Free ticket seat allocation

[419]

Could anyone tell me how the number of seats on a particular flight are allocated for people who want to book using their frequent flyer miles.
Are there a certain number set aside, and when they have been taken that's it, or if there are spare seats near to the flight date, are more made available.
I'm trying to book a ticket on Virgin, but I can't get a seat for the return leg, and I was wondering if it's worth me keep trying, to see if any more seats become available nearer the required date.

Thanks for any info.

[litow]

419
You got it. There are only a certain percentage of seats made available for sale using miles. It may well be that you can get a seat for the outbound and not the inbound. You could keep trying to see if any come available nearer the date, but I doubt it.

The only options you have is to use miles for the o/b sector and buy a ticket for the i/b or, change the date you travel.

Not what you wanted to hear but having checked that's all I can suggest.
Cheers
LITOW

[Globaliser]

Some airlines manage this dynamically, to a greater or lesser extent, as part of normal yield management. So seats can come back in to the award inventory closer to departure time.

However, if you must travel on those dates, waiting is a very risky strategy. If you wait but award seats do not materialise, you could easily find yourself paying a much higher fare than you would have to pay now, because all the lower-priced revenue booking classes have also sold out in the meantime.

[419]

Thanks for the replies.
As it's a holiday I'm trying to book, the dates are fairly flexible, but all the possible dates for the return seem to be full.
Getting a freebie one way, and paying for the return isn't really an option, as I was planning to use up most of my miles, and go upper class. (£3400 one way from LAX:{ )

[PAXboy]

It will also depend on the nature of the upgrade that you are seeking due to a way that VS work their mileage upgrades. If you are paying for Premium Economy and wanting Upper, it is fairly simple BUT if you are paying for Eco and upgrading to Upper then it gets more complicated. This info is based on making this kind of upgrade on VS three years ago, so the system may have changed.

When you book this {Eco~P.E.~Upper} then the system wants to see:
1) A seat in Y with a booking class that allows an upgrade.
2) A seat in P.E. with a booking class that allows an upgrade.
3) A seat in Upper that is available as 'Mileage'.

The fact that the first two seats will not be filled and will drop out of the booking and become available again is irrelevant! Since many folks want to go Y to P.E. these booking classes fill first and may block you getting into Upper. The reason behind introducing this extra 'hoop' will be self evident and, as I say, may no longer be applicable.

If you pay for P.E. and upgrade to Upper, there might be seats available as you only need items 2 + 3 from above! Once again, the seat in P.E. needs to be available before the upgrade can be made. I agree that waiting is high risk and, having been in the same bind before with a PE~Upper, I changed the outbound date and got the seats and routing that I wanted.

On that point, perhaps consider an Open-Jaws via SFO?? The cost of the internal flight is small or the sector can be driven by car in one very long day with two drivers or with an overnight stop and the scenery is good. I once included this mini-road trip in a longer journey and it turned out to be one of the best parts of the whole RTW!!!