Q. When is a W ticket not a W?

A...When its booked through Virgin Holidays.

I presume others have found this in the past, but I booked a short notice trip to SFO using VH and was pleasantly surprised to see that the PE return from SFO was showing in my MMB booking in a W bucket. So I thought I'd try to do a miles upgrade to a G in Upper as a seat has just become available.

Spoke to Flying Co, Flying Club and VH and it seems a W from VH is a "Net ticket" not a real W as can be bought from VS directly.

Has anyone found a way to get an upgrade using one of these "fake" W's or do I just have to take my chances at SFO next week?

Thanks

Martin

Unfortunately you've been got by the VH system of alerting you to a W, but actually booking you as something else.

AFAIK the only way is to call VH and enquire about the cost, or chance your luck at the airport with an offer to spend miles ...

We have the same problem now with Carlson Wagonlit booking all our flights....the only plus side now being that you get a load check when clicking on the seat map button at the quotation stage.

Thanks Slinky, much as I thought.

The term "Net ticket" is not one I have heard before. I called VH and they said it couldn't be changed once it was issued without incurring cancellation charges. (Which is fair). His suggestion was to trade miles for vouchers and use these somehow?? I'd lost the plot by then.

I'll try at the airport. Just seems so frustrating becuase I can see a free G now and I'm sure it will have gone by next week when I fly.
C'est la vie I suppose.

We have the same problem now with Carlson Wagonlit booking all our flights....the only plus side now being that you get a load check when clicking on the seat map button at the quotation stage.

Interesting... I'm also just starting to use Carlson Wagonlit for work travel, do they make a mess of quoting fare buckets then? Something I'll have to watch out for... Amex always got it spot on in the past.

[mitchja]

VH do seem to be issuing any fare buckets now for VS flights.

My PE flights in Dec to MCO are both Net S fares.

Hi All,

I personally would ring VS on the Upper Class line. W and Y are usually upgradeable on miles regardless of it being a Published or Nett fare. S class however is not accepted unless it is a published fare.

Hope it works out.

Krgds.

[preiffer]

Applies to fares bought with corporate discounts now too. Discounted (net) tickets have different rules, so companion fares/upgrades can be iffy.

Also a W is not a W when one of the sectors is something different.
For example an X one way and W one way - your W sector will have all the retrictions of the X attatched to it - although it would be upgradable. (W is normally fully flex, refundable etc)

As a postscript to this, I flew back in yesterday on the aforementioned W ticket.

UC was full so no upgrade possible. The good news however, is that when I looked at my FC account this morning, I saw that the W was counted as full fare PE. That means I received 150% of miles plus my Au 100% bonus plus 4 tier points. Plus I got the PE exit row (28A) and a fantasic crew.

y) y)

Deleted post - posted in wrong forum, sorry.