Upgrade with points - Arghhhh

Desparate for help..

Booked a holiday with Virgin Holidays which has Virgin Atlantic flights, asked what the ticket categories were as I wanted to upgrade with my points to Upper class and was told they were 'V', consulted with Flying Cub who said they needed to be 'M' class so paid an extra £180 to VH to have these as 'M' class. I go back to flying club who tells me that I will have to wait to be 'ticketed', then on another call they say I cant upgrade as these are 'M' Net and not 'M' published fares. Arghhh VH now want another £190 each or I can cancel the holiday all together - they knew what I wanted to do and even spoke to VA themselves to confirm the M class was upgradable.... what do I do, help please I am losing the will to live after so many hours on the phone (looking less than rock star treatment here!!.....

[Neil]

Welcome.

While I understand your frustration, it does say in the flying club terms and conditions that you cannot use miles to upgrade flights booked as part of a package through VH. I have personally never heard of it being allowed even if you are booked in to the correct fare class.

[mitchja]

Welcome to V-Flyer.

There is nothing you can do unfortunately.

You cannot upgrade any fare booked via VH using miles and I'm sorry to say but VH should know this!!

Even if they are the correct fare class, they will still always be net/itinerary fares as you mentioned because they have been issued by a travel agent (VH in this case) and not issued directly by VS.

It's only directly issued fares by VS in the correct class that can be upgraded using miles.

The easiest thing to do is just leave things as they are now and stick with your M fares.

[Neil]

Here is the specific terms detailing that it is not allowed

Any Economy fares booked in Y or B class are eligible including Virgin Atlantic published, discounted, corporate, travel agent or tour operator type fares.
Only Virgin Atlantic published Economy fares booked in R, L, U or M class are eligible. All other ticket types such as but not limited to discounted, corporate, travel agent or tour operator fare types are NOT eligible.

Just to add that even if, by some chance, they did allow you to upgrade there still has to be availability in the next class for Reward tickets.

From your post it appears you have already paid an extra £180 to get 'M' class tickets. I would try to get that reversed as it has not given you anything of value

Thanks ever so much for you fast replies! It seems that VH dont know this stuff so confusion reigns... but I will call them tomorrow to at least get the extra I paid to go from V to M class back as this was the understanding that I did this on so this shouldnt be a problem. Bit a a bad taste in my mouth I have to say, wondering why I botherered collecting nearly 100,000 points.