Upgrade Questions...

I have enough miles for an Economy to Premium Economy upgrade. If I book the lowest price economy flight (as offered via the Virgin website), is this fare code eligible for upgrades? Or do I need to call the Virgin booking line, for them to offer me the correct fare code to upgrade?

Also, do you end up paying so much more for that different 'fare code', that it's actually a better idea to just pay the lowest price Premium Economy ticket price, which works out to about $550 more than the lowest cost Economy flight?

Thanks in advance.

No, the lowest price economy fares are not eligible for an upgrade.

The cheapest code that is upgradeable is an M, for which you'll need to call.

And yes, you may find that the price of an M is fairly close to the lowest PE fare.

The best value when redeeming miles tends to be when you upgrade from economy or PE to Upper, when you can potentially save hundreds of pounds.

I just called Virgin. I would need to spend 20k miles, and spend $2050, for a roundtrip PE flight. Or, I can just buy the lowest fair PE flight for $2100.

Seriously, the rewards rates suck for upgrades.

yep, with the surcharges and often poor availability it's not a great deal

as mentioned, upgrades to UC tend to be best value, UC miles+money can also be ok

From what I've calculated, I'd save $1050 if I used 40k points for a roundtrip Economy flight, which is decent (about 2.5 cents per point). There's limited availability (and not the time I want to fly) - so I think I'll save my points for a future flight, when I'm poor

Suddenly the option of our usual VH money off vouchers does not seem such a bad idea. At least I then get what I want when I want it even though the rate is rubbish.