Virgin/Avios miles plus money

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Hello we have been collecting Virgin miles and Avios for quite some time now - although we don't have enough of either for full flights, we do have enough for miles plus money deals. DO they EVER release miles plus mopney for the school holidays, I am a primary teacher and it seems to me that I am destined to be penalised for the career I chose as it always tells me I cannot do miles plus money in the six week hols. Admittedly my dates are not available for purchase yet (17th-31st AUgust 2013) but I searched for earlier dates in the hols and there are never ay dates to be had. ANyone know exactly how these schemes work please?

 

[madmumof2]

I collect avios and have about 35000 at the minute. I've had to do LOTS of dummy bookings before finding availability!

Even when it says the dates are available, when you go through to entering your details they suddenly aren't available any more.

I'd assume you'd get more luck ringing them rather than doing it in their site, it's not a very good site.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Thanks Madmum, this is the problemn I have had, it leads me to believe there is availability, especially on virgin and then suddenly no availability.

 

[wayneg]

Everytime I have wanted Miles and Money or reward seats in the summer hols with VA I have got them but its not easy. You have to search 4, 5, 6 times a day from available dates until they are released, you might only search a week then get them, you might have to search 6 months until they are released but they will release them at some point.
I remember about 3 years ago I searched from Sept every day, they eventually released them on Xmas morning, searched over 500 times over 3 months.
For this August I helped mart (burt) book Miles & Money PE both ways, full price was £1200pp, I got him them for just over £700pp, saved him about £2,500, I think they were released Jan or Feb this year.

If you just do a search a day, 3 or 4 times a week you will almost certainly miss them, everyone is searching for them.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Thanks Wayne, I knew you would come up with the answer

 

[Disney Princesses LW]

Everytime I have wanted Miles and Money or reward seats in the summer hols with VA I have got them but its not easy. You have to search 4, 5, 6 times a day from available dates until they are released, you might only search a week then get them, you might have to search 6 months until they are released but they will release them at some point.
I remember about 3 years ago I searched from Sept every day, they eventually released them on Xmas morning, searched over 500 times over 3 months.
For this August I helped mart (burt) book Miles & Money PE both ways, full price was £1200pp, I got him them for just over £700pp, saved him about £2,500, I think they were released Jan or Feb this year.

If you just do a search a day, 3 or 4 times a week you will almost certainly miss them, everyone is searching for them.

sorry to jump on this but youve asked questions I was going to ask.
I have purposely avoided summer hols because thought I would have a better chance of getting M+M at quiter time in September. Presuming flights are released October for September anyone had experince getting September flights thorough Miles plus

 

[WiganTony]

It is worth checking both the BA Exec Club website and the Avios site, as even though they allegedly use the same "pot" of seats, I found that Avios had many more seats available for our 2013 flights from JFK to LHR than the BA site did.

Also, worth noting that on the BA site, if no BA flights available you should be able to use the option to search for American Airlines (or other airlines) that appears to the left of the results screen.

You will be able to book both outbound and inbound flights if there is BA availability for your dates on both BA and Avios sites. AA flights will only become available at the 330 day mark. Could be worth looking at alternative airports such as Miami or Tampa.

It's always worth calling the BA Exec Club booking centre, as they will have access to other flights operated by American Airlines, Iberia and Aer Lingus that may not appear on the BA website.

HTH.