Upgrading 24 hours before departure.

Hi everyone. Newbie here, please go easy

We booked direct through Virgin back in October (BFS-MCO return flights departing June, family of four).

Later we decided to invite my sister in law to come on holiday with us, all we asked was that she book and pay for her own flights. Unfortunately she went to skyscanner and booked through a company called omega travel store.

Roll on Saturday past and we got the opportunity to upgrade to PE for a really good price and it would have been rude to turn it down so we went for it. That leaves my sister in law in economy

She phoned omega flight store on Sunday and they were asking for £1k to upgrade her.

I've been told she may be able to upgrade directly through Virgin over the phone from 24 hours before the flight if there are seats available. Is this true?

Is an upgrade at the airport on the day of departure possible? I'm not sure if it can even be done at BFS as Virgin only do a one off block of flights from there for four weeks and don't have any ticket sale desks etc.

Her ticket class is 'O' if that means anything.

Thanks,

Iain

She should have the booking if so she should be able to check on the VS website

I doubt she'll be able to upgrade on the phone at T-24 but she may be able to do it at the airport on the day, if there are still seats available in PE. No guarantees though.

Should read "booking reference" not just booking above

Thanks for the replies. We have the booking ref and can view the booking on the VS website. She has managed to select and pay for an economy seat upstairs in the bubble on the VS website. She has no upgrade options though and has phoned Virgin and they told her she has to go through omega flight store to upgrade. Omega are asking too much and their customer service is awful.

Looks like we'll have to wait and see if we can upgrade on the day. Fingers crossed.

Virgin are correct. If you book via a travel agent, the agent "owns" the booking until T-24 and you must deal with them if you need to make any changes, upgrades etc. And they can essentially charge what they like.

Your sister-in-law won't pay anything like £1k to upgrade at the airport on the day - but the risk is PE will already be full and there are no seats to upgrade to.

The moral of the story is think very carefully before booking a cheap ticket with an online travel agent. They're fine if you're sure you won't change your plans, but if there's any chance you will they can be a nightmare.

Think about it: for a company like Omega there's very little money to be made from undercutting the airlines but they have to if they're to survive.

So they have to make money in other ways - by keeping their costs low, often at the expense of customer service, and by charging high fees for making changes.

Sorry for any confusion I caused > I always forget that something's are handled different between the U.K. And the US.

Thanks folks. We flew MCO exactly the same week on PE last year and it was only 3/4 full on the outward leg and around 1/2 full return. Hopefully it will be quiet enough again this year and we can get her an upgrade on the day.