Firstly I completely understand that in some cases airlines block or restrict access to award inventory to their partners; I was just curious as to whether there was any specific reason that this is the case when booking VA awards on an SQ flight.
For the particular flights I wanted I checked the availability on UA first for two seats on the flights I wanted and VA were only able to find me one. However even after booking the one seat on the flights I wanted I was still able to book at least two seats with UA on exactly the same SQ flights whereas VA said there was nothing else available.
So I guess is that a restriction that VA are aware of and if so what is the likelihood that any partner airlines at all are going to be able to be searched/booked online in the near future? To be honest it was almost better in some ways under Navitaire because at least I could book EY, VS and DL awards online.
For the particular flights I wanted I checked the availability on UA first for two seats on the flights I wanted and VA were only able to find me one. However even after booking the one seat on the flights I wanted I was still able to book at least two seats with UA on exactly the same SQ flights whereas VA said there was nothing else available.
So I guess is that a restriction that VA are aware of and if so what is the likelihood that any partner airlines at all are going to be able to be searched/booked online in the near future? To be honest it was almost better in some ways under Navitaire because at least I could book EY, VS and DL awards online.