Tokyo Upgrade Guidance Please

Having flown VS PE last month to NYC (we were able to use the CH as we purchased the Guestlist as a treat), I obviously caught the VS bug and decided to collect some VS miles.

I now have 100k and would like to use them to fly two adultsto Tokyo in UC using upgrades both ways. This is where I start getting lost in the quagmire of Virgin upgrade bookings and would appreciate advice and guidance from all you experts oo)

So my options (I think!) are purchase either Economy tickets and upgrade to UC for 100k or PE tickets and upgrade for 50K. Obviously the latter option is more expensive but I believe the tax and fuel surcharges in PE are very similar to UC ?|

I am looking to get most value for money with the points, rather than save a few quid. There is lots of availability for M class seats I was told on this route, with upgrade seat availability. The cost would be approx £2500 in total for both of us. A decent saving on normal UC prices.

But now I am wondering if purchasing PE seats with lower tax/fuel surcharges and upgrading those would be a better option, using half the miles? Happy to blow the lot on this trip or spend half and use the remainder towards another upgrade trip one day. Would the upgradable PE seats be the "flexible" seats on the VS website? In which case the lowest UC fare is only £200 more each way.

Thanks in advance y)

You need to check availability in UC first of all, as this will hinge on when you can fly.

Econ upgrade to UC is the best use. IMHO,
1. check availability in UC
2. price your M seats, plus add additional UC Fuel surcharge and tax onto that.

If you are ready to book, I'd find your seats (reward seats in UC) and give flying club a call.

Would the upgradable PE seats be the "flexible" seats on the VS website? In which case the lowest UC fare is only £200 more each way.

Thanks in advance y)

W and S are the miles upgradeable PE fare classes. As you've discovered there's not always a large differential between these and the lowest available UC fare ( which will have restrictions) .
DL

As DL has said your PE upgradeable fares are S or W. I'm flying out in a few weeks on G's upgraded from an S fare. At the time I booked, the S fares were £1800 each and the lowest cost UC (Z fare) was £3250 each so I feel I got a good saving when I booked and upgraded.

When are you thinking of travelling? I've just checked for my dates in May, and then some dates in June and July using the link from my FC page. There seems to be plenty of UC reward seats available but no S or W PE fares, only H fares which are not upgradeable with miles. Plenty of EC M fares available too, but obviously that will use up all your miles. The additional taxes etc to go from an M fare to UC with miles is £205 per person, so currently you could do 2 M fares (approx £900 each) plus upgrade with 100,000 miles and taxes for approx £2,200 total cost. You would still earn miles and tier points on the M fare, 12,440 miles and 4 TP per person.

When I check flights from VS homepage there are W PE fares available. I'd say these aren't really as good value for miles upgrades as S fares. When I was doing my research a few months ago W's were £1100pp more expensive than S fares! (They're currently same price as they were 6 months ago).

The difference between PE and UC tax/surcharges is £83pp. UC Z fares are still steady at the same prices I saw 6 months ago when I booked.

If you have a VS black Amex then you'll pay a surcharge for using it but you will earn 4 miles per £ spent with VS. You can also choose to miles boost before or up to 6 months after the trip for very reasonable money to start building up your miles again.

I hope that's all useful to you.
Bon voyage! y)

Thanks Bretty that is very useful and detailed- very much appreciated.

We were intending to go in the Autumn but have decided to go to Boston instead (on BA) so ygo to Japan just after Easter next year instead. Hopefully in time for the Blossoms.

And maybe I will have collected 200k by then?!

That's great Maximus. Avoid Golden Week in Japan which is end of April / early May as that's national holidays for Japanese and you'll struggle to book anything etc so I'm told. Yes, you just might have 200,000 miles by then lol!

I've just recently booked for Boston in autumn too, peak fall foliage season and am really looking forward to it. Got my UC tickets in the recent sale for what I consider a bargain!

Happy holidays... y) y)

Worth pointing out that if you book an upgradeable fare, and then use miles to upgrade to Upper, you're still entitled to earn miles & tier points for the paid portion of the ticket. That further the reduces the net miles spent for the ticket in comparison with a pure miles redemption.