V-Flyer

Hi

I am travelling back from NYC to LHR aboard VS138 on the 19th January and wanted to get the scoop on how to secure an upgrade to Upper? I know i can call the FC team but is there another way?

FC told me today that there is plenty of availability in UC so just keep checking to see when they release seats for this type of upgrade.

PS are VS allowed to upgrade passengers to Delta flights in this way or is that forbidden?

Any help appreciated.

You have to just keep checking for standard reward availability in Upper Class on the flight/date you are travelling as a cabin upgrade using miles uses the same reward fare.

Whilst you can spend VS miles on full reward fares on DL flights, as far as I'm aware you cannot use VS miles to upgrade DL fares.

Thank you

Is there a sweet science behind frequency of the reward seats being released or is it simply a case of hounding the FC hotline on a daily basis?

There is no sweet science, no. There’s no need to keep calling though, just do a dummy miles booking online. If you see availability, it’s available for miles upgrades so that’s the time to call up and grab it.

Excuse my continued newbie questions...done a reward search for the one way flight and it comes in around 5700USD...I can take some of the cost down using miles but its still a fair old fee.

How do i actually distinguish when a reward flight upgrade is available via the online booking system?

5700USD is a revenue fare not a reward fare.

Set your screen to look like this:


Make sure you have "Exact date" and "Pay with miles" selected.
You'll get a result like this:



When the square I've highlighted in blue changes from "No seats available" to something like 47,500 miles + $501, ring up and grab your upgrade.

For what it's worth, Expertflyer is currently showing:
J9 C9 D9 I9 Z0 W9 S9 H9 K9 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q9 X9 N9 O9
This basically means there's plenty of availably (except for Z which is the code for an Upper class reward fare).

Z is the lowest cost revenue bucket for Upper Class. G is reward Upper Class

Incidentally, according to this (from using miles to upgrade cabins), you can use miles on DL ticketed flights.

Excludes our lowest price tickets (N, O, V) in Economy, (K) in Premium Economy and (Z) in Upper Class.
*Available on purchased tickets only. This applies to tickets issued on VS/DL paper only.

Never done it myself, but this suggests it is allowed.

Is your current ticket upgrade-able?
If it's the cheapest fare then it can't be upgraded with miles.
In the past I have paid about the same for an upgrade-able economy as I have for the cheapest PE.

Best of luck with your quest. When I do it I may be checking 5 times a day, starting before 6 am.

Dick D

Hi all

Its a trip organized by my employers

So i know my outbound ticket is not upgradable so i have just secured the extra legroom seats for a fee. I do also know my inbound is upgradable because i have already gone from economy to PE...when i was on the phone to FC to do this upgrade he told me UC was available, he went off to secure and then came back and said it wasn't...so i just went with PE for no fee and around 8700 miles.

FC told me there was plenty of availability so i guess it is just a case of keeping me eye on their website to see when they are releasing - i will be checking a few times a day i think

ncgardner wrote:Z is the lowest cost revenue bucket for Upper Class. G is reward Upper Class

Quite right. In my defence, it was late when I wrote that

Hi all, thought this query may fit in here rather than requiring a new thread.

I am looking at possibly doing a multi stop trip. All booked through Virgin on their website. Upper out from LHR (paid), Delta First internal USA (paid) then Delta Economy back to JFK then finally Delta Economy back to GLA.

2 questions; assuming the final leg (JFK-GLA) is in an up-gradable bucket fare can I use my VS miles to upgrade this from Economy to Delta One? Message seems mixed above.

Finally is there a way to see on the website by doing a dummy booking which fare bucket each sector is in?

Thanks,

Chris

No, you can’t use VS miles to upgrade a DL flight.

gumshoe wrote:There is no sweet science, no. There’s no need to keep calling though, just do a dummy miles booking online. If you see availability, it’s available for miles upgrades so that’s the time to call up and grab it.

Sorry, back traveling to SFO with work and have plenty of miles from previous company, quick question.

I remember this trick, dummy bookings, but if a 'Pay with Miles' flight is full but a 'Pay with Miles + Money' isn't full (same flight), does that mean a miles upgrade is available? Or is the dummy booking ONLY with 'Pay with Miles'?

Thank you.

londonguy wrote:
I remember this trick, dummy bookings, but if a 'Pay with Miles' flight is full but a 'Pay with Miles + Money' isn't full (same flight), does that mean a miles upgrade is available? Or is the dummy booking ONLY with 'Pay with Miles'?

Thank you.

Not any more unfortunately as all MpM fares are now just standard revenue fares (which do now also earn miles/TP's in the normal way). VS simply deduct £18 from the base fare price for every 3000 miles you put towards it.

MpM fares are also only available on pure VS flights as well. Add any DL or other partner airline connections and MpM's fares are not offered.