Seat Upgrade Price

Hi

I'm flying Gatwick to St Lucia Hewanorra on Virgin Atlantic 031, returning 2 weeks later on VS032. I have booked the standard economy as part of a Virgin AI holiday, and have just got a nice bonus from work ;o), so I am considering upgrading the economy to premium economy or Upper First if my budget stretches that far!!!

When would be the best time to book the upgrade price wise?, I fly in 4 months, and I am flying down to Gatwick the day before from Manchester and checking in the afternoon of the day before using the twilight check facility (staying overnight at gatwick airport hotel)

Do you tend to get a better price booking in advance, or would it be best at check in the day before?

I've also applied for a frequent virgins membership as this is my 3rd Virgin holiday, so I should recieve that in about a month and I believe that gives a discount also.

Thanks for any info.

I think that as you have the flight through VH then it may not be possible to upgrade this through VA prior to the departure day. I have not tried to upgrade a VH purchased flight at the airport.

However, if you refer to the VH Caribbean 2004 Premier edition brochure, you will see that you can upgrade each leg to PE for £225 (June-ish). VH will now charge a small amendment to the booking fee.

Frequent Virgin membership gives you 10% off basic VH prices but this does not seem to apply to add-ons such as flight upgrades. But you can similar discounts from VH website bookings.

Enjoy your holiday!

Hi,

I am also going to St Lucia booked through Virgin Holidays and managed to get a special upgrade price of £350 each way per person to Upper Class from Economy which I then got a 10% discount on as well because I am a Flying Club member. I think this offer has finished as of the end January 2004. I have upgraded after booking the main holiday booking before and there is No charge for making this change as it is an upgrade. Would be different if you wanted to downgrade I should think. Also either way you should get 10% discount off the upgrade price because you are a flying club member and a member of the frequent virgins membership even though you are upgrading after the main booking (I know from experience). You will not get 20% off though because you are a member of both though. Also make sure you call the Flying Club and book your seats for you and your partner they will then add you Flying Club membership numbers to your booking which ensures you get the air miles and could possibly help with a free upgrade maybe (no guarantees) check the Upgrade guide for more info. Also are you aware if do not fly Upper Class you can call Virgin Holidays and actually pay £30 each for access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse as long as there is space on that day?? Well worth it in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Yes, I got the same deal on a Barbados holiday. Here the deal was available to existing and new ecomomy-based bookings without amendment fee. This was a very special offer and yes it ended 31 Jan! Normally, you can upgrade at prices given in the brochure.

However, it has been my recent experience when upgrading a VH from Y to PE that they (VH booked through Virgin Travel Store (VTS))now treat this as an amendment to booking and make a small charge. Additionally, I have never got a FC discount of the upgrade cost but 10% off the basic.

Thanks for the info- next time I will press for the discount on the upgrade charge!

I am off to Boston this afternoon for skiing in Vermont over the weekend. I purchased a PE ticket through VTS for this and it is not a Virgin Holiday item). I had to book either some car hire or 3 days accommodation to go with this. These tickets can be somewhat cheaper than PE (restricted) purchased from VA. I have also purchased MCO PE for May at £697 also from VTS.

[mitchja]

I have payed for an upgrade from a PE seat (H fare) to Upper several times (usually to a Z fare) when on a VHOLS ticket at the ticket desks on the day of departure - never had any problems, not sure though if it works from an economy ticket though

Hi

Thanks for the advice, I booked 2 weeks ago, and missed the offer for the Upper Class upgrade, but it was £425 pp each way flying in June, which would have made £1700 cost, abit beyond my budget at the time

jcoles7 - I am flying down from Manchester the day before I fly to St Lucia, so I am staying overnight at the Le Meridien hotel connected to Gatwick, so its only 10 mins from the gate, so I am checkin the baggage day before, and then just leave the hotel when the goto gate sign appears as i'm all checked in, done this before and it works out nicely, but if I wasnt doing this, i'd certainly be in the lounge )

I too upgraded to UC on my VH holiday for July for 350 outward and 225 return - a great bargain I thought. I got 10% discount off the upgrade as well as the basic holiday price. I wouldn't rely on a free upgrade as I am a frequent virgin and flying club silver and haven't had one yet. Our flights are generally to the US and the Carribean Islands and PE rather than UC as this usually proves too expensive for us - In July we will fly VS29 out and VS36 back - can anyone tell me if there is a bar in UC and what to expect from the LGW lounge - i.e. hopefully not the silence of a doctors waiting room but a bit more relaxed and informal.

Hi jilly and welcome on board.

The "bucket and spade" routes don't have a bar in UC (although you might get lucky with a replacement plane) nor a beauty therapist. The seats are also different, being "normal" business class seats rather than the lie-flat type.

The LGW lounge is excellent. Far more relaxed than the LHR lounge in my opinion, with pre-bookable treatments in the V.Touch Salon.

BC

Thanks for the info. the reason I was confused re. Bar in UC was that on VA website all the seat maps show a bar in UC on the 747 400s and I thought I'd never seen one when taking a sneeky look before - I have I got this wrong? I did know that this route was not flat beds but how comfortable is the seating when compared to PE?

The bar is only on ex-LHR planes... those of us on B&S routes have to make do with a shelf unit in the front section of with a few bottles laid out.

The Recaro seats used on the ex-LGW planes are comfortable enough -- last time I managed to sleep for a couple of hours on the way out (due to alcohol consumption mainly!) but not at all on the way back. Then again the return trip was unusually turbulent. I think the consensus would be that there is plenty of room to stretch out but that you probably do get better sleep on the ex-LHR planes.

BC

Just got my frequent Virgin pack (just booked 3rd Virgin holiday to St Lucia in July), so now going to ring Virgin and upgrade to PE, what is PE like on the Gatwick fleet?, I've heard a few negatives on the Gatwick fleet with Nova entertainment system etc.