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Have you ever spotted an award flight on an airline’s website, then transferred thousands or even hundreds of thousands of flexible rewards points to that airline, only to return to its website and get an error when booking that flight? Sounds like a nightmare, right?
Unfortunately, this scenario actually happens, and it’s not so rare. This phenomenon of an award flight that appears bookable but errors out when you try to confirm it is known as “phantom award space.”
Let’s take a look at why phantom award availability occurs and what steps you can take to help keep it from happening to you.
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What Causes Phantom Flights?
Many cases of phantom flights happen with partner award bookings. This is when you use one airline program’s miles to book flights on another airline, either within the same alliance or on one of its non-alliance partners.
Partners may not have access to the same award space as the program for the airline operating the flight. For example, if you’re trying to book flights on United Airlines using Air Canada Aeroplan points, you can’t always trust that just because the flights are available with United MileagePlus miles those same flights are also bookable with Aeroplan points.
Availability with partners may not be updated in real-time or as quickly as it is with the operating airline. So, it’s possible that a flight you see available with a partner may have been a valid award and was recently booked. Now, the award space is gone, but the partner doesn’t have the updated award inventory.
Other cases of phantom award availability may be due to IT issues on the airline’s website. Sometimes, you may find an award that isn't bookable on the airline’s website but is bookable through the airline’s app — or vice versa.
Related: Beginner’s Guide to Airline Alliances & Partnerships
Ways To Avoid Phantom Award Space
There are several things you can do in an attempt to prevent being foiled by phantom award space. Although no method is 100 percent foolproof, doing some of the following at least increases your chances of knowing your award is bookable, especially before you transfer points from a credit card program.
Book with the operating airline instead of a partner
Booking with the operating airline’s program is typically your best bet if avoiding phantom flights is your goal.
Let’s say you want to fly ANA business class to Japan, so you book using ANA Mileage Club miles instead of through a partner, like United Airlines or Virgin Atlantic. Again, this isn’t a guaranteed way to avoid it because there have been cases of even the operating airline showing phantom space on its own awards in some programs. But it just increases your likelihood of success.
However, booking with the operating airline may not always be feasible if you don’t have enough miles in that program. Also, the award pricing may be lower through a partner program.
Do a dummy booking before transferring points
If you’ve located an award that you want to book, you can try and see just how far in the process you can get before you transfer points or miles. Can you get to the checkout page? If so, this is a good indicator that you’ve found real award space. In some instances, you may be able to even put the reservation on hold. Then, you can transfer in the necessary points.
With some programs, you may not be able to get too far in the process without having enough miles to book. This method is only useful in programs that allow you to do so.
Call the airline
Another way to prevent phantom award space is to call the airline and confirm the availability is real before transferring your points. Calling is not always ideal since many airlines have long hold times for telephone customer service. But if you have the time, this tactic is worth using. Using a chat function works, too.
If an airline rep can confirm availability for the award you want to book, you can transfer the points while you’re on the phone. Then you can have them book it for you. If the program charges a telephone booking fee, ask the rep to stay on the phone while you book it yourself online, just in case of an error.
You can also have the phone rep put the flight on hold if the airline program allows it. This may be helpful in cases where transfers are not immediate. Check out our AwardWallet Transfer Tool for transfer time data points from other AwardWallet users.
Related: My Trick To Booking an American Airlines Award That Includes a Partner
Check for availability with other partners and award search tools
Relying on just one source for accurate award availability can be a recipe for trouble. This is especially true if you’re booking via a partner. Whenever possible, you should search for the same flight through a different partner airline to see if it is bookable.
You can also use search tools like Point.me, Seats.aero, Roame.Travel, or PointsYeah, to see if the award shows up on their sites. One thing we like about Seats.aero is that it offers a “live search” feature for Pro subscribers. This can help you sort through real-time availability rather than cached results.
Just make sure to confirm the award availability through the airline loyalty program you're booking through before transferring miles.
Related: Which Award Flight Availability Search Tool Is Best?
Is There Any Recourse For Phantom Award Space?
Unfortunately, there’s generally nothing an airline program can do about phantom award space. This is true whether you’re booking with the operating airline or with a partner airline. Airlines will not magically make award space available for you if none exists.
If you’ve transferred thousands of points from a credit card program only to get hit with a booking error when you go to complete your reservation, you’re usually out of luck there as well. Credit card programs have statements in their terms and conditions that transfers cannot be reversed. For example, the Capital One miles terms and conditions say the following:
“All rewards transfers to other Travel Loyalty Programs are final and cannot be reversed.”
With that said, the fact that the credit card programs’ terms and conditions say that transfers are not reversible doesn’t mean they’re not actually possible. Although a rarity, airline programs can work with credit card issuers to reverse them.
You may be able to persuade an airline representative to reverse your transfer by explaining that you transferred the points in good faith and could not book due to the airline’s error. If the airline rep can replicate the same error, they may be willing to process your reversal.
If the first rep you speak to says no, you can hang up and call again. Or, you could try escalating up the chain of command within the airline’s customer service to see if anyone higher up is willing and able to process the reversal. But don’t count on this to guarantee results.
Related: Booked a Now-Canceled Mistake Fare? Get Your Flying Blue Miles Transfer Reversed
Bottom Line
Even the most experienced award bookers occasionally get thwarted by phantom award space. It’s frustrating that airline award inventory isn’t always up to date or accurate, especially with partners. If you’ve done everything you can to confirm your award is bookable before transferring points, you’ve likely put yourself in a good position to avoid being duped by phantom flights.
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