Is International Virgin Reward availability now worse that QANTAS?

[TSOOBI]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I am about to throw back a BNE-LAX in J award on the 18th July. Not sure if it will return to the pool. PM me if your interested and i can let you know when its done.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I must be doing something wrong. I just checked SYD and MEL-LHR and Rome in J nd the points were ludicrous. Between 600000 and 900000 each way for one person? What kind of madness is that?

 

[travelislife]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I must be doing something wrong. I just checked SYD and MEL-LHR and Rome in J nd the points were ludicrous. Between 600000 and 900000 each way for one person? What kind of madness is that?

There seems to be an issue with SQ and EY availability not showing online. Only the ridiculous 'any seat' awards. Need to call.

 

[TSOOBI]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

One quick observation i made. Looking for a reward seat as a return netted 0 results. Book it as a one way and there was availability !!!!

 

[rtyuiop]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

Possibly Delta as well (although that could be plain old lack of availability on the dates I was checking LAX-JFK just now, I haven't called to check).

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

There seems to be an issue with SQ and EY availability not showing online. Only the ridiculous 'any seat' awards. Need to call.

Ok so that's the issue and why everyone looks to SQ and EY sites for availability. Thanks.

 

[drewbles]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

Just a note to all the people using EY as a 'bible' for award seats and saying to VA that 'EY is showing they are available', there is now zero correlation between EY and VA availability.

It has changed recently. It used to be mirrored in that yes if EY had a seat, you could book it on VA. That changed in the past 6 months. VA have outright said to me on multiple occasions, 'EY's availability is now not reflected in what we see'.

So EY availability is a sign that VA *may* have a seat. I was trying to change flights with an F award and EY was showing 2 seats, VA said no go. Took 6 weeks of constantly calling before VA actually had access to it (and EY now still shows 2 seats available).

When VA book an EY seat, they check their own internal system to see that if they actually book a seat that it will come back as confirmed (before they actually request it). If it says 'not confirmed' they have to call EY to see, and then book it (and even if it is confirmed, they still have to call them). The EY booking process from VA's side is stupidly manual.

And don't get me started on the recent per-segment fees (in USD!).

 

[Jurahn]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

The real killer is the total lack of A330 business upgrades avail for points burn or flexi to biz WP upgrades, over a week period whilst i was in perth, i could not get a single upgrade on an A330 even when they were lightly loaded, but hey, 737s that were 90% pax load, no problem!

I've had the opposite experience this week - on Sunday morning, I had to book a PER-SYD flight for that same afternoon for an emergency trip to NSW and was able to to upgrade to J (from a Flexi fare). Yesterday I booked my flight back to PER for next Tuesday and there was upgrade availability on that as well. I bought a Saver fare for the SYD-PER flight and upgraded with points - I normally wouldn't spend that amount of points on a domestic upgrade, but after this week is over, I'm going to need it.

Both flights are A330s.

 

[Arad79]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

There seems to be an issue with SQ and EY availability not showing online. Only the ridiculous 'any seat' awards. Need to call.

I have been trying for over a week now for flights from Perth to Europe (London or Rome) for availability in June 2017 and not one single reward flight was showing up (I even tried different dates throughout the year with no success). I was searching one way flights only. Everything was showing up as "Sold Out". I have never seen this before.

I have just called Velocity and finally got through to someone who could confirm there is availability on their system for 1 June 2017 Perth to London. He then checked their website and it showed no flights. He did this for a few more dates and realised there is an issue with the website showing availability. He advised that he will report he issue.

What I find strange is that this was not identified a lot earlier as it seems to have been like this for over a week. Anyway if you need to book reward flights in the meantime and they are not showing up I would ring the call centre as there may actually be availability.

 

[adame]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I have just come across this problem too. I've been searching all morning on VA for J availability with EY to Europe and there is literally nothing. It's disappointing that Virgin are aware of this problem and haven't communicated it to customers in any way.

 

[ozjuice]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

So is there ever a chance that calling the Call centre for reward flights may get a flight that is not showing as available on their website?

 

[RAM]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I have just come across this problem too. I've been searching all morning on VA for J availability with EY to Europe and there is literally nothing. It's disappointing that Virgin are aware of this problem and haven't communicated it to customers in any way.

Communicate right after winning the award for best redemption availability...

I don't think so. Have you had a go on their fb page https://www.facebook.com/virginaustralia/

 

[drewbles]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I have just come across this problem too. I've been searching all morning on VA for J availability with EY to Europe and there is literally nothing. It's disappointing that Virgin are aware of this problem and haven't communicated it to customers in any way.

Communicate what, exactly? There is no actual problem here. Whilst I don't like the reduction in seat availability, they never actually published availability numbers on a flight-by-flight (or any other method) basis that i'm aware of.

The Freddie award was won based on customers nominating. Is it false advertising? No. Is it misleading? Potentially, yes. The award was also won based on previous availability. One thing is for sure, they're not likely to win it this year (I was at the 2016 Freddies and amazingly, El Al won a raft of awards in the APAC categories so perhaps they'll take it next year).

VA have the right to release seats as they see fit. It sucks they're so low in numbers now, but they have nothing to communicate in terms of numbers being reduced.

 

[adame]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

Communicate what, exactly? There is no actual problem here.
VA have the right to release seats as they see fit. It sucks they're so low in numbers now, but they have nothing to communicate in terms of numbers being reduced.

I am referring to the problem that Scarbs79 has come across whilst on the phone to VA. The website does not appear to be showing availability properly.

 

[drewbles]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I am referring to the problem that Scarbs79 has come across whilst on the phone to VA. The website does not appear to be showing availability properly.

I see Scarbs79's point, but it's also possibly not necessarily an issue. VA's integration with partners is so abysmal, it wouldn't surprise me if it's just how it works (don't get me started on EY Awards and booking them over the phone...).

I'll put this down to VA's IT incompetence though

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I see Scarbs79's point, but it's also possibly not necessarily an issue. VA's integration with partners is so abysmal, it wouldn't surprise me if it's just how it works (don't get me started on EY Awards and booking them over the phone...).

I'll put this down to VA's IT incompetence though

I'm unsure if it's changed in the last year or so, but I find VA's offshore international booking desk to be pretty poor with regard to English skills. I also found them trying to fob off a more costly and longer route over one that I was almost pleading with them to check. The guy was almost refusing saying simply it'd be too dear........hey, who's the customer? If I wish to pay more for any reason, why argue? As it turned out (after some time of negotiating a peace settlement), my routing was cheaper as well as shorter!

 

[Arad79]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

So is there ever a chance that calling the Call centre for reward flights may get a flight that is not showing as available on their website?

Hi ozjuice, yes that was certainly my experience when calling them the other day for flights to Europe as described in my previous post. Not sure about that when the website is operating normally. I just had another quick look and it seems the same problem before still exists. I would say its worth giving them a call.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

Just a note to all the people using EY as a 'bible' for award seats and saying to VA that 'EY is showing they are available', there is now zero correlation between EY and VA availability.

It has changed recently. It used to be mirrored in that yes if EY had a seat, you could book it on VA. That changed in the past 6 months. VA have outright said to me on multiple occasions, 'EY's availability is now not reflected in what we see'.

Totally correct!

Unlike Qantas - who are contractually obligated by Oneworld to offer the same award seat redemption to ALL partners (ie: they can't discriminate against one partner or charge different rates depending on the carrier).

Velocity has "partnerships" and as such the award availability does not need to be mirrored.
This is a major downside for consumers compared to a fully fledged alliance like Oneworld.

 

[drewbles]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

I'm unsure if it's changed in the last year or so, but I find VA's offshore international booking desk to be pretty poor with regard to English skills. I also found them trying to fob off a more costly and longer route over one that I was almost pleading with them to check. The guy was almost refusing saying simply it'd be too dear........hey, who's the customer? If I wish to pay more for any reason, why argue? As it turned out (after some time of negotiating a peace settlement), my routing was cheaper as well as shorter!

The times i've called i've clearly been sent to an off-shore call centre (sounds like Philippines) but they've actually been very good. English skills are good and they are as frustrated with the manual booking system as we are.

I have zero problems with overseas call centres when they are like this. They can think and act, and don't follow scripts. It's the scripted call centres which form the majority of overseas entities, that enrage me (and no doubt give them all a bad name). Perhaps they've gotten better; i've only called partner redemptions from February this year.

 

[Dannyism]

Re: Velocity internat J redemptions now totally scarce!

Anyone find any J redemption seats from Melbourne to New York? I would love to book the long way round with Singapore. Or even single legs and come home via LAX, making it like a RTW. I've seen some guides, but can't seem to find any seats!!