If you can take a flexible approach when booking award flights, you’re more likely to be successful. It’s best to plan well ahead and avoid looking for flights on the most popular routes at peak demand times. There will usually be a few award seats available if you are prepared to fly on less popular routes at off-peak times or seasons.
Velocity award flights are released 330 days ahead of departure. The available seats will be disappear quite quickly after they are released, so plan your travel well ahead and diarise the release date for your desired award flight to improve your chances of success.
It’s also the case that some award seats are released within a few days, or even 24 hours, of a flight’s departure, possibly because of unexpected low demand, or cash booking cancellations. If you’re a Gold or Platinum Velocity Frequent Flyer you can also call the Velocity service centre and find out if they will make extra award seats available for you. So it’s always worth checking whether additional award seats have suddenly become available.
