Business award availability: Etihad BNE-AUH-FCO

[SunnyRach]

(This is my first post so apologies in advance for anything dumb, I'm still a FF newbie)

I'm trying to get an idea of availability of Business award seats for Etihad's BNE-AUH-FCO flight. (Im not planning on travelling until September next year though.)

Over the last few days I've been checking the Virgin Australia website for these flights as they become available (ie 300-odd days in advance), but the business award seats are always sold out...

Do I need to be checking at like 12.01 AM, or...? Are there even business award seats allocated on every flight - and when are they allocated? (I just assumed they'd be available as soon as the flight is 'bookable'...?)

(I did notice there is business award availability when I search for just the BNE-AUH flight, but business award seats for the same BNE-AUH-FCO flight is listed as sold out)

Thanks in advance for any help/advice, I really appreciate it!

 

[SunnyRach]

OK so I must have been looking at the Etihad website when I found that particular flight (BNE-AUH-FCO) since I can't even see it on the Virgin website... Only the BNE-MEL-AUH-FCO and others...?

 

[Oxy]

I'm still learning with VA, but often a good idea is to break it into smaller segments, ie do a search for BNE-AUH then AUH-FCO. Make a note of some dates that work for you, try it as one segment online and if it doesn't work then give them a ring. You could also try some different but similar routes to get an idea if availability is an issue, or if it's a system problem. Good luck.

 

[Captain hum]

There appears to be no rhyme or reason behind the release of reward seats. I booked two J class reward seats BNE to LAX last November for travel in June 2015 with VA.
I have also just booked two J class rewards with EY (BNE-AUH-LHR) for March next year using AA points.
Sometimes they release them early; other times they release some much closer to the date of travel.

 

[SunnyRach]

Hey thanks deeskick and Heg,

Yeah I called Virgin and confirmed that the release of the business class award seats is pretty random... Looks like I'll be checking the website a lot LOL! Good idea on checking per segment tho.

Thanks again for your help

 

[knasty]

I didn't find it random. I recently booked Sydney -lhr and lca - bne. I think it was 330 odd days out and every day 2 seats were released, generally seeing 2 seats in J and 2 seats in F excl. 380 to/from Sydney . In each case I booked a few days after they became available; for the return I had the option of Mel or Bne . I use the etihad guest website and looked for Guest award.

 

[doctau]

I recently booked MEL-AUH-GRU for two in J about 6 months out, and you can still get J award seats on the same flight.

 

[SunnyRach]

Thanks Knasty and doctau, good to know you both had success finding award seats. Yeah so regardless of what the velocity call centre told me, I'm hoping I might find a bit of a pattern re: availability after checking that particular flight every day for a while... I'll definitely be getting on the Etihad website too, cheers knasty

Thanks everyone for your help, much appreciated