Surprise upgrade to PE

Has anyone any ideas how I can do this?
We are flying from LGW to MCO in Jan, and my wifes mother is coming with us.
We wanted to surprise her with an upgrade from Economy to PE, however, when looking at the flights, she found she could cut £100 off her Econ seat by using Air Miles, so se booked the ticket herself (our original idea was fo us to book the ticket in PE and tell her we had booked an econ seat)
So, has anyone any ideas how I can pay for her seat to be upgraded to PE? I suppose I could try on the day?
any other ideas? We want to keep it as a surprise (my wife thinks we are flying PE and I am not going to tell her we are flying UC until we check in )
Thanks

[RichardMannion]

You can pay on the day to upgrade or in your case as its a LGW routing the day before via the Twilight check-in.

Lasat time I paid back in 2001 - it was £199 to upgrade from Economy to PE. MCO flights are always busy and VS will happily relieve you of some cash to help them out!

A little confused but you want to upgrade your Mother-in-law to PE? And your wife thinks you are flying in PE wen you're really flying in Upper?

Thanks,
Richard

Alan, if I was flying with my mother in law I would want her as far away as possible, economy, cargo or even another flight! Only joking!

Richard - would the upgrade price still be around normal rates as the ticket is a discounted/reward ticket or will they charge more to try and recoup the cost?

quote:Originally posted by RichardMannion
A little confused but you want to upgrade your Mother-in-law to PE? And your wife thinks you are flying in PE wen you're really flying in Upper?

Thanks,
Richard

Yep,
its my wifes 40th birthday when we are away, so as a surprise I have booked us on UC seats as opposed to our normal PE seats you see.
It will be fun to see her face when we walk up to the UC check in.
So my wife thinks we are upgrading my MIL to the same class

[Bazz]

I can't add to Richard's answer Alan but I like your style!

quote:Originally posted by Bazz
I can't add to Richard's answer Alan but I like your style!

Thanks Bazz [8D] Its the first part of the surprise. I am booking a table at Victoria & Alberts for her actual birthday, have booked a premium 4 door car and I have had her birthday logged by Virgin on the booking as well:D

quote:Originally posted by RichardMannion
You can pay on the day to upgrade or in your case as its a LGW routing the day before via the Twilight check-in.

Richard - a couple of questions on the above if you don't mind.

I spoke to someone in Virgin Airlines (not Virgin holidays) and asked him if we could pay to get upgraded to PE at twilight check in. He said we couldn't as twilight check in only opens once the "normal" Virgin desk closes, so you would not be able to upgrade at check in, it would have to be done the next morning.
Was that guy talking nonsense?

Secondly, how likely is it at check in that they will allow you to upgrade to PE? In other words, would there be a 50% or a 90% chance that they would have PE seats going spare at the time of check in?

Hi Hustler,
I am not sure about the twilight check-in paying for upgrade, but I think that the chance that you will be able to upgrade at check-in is variable. If you are flying from LGW-MCO and some other popular holiday routes, premium Economy can be quite full.

The Gatwick 747-400s are equiped with 38 premium seats, all upstairs, as apposed to the LHR 747-400s with 32, spread between the back of the upper deck and at the front of the Economy cabin on the lower/main deck. The LGW 747-400s have a smaller Upper Class Cabin than the LHr 747s, in the nose, and two rows in the second section of the main deck, and the two rose behing door 1 is sometimes used as a Premium Economy service with Upper Class Seats. I'm not sure if they would let you upgrade to these seats if there was no standard Premium Economy seats left. I wonder if anyone else can answer this?

Hope this helps

[RichardMannion]

quote:Originally posted by Hustler

quote:Originally posted by RichardMannion
You can pay on the day to upgrade or in your case as its a LGW routing the day before via the Twilight check-in.

Richard - a couple of questions on the above if you don't mind.

I spoke to someone in Virgin Airlines (not Virgin holidays) and asked him if we could pay to get upgraded to PE at twilight check in. He said we couldn't as twilight check in only opens once the "normal" Virgin desk closes, so you would not be able to upgrade at check in, it would have to be done the next morning.
Was that guy talking nonsense?

Secondly, how likely is it at check in that they will allow you to upgrade to PE? In other words, would there be a 50% or a 90% chance that they would have PE seats going spare at the time of check in?

I'd question his answer as there must be a ticket sales desk ther to take money for the Exit seats, change charges, excess baggage etc.

TBH, I've never used Twilight Check-In and haven't been to LGW for a VS flight since December 2001 [:0]

On the day, if they have customer that wants to pay, they will take the money in most instances as they are likely to need people to upgrade. Paid upgrade will always have preference over op upgrade even if the op upgrade is for a Gold FC member.

PE is getting busier, one reason why VH have increased their advance upgrade costs by a huge margin.

I'd say good chances, but there are plenty of people that will pay nowadays. Especially on the return LAS leg for some reason.....

Thanks,
Richard

Richard, thanks for your input.

TBH, I am not surprised that the information I was given was possibly / probably incorrect.

There is no virgin agent at twilight check in so you cannot get the exits the night before.

Exit seats are free of charge on the orlando flights due the large number of families travelling so you may be able to get them the night before if they have been released.

If not early the next day remember check in opens around 5 or 6am!!!

PE is very often full on the orlando flights hence why the upper class seats in row 11 and 12 are used as pE!

quote:Originally posted by declansmith

PE is very often full on the orlando flights hence why the upper class seats in row 11 and 12 are used as pE!

Its stranhe how it used to be that the winter months the flights were not so full. Over the past couple of years the MCO flights even in November have been full. It used to be that over the winter Club Orlando from MAN stopped, now it goes all year round. I don't think the government trying to force parents to keep children in school during term time will change this somehow.

As has been said, the MCO flights PE is mostly full all the time, would there not be a sense in terms of profit, for VS to make more of the LGW-MCO flight (say one of them) PE?
Perhaps this route will get one of the A380's first?

With PE getting so busy, can we expect to see more PE seats and fewer E seats in future? On my last two flights PE was completely full whilst economy was only 1/2 and 3/4 full respectively, so I would assume that none of the people in PE were ops upgrades.