Questions and Answers

Ben just published a post saying VA will begin flying LAX-MEL. But he has also appeared to indicate that VA award availability for LAX-Australia flights is very elusive and generally only become available ~1 week before trip.

I have tried searching some forums on DP but cant find many.
Does anyone have any recent successful experience in such redemption to share?
If yes, how far out did you book (e.g., 11 months in advance)?

Basically, I just would like to have some realistic expectations on using VX points to get VA business class seats to or from BNE/SYD/upcoming MEL.

Thanks!

You’ll want to book 11 months out (but space is still very rare then), or 7 days before departure, realistically.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 21208, member: 7″]You’ll want to book 11 months out (but space is still very rare then), or 7 days before departure, realistically.[/QUOTE]

Thank you Tiffany
For 7 days before departure, how many seats typically become available during then?

Two, sometimes more. Depends on flight loads, really.

thanks Tiffany. and would you recommend the delta website as the award search tool to discern VA availability? or is there any others?

seems like VX may not see seats sometimes even though DL shows availability

That’s the best option, sadly.

thanks Tiffany!

Hey Tiffany, I have actually been trying to call in and check the availability and so far it seems like you can only book direct flights with VX while delta may show the ones with a layover (LAX-BNE-SYD). Not sure if I should keep HUCA or if this is what you are seeing too.

B

I would HUCA. As long as there is partner award availability they should be able to book it. Can they see the segments individually?

[USER=2365]@BAGMA[/USER], how many months out did you manage to secure an availability?

[QUOTE=”mishyq, post: 21411, member: 1888″][USER=2365]@BAGMA[/USER], how many months out did you manage to secure an availability?[/QUOTE]

I am trying to book a trip to Syd in March next year. For now I used AA miles for economy flight out as everything else has been ironed out. I was trying to just trying to find a more comfortable flight there :). In terms of availability I have not seen anything past 1 week.

[USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] – Looks like HUCA works out of 3 calls 1 worked in the end. They do not take individual flight information according to 2 reps and the last one just found it automatically.

B