Where are the Virgin Australia award seats to LA?

28 replies

dylanmalloch

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 16 Jul 2018

Total posts 34

I think the best way to achieve this would be to book economy seats and then upgrade with points. While there's no award seat bookings available... ever (so it seems)… there's always multiple of the extortionate 'any seat rewards' seats available, which indicates that there's probably spare J seats on most flights.

mcglynp

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 20 Jan 2016

Total posts 48

You will never be able to get seats a long way in advance. I've never had trouble getting seats to LAX 1-2 days before traveling. Remember frequent flyer points are intended solely for Airlines to get rid of their unsold seats, not for people wanting to book a whole family in business class 6 months in advance.

Last edited by antkleve at Aug 16, 2018, 06.30 AM.


I'd disagree that frequent flyer points sole purpose is to offload unsold inventory. Clearly it is desirable for airlines to make unsold inventory available very close to the flight date for FF redemption. But that is a scenario that would suit very few of their customers, and if it was the only option for redemption would rapidly devalue their scheme.


A significant component of a frequent flyer scheme should be to encourage people to accrue points and in doing so create loyalty to an airline. Then allow them to use them in a manner that benefits both the passenger and the airline. That can mean providing the opportunity for the whole family to go in J at a date of their choosing. The entire context of this thread is based on the fact that this should be possible in J on VA to LAX. But it is becoming increasingly less common, and in many ways impossible.

Last editedby mcglynp at Aug 16, 2018, 04:15 PM.

reeves35

Member since 24 Aug 2011

Total posts 77

You will never be able to get seats a long way in advance. I've never had trouble getting seats to LAX 1-2 days before traveling. Remember frequent flyer points are intended solely for Airlines to get rid of their unsold seats, not for people wanting to book a whole family in business class 6 months in advance.
Last edited by antkleve at Aug 16, 2018, 06.30 AM.

I'd disagree that frequent flyer points sole purpose is to offload unsold inventory. Clearly it is desirable for airlines to make unsold inventory available very close to the flight date for FF redemption. But that is a scenario that would suit very few of their customers, and if it was the only option for redemption would rapidly devalue their scheme.

A significant component of the scheme is to encourage people to accrue points and in doing so create loyalty to an airline. Then to be able to use them in a manner that benefits both the passenger and the airline. That can mean providing the opportunity for the whole family to go in J at a date of their choosing. The entire context of this thread is based on the fact that this should be possible in J on VA to LAX. But it is becoming increasingly less common, and in many ways impossible.

You answer your own question. It is only beneficial to the airline if it is a seat that would have otherwise gone out empty. As may have pointed out, unsold seats will often become available a couple of days out and can be used as reward seats or upgrades. This is the yield management system at work. Filling a quarter of your available J class seats six months out for no direct revenue makes no sense to the hard-heads in the revenue management department.

Flying High

Member since 13 Feb 2015

Total posts 3

Velocity used to be really good, but availability dried up around the same time the new Business Class was introduced. QF seems to be the much more useful rewards scheme these days.

reeves35

Member since 24 Aug 2011

Total posts 77

Velocity used to be really good, but availability dried up around the same time the new Business Class was introduced. QF seems to be the much more useful rewards scheme these days.

Velocity is much better than QFF domestically. Availability of international is better on QF but points required tend to be higher. Additional fees on QF means redemption is often not worth it and its better to book economy and then try for upgrade.

willvill

Member since 17 May 2012

Total posts 32

I booked PE to LAX next April and there were NO seats taken at all on that flight in Business(Expert Flyer) . Yet after I booked PE and asked to upgrade, the reply was 'allocation exhausted' which I took to mean not released yet, so I duly went waiting List. So over time seats were filled and still not upgraded right up until the day of departure. So someone or noone got an award seat on that flight. And if they did get the allocated award seat why wasn't it me. Basically when you are wait listed you are in no mans land.....until the week before when they release revenue seats not taken up and then not to waitlisted Platinum flyers

reeves35

Member since 24 Aug 2011

Total posts 77

I booked PE to LAX next April and there were NO seats taken at all on that flight in Business(Expert Flyer) . Yet after I booked PE and asked to upgrade, the reply was 'allocation exhausted' which I took to mean not released yet, so I duly went waiting List. So over time seats were filled and still not upgraded right up until the day of departure. So someone or noone got an award seat on that flight. And if they did get the allocated award seat why wasn't it me. Basically when you are wait listed you are in no mans land.....until the week before when they release revenue seats not taken up and then not to waitlisted Platinum flyers

When they come to allocate upgrades, airlines will always preference higher tier FFs first even if there are others who have waitlisted earlier. I don't know what level you are but I've always found upgrade requests on international flights hard to come by when I was anything less than Gold on QF or VA. I did luck an upgrade to J from Y to SIN as a Silver on QF but bizarrely I didn't ask for it so it didn't cost me any points.


From all appearances VA have no problems filling their J class to LAX with paying customers or high tier redemptions. It is a pity that they keep showing photos of The Business in their ads when the chance for lower tier flyers of ever receiving an upgrade is virtually nil. As I understand it, Red FFs will never see a J class seat to LAX (maybe HKG also??) for points redemption, not sure about Silver.


johninoz

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 01 Apr 2011

Total posts 9

I booked PE to LAX next April and there were NO seats taken at all on that flight in Business(Expert Flyer) . Yet after I booked PE and asked to upgrade, the reply was 'allocation exhausted' which I took to mean not released yet, so I duly went waiting List. So over time seats were filled and still not upgraded right up until the day of departure. So someone or noone got an award seat on that flight. And if they did get the allocated award seat why wasn't it me. Basically when you are wait listed you are in no mans land.....until the week before when they release revenue seats not taken up and then not to waitlisted Platinum flyers

When they come to allocate upgrades, airlines will always preference higher tier FFs first even if there are others who have waitlisted earlier. I don't know what level you are but I've always found upgrade requests on international flights hard to come by when I was anything less than Gold on QF or VA. I did luck an upgrade to J from Y to SIN as a Silver on QF but bizarrely I didn't ask for it so it didn't cost me any points.

From all appearances VA have no problems filling their J class to LAX with paying customers or high tier redemptions. It is a pity that they keep showing photos of The Business in their ads when the chance for lower tier flyers of ever receiving an upgrade is virtually nil. As I understand it, Red FFs will never see a J class seat to LAX (maybe HKG also??) for points redemption, not sure about Silver.



Guess this lowly Red FF was very very lucky to get his Business class trip to LA and back in February 2017. If you are right, then I won't be enjoying it again unless I pay the big bucks, and that is out of my budget sadly.

morco

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 20 Dec 2011

Total posts 9

Isn't the points required to upgrade rather high?

Also, given difficulty with accessing VA to USA what about FROM Europe? (I already have outward leg flights)

morco

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 20 Dec 2011

Total posts 9

"Red FFs will never see a J class seat to LAX (maybe HKG also??) for points redemption, not sure about Silver."

Im VA Gold - is that easier?

kureus

Member since 15 May 2015

Total posts 2

I’ve managed to get 2x business class return from SYD to LAX every year using points on the cheapest reward tier (94k points now?) for about the past 6 years in a row, but I know my travel dates more than a year ahead because it’s an annual conference. I’m just very diligent checking.


I agree it’s got harder and harder every year though. Probably because the VA business class seat is now the best on that route in my opinion, especially compared to the old A380 pods on QF.

Mostly I burn through my VA points with Singapore Air. Just search for flights directly with KrisFlyer, never bother with Velocity searches. SQ has very good availability with enough notice, and because you can transfer your points in real time from VA to KrisFlyer, as soon as you find a suitable SQ flight, you can move just the right amount of points and redeem the seat a minute later. Sadly the bargain SQ first class redemptions in the A380 suites will probably vanish once the number of suites is halved on the new A380’s :’(

Howdy1956

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 20 Dec 2016

Total posts 2

velocity are a disgrace. push you to use their cards and earn their points and then dont let you spend them. highway robbery
I have never had an issue I am actually flying Christmas Eve (peak) on a reward ticket to Hong Kong with Virgin.
In the past have also flown reward to LAX with no problem. One experience doesn't mean they are ... if I applied that rule to Qantas they are worse than highway robbers, as with every flight I have flown with them (8 in the past two years) either been very late or been cancelled with me been moved to a later flight.

ZT

Member since 07 Jan 2017

Total posts 12

A redemption seat is only available if it suits the airline.

antkleve

American Airlines - AAdvantage

Member since 15 Feb 2013

Total posts 18

An old airline guy once told me that airlines "don't give away what they can sell."

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