Why accumulate points if no timely reward seats available?

[Shervin]

So I was hoping to use my points to redeem for international business reward seats to the US and Europe. I'm currently Velocity gold and about to be platinum.

I rarely plan trips more than 3 months into the future. I've noticed no business reward seats available unless I look 5 months out from today.

Am I ever going to get the chance to redeem my points for international business reward seats less than 3 months into the future? What should I do with my points given the above?

 

[pangwen]

So I was hoping to use my points to redeem for international business reward seats to the US and Europe. I'm currently Velocity gold and about to be platinum.

I rarely plan trips more than 3 months into the future. I've noticed no business reward seats available unless I look 5 months out from today.

Am I ever going to get the chance to redeem my points for international business reward seats less than 3 months into the future? What should I do with my points given the above?

That's strange - I saw another post not long ago saying that there was good short-term availability on Delta?

 

[Shervin]

That's strange - I saw another post not long ago saying that there was good short-term availability on Delta?

Is that normal, or just a reaction to United replacing them? Because there's nothing to Europe short-term.

 

[SCM]

I rarely plan flights less than 6 months out.

It's good to look for discounts or other deals and have the dates roughly planned out well in advance. I plan everything usually 12-18 months in advance.

You never know when discounts (either business or economy) will roll around, and it helps with reward seats as well because of the reasons you stipulate.

Sometimes of course we may not get the luxury of being able to do this, and so this is when I think you need to be prepared to pay for the ticket if no reward seats are available.

 

[pangwen]

Is that normal, or just a reaction to United replacing them? Because there's nothing to Europe short-term.

Unclear - I guess there may also be more reward seats to Europe available once QR gets onboard officially.

In any case, I was able to find a return business class seat from AU to EU leaving within 3 months - you might just need to a bit creative/flexible

https://imgur.com/a/VzZFJX9

 

[kangarooflyer88]

The general rule when booking award seats, especially international ones in Premium cabin is as follows: advanced booking window, specific date of travel, or lowest points, choose two of three. In other words, if you want to travel on a specific day and don't bother booking in advance, you won't be able to book it for the lowest number of points. If you book well in advance (i.e. 6 months or more), you'll often nab the award for the lowest number of points. If you are completely flexible on the travel date you can often find a cheap award in the last minute.

One thing to keep in mind with award seats is it's different than a cash booking. In a cash booking, you can generally book whatever flight you want so long as there is a physical seat available in the cabin you're interested in booking. With award bookings, you are taking advantage of excess seat capacity the partner airline has. These excess seats are often released many months (up to a year) before scheduled departure and are hence nabbed many months in advanced by frequent flyers who are flexible enough to commit to travelling on specific dates. In addition, airlines will sometimes release further seats to award programs when they can tell that the seat won't likely be sold. After all, it's better to sell the seat for points than to leave it unoccupied and earning 0 revenue. Lastly, realize that for international travel, you are relying on partner award availability since Virgin doesn't really have international routes. Partner airlines often tend to release less award inventory to members of other frequent flyers than members of their own program.

I suspect if you ask anyone who has made meaningful use of their points to travel international long haul in a premium, they will tell you that this isn't work for the faint of hearted. It requires experimenting with dates of travel, routings, and other such factors. For instance, I may not be able to fly Sydney to Singapore in J on Singapore using points but may find availability on Adelaide to Singapore or Melbourne to Singapore. Indeed, some people can't be bothered with such drama and use third-party services to facilitate the award booking for them, such as Award Flight assist.

-RooFlyer88

 

[pangwen]

I suspect if you ask anyone who has made meaningful use of their points to travel international long haul in a premium, they will tell you that this isn't work for the faint of hearted. It requires experimenting with dates of travel, routings, and other such factors. For instance, I may not be able to fly Sydney to Singapore in J on Singapore using points but may find availability on Adelaide to Singapore or Melbourne to Singapore. Indeed, some people can't be bothered with such drama and use third-party services to facilitate the award booking for them, such as Award Flight assist.

Totally agree with everything you've said!

Planning redemptions can be very time consuming. In terms of planning long haul reward flights in the past, I have occasionally spent longer than the actual flight duration researching potential routes, experimenting with dates and looking at availabilities on different programs (usually QF and VA/SQ).

For example, the last time I went to Europe (pre-COVID) I travelled using QFF points one way (QF-BA-BA) and using VA points in the other direction (EY-EY) as I had fairly restrictive dates due to work commitments. Even then, I had to be flexible with the actual destination airport and worked my itinerary within Europe around my flights. I would echo @kangarooflyer88's suggestion of using Award Flight Assist too!