J upgrades - when/if do last minute spots open up?

[rtyuiop]

Hi folks,

I've never tried for a points upgrade on VA, but I'm going to give it a try with some upcoming flights to LAX.

There's no business award availability showing right now, but there's still business availability so at least it's not booked solid!

Anyone have any experience of if/when any empty seats might open up to upgrades? I'll get an expertflyer alert set up just in case, but always good to know when I should be on alert...

Cheers,

Danny

 

[Mattg]

If there are sufficient unsold seats, expect VA to start opening up additional reward/upgrade seats around 6-7 days before departure. (Though they can appear just 2-3 days out.)

 

[rtyuiop]

Thanks Mattg, that gives me a timeframe to start watching more carefully - still a few unsold, so I'm hoping!

 

[johnnyfive]

For those interested... the waitlist system worked for us. I noticed on expert flyer that at T-72 that a bunch of Business and Premium seats were released for sale, no reward seats showed up on the website. At around T-52 our points upgrades got approved and a previously sold out Y got 2 seats open, and now a few reward seats are available on the website. Just in before the Upgrade Bids get processed.

 

[rtyuiop]

Not looking good for me! I’m in LAX now waiting for my flight home, and despite there being a bunch of empty seats in business (at least as far as expertflyer can see), my waitlisted points upgrade doesn’t seem to have cleared.

Certainly goes some way to explain the much lower award availability in the last few years if they’re flying with this many empty seats rather than open up award space!

 

[Mattg]

Not looking good for me! I’m in LAX now waiting for my flight home, and despite there being a bunch of empty seats in business (at least as far as expertflyer can see), my waitlisted points upgrade doesn’t seem to have cleared.

Certainly goes some way to explain the much lower award availability in the last few years if they’re flying with this many empty seats rather than open up award space!

Were you checking the seat map or fare bucket availability on Expert Flyer? The seat map is not necessarily a reliable indicator of loads...

 

[rtyuiop]

Were you checking the seat map or fare bucket availability on Expert Flyer? The seat map is not necessarily a reliable indicator of loads...

Both - but as it turned out J looked full, so I have no complaints. Well, aside from LAX being terrible in general and the VA lounge situation in particular!