Where have all the VA Business Saver seats gone?

[The Flying Brick]

Checking for flights from MEL to SYD and MEL to PER last night for various months I noticed that not a single flight for any time of the day have any VA Business Saver seats for sale.

This of course particularly impacts on the ability to upgrade an Economy ticket to Business as well as pushing the price of a one way MEL-SYD fare in J out to $650.

Has any one else come across this and if so what is the reason for the sudden complete lack of availability?

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

In the end, its up to VA what they do, from a frequent flyer members point of view, I can see why we look forward to "cheaper" business seats on VA, and after giving VA 18 years of "business", I would also feel hard done by, not to have cheaper business class seats, either to pay a bid to upgrade to, or to use $ to buy.
But with their reported losses, and need to cover their expenses, and pay off their major part owners, I can also see in a way a reason why they will want to price gouge and get as much "bang" for their buck (return on investments).
Will be sad one day, when the times/if it comes, that its major shareholders decide, enough is enough.
Or they bring in more planes like the F100/320s, that do not have a business cabin, and keep their 330s/777s only for the international long routes.
That would probably save them money.
(O/T), I booked a 4a on the 737, ADL - PER, which had a business cabin, then a while before I flew, I saw the plane was then changed to a 320, no business cabin, then to an F100, no business cabin as well.
To sum up though, its probably trying to get as much $ back as they can.

 

[The Flying Brick]

Just an update - there are now VA Business Saver fares showing up from the 24th or 25th of June but haven't found any earlier on the several routes that I checked today.

Of interest to note when searching for return fares was that if there were no Business Saver fares available on the forward journey than there were none showing up for the return.

Moving the date further out to when Business Savers were available on the forward journey the return flight as searched for the original day suddenly had availability.

Reminds me why I should never forget to look at one way v return fares every time

 

[Ade]

Checking for flights from MEL to SYD and MEL to PER last night for various months I noticed that not a single flight for any time of the day have any VA Business Saver seats for sale.

This of course particularly impacts on the ability to upgrade an Economy ticket to Business as well as pushing the price of a one way MEL-SYD fare in J out to $650.

Has any one else come across this and if so what is the reason for the sudden complete lack of availability?

I suspect VA is blocking out all J saver seats when any promotion is currently active. As an example, when this question/post was raised, it was the last 3 days of DSC promo and I think VA is blocking saver seats, so that customers would book expensive full fare seats with the DSC as an inducer/catalyst/influencer to make the $ spend

I've seen similar trends with QF that during DSC or double points, there is very limited availability of Saver fares and literally NO Sale fares.

As an example, SYD-DEL return during QF DSC (targeted) last week was between AU$1945-2100 and only Flexi Y fares were available. I was only looking for Y as I'm paying for the flights. However, after the DSC, the flights were between AU$1200-1350.

Does anyone think like what I thought or am I just being suspicious of the airline?

 

[The Flying Brick]

I reckon that you are spot on :|

 

[aamslfc]

I'm inclined to agree. I've noticed a real lack of both reward and Saver availability on some flights lately, Perth being the worst example departing both MEL and SYD. Unless there's something going on that I don't know about, it would be a remarkable coincidence for every single reward or Saver seat to be taken on every Perth flight for the next 6 months.

That being said, I was able to nab some ridiculously cheap J saver fares during the DSC promo last week, on a New Zealand return in October. Interestingly, the Business cabins were completely empty (hence cheap), yet the Freedom fare in Y was almost the same price ($50-100 differential).

Depends where and when you're going, to be honest.

 

[clipped_wings]

I've noticed a real lack of both reward and Saver availability on some flights lately, Perth being the worst example departing both MEL and SYD.

Do you think the decommission of A330's on these routes would explain the lower percentage of J reward seats? Or is it Y seats as well?