next week for half term, low taxes due to lack of APD, used some Eurostar points to get everyone to Paris and a night in the Kimpton c/o IHG's freak 45k promo a few weeks ago!

SkyTeam777

This advice could not be more true, thank you everyone! If you call VS, they can book the space that appears to be phantom on the VS website, at least when it comes to AF/KL.