FlyerTalk Forums - Finding award availability on VA

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Finding award availability on VA

Greetings. I come in peace from other FT realms. :)

I am toying with using miles from another FFP (SA Voyager as it happens) to book flights on VA between SYD and OOL in November. But searching on Expertflyer I am having difficulty in finding any availability. I have tried using very wide parameters over multiple periods - but nothing comes up. I would have thought that on a domestic route with multiple flights per day there should be some availability. Is this standard revenue management from VA or am I doing something wrong?

Insights will be much appreciated.

I don't use EF, but VA domestic availability is usually pretty good. Are you looking at J or Y? Certain dates in November can be school holidays and OOL gets slammed.

Try checking VA's site or DL.com.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPMaverick (Post 29675568)

Thanks. Ideally I wanted J but looked at all both classes. This is for mid November. But I tried dates all over the calendar to see if maybe availability is only close in or far out as happens with some FFPs.

OK... this is a bit embarrassing... I just checked again and suddenly there is availability all over the place!!

I swear it wasn't there when I tried it previously on several occasions!

Avoid Surfers Paradise mid November. It’s full of high school kids who’ve just finished secondary school - “Schoolies” as it’s known here. It’s pretty rambunctious and noisy.

Anyone know if virgin australia's award availability is phantom availability? i see some space from LAX-BNE on 7/14. It shows 2 seats available on VA's website but expertflyer is only showing 1 (I also see LAX-BNE on 7/17 showing availability on VA's website but not on EF. Not sure if this is related to VA releasing space to partners 14 days before departure)

Also, I'm not sure if this is a glitch but I found those award availability (7/14 and 7/17) in J for 2 from LAX-BNE using the one way search, but when I changed it to round trip, then the award availability wasn't showing

Quote:

Originally Posted by ac737 (Post 29926805)

Anyone know if virgin australia's award availability is phantom availability? i see some space from LAX-BNE on 7/14. It shows 2 seats available on VA's website

There is currently 1 C Award Seat available; however VA may provide additional Availability to its own members:

[KVS Tool 8.9.6/Diamond - Awards/DL-SkyTeam/US]

Code:

LAX  Los Angeles Intl CA US [KLAX]

BNE  Brisbane Intl QL AU [YBBN]

SAT  14 Jul 2018 | 1 Seat



Carrier    Flight  From  Depart    To    Arrive    A/C  St  Award Availability

---------  ------  ----  --------  ----  --------  ---  --  ------------------

VA         6       LAX   11:15     BNE   18:15 +1  77W  0   CS1  YS7

DL         41      LAX   22:25     SYD   06:35 +2  77L  0   CA1  YL7

 -> VA     925     SYD   09:00 +2  BNE   10:30 +2  73W  0   CS1  YS7

DL         41      LAX   22:25     SYD   06:35 +2  77L  0   CA1  YL7

 -> VA     931     SYD   10:00 +2  BNE   11:30 +2  73H  0   CS1  YS7

DL         41      LAX   22:25     SYD   06:35 +2  77L  0   CA2  YL7

 -> VA     935     SYD   11:00 +2  BNE   12:30 +2  73H  0   CS2  YS7

DL         41      LAX   22:25     SYD   06:35 +2  77L  0   CA3  YL7

 -> VA     947     SYD   14:00 +2  BNE   15:30 +2  73H  0   CS3  YS7

DL         41      LAX   22:25     SYD   06:35 +2  77L  0   CA2  YL3

 -> VA     951     SYD   15:00 +2  BNE   16:30 +2  73H  0   CS2  YS3

Noting that VA use Z for award business class.