The M+M is being very flaky at the moment. Throughout all August, I could look at the whole of July '07 schedules. Now in September, I can only see a few dates available for August '07. I queried this with Virgin who gave me the 11 month speil
I want to book flights between the 10th and 31st August (or thereabouts) for 2007 but it refuses to let me look at return flights at the end of August '07 - Arrrrggghhh!!! Apparently, I have to wait until October until I'll be able to see all of the flight availability in August '07. Why I could see all of July '07 in August this year is a mystery.
Anyway, I get the distinct feeling that VA are only allowing a very small number of seats to be used for M+M, or the other schemes for that matter. For example:
Using the normal VA pages
Using the normal VA site to look at reurn flights from Manchester to Orlando departing 10th July '07 and returning on the 31st, there are seats available with the cost for 4 adults and 2 children being £4,416.
See this screenshot for details
Using Miles + Money
Trying to book the same dates using M+M shows no flights available!! The nearest dates are out on 13th July returning on the 1st August at a cost of £2,931 for 4 adults and 2 children.
See this screenshot for details.
Using the M+M scheme at 2000 points each would save £1,485 which (in my opinion!) is highly economic. I have to admit that I'm slightly concerned that by the time I can book flights using M+M for the dates I want, either there will be no seats left because the flight is genuinely full or that the VA won't release any M+M seats. It seems highly suspicious to me that I can book specific dates with a full price fair but when trying (as a loyal customer) to make a saving using miles it's not possible.
