Miles and tier points with an upgrade?

I recently saved thousands of air miles with Virgin in the hope of exchanging them for an upgrade. I have just saved enough air miles for an upgrade and when I booked my seat a few days ago i was told that I needed to pay a higher premium for my seat in order to upgrade. I find this totally unethical and was simply told to go and read the small print.

Joeyc you lost me a tad there
Only joking no that is good information as Bretty says

The thing that makes it complicated and a bit counter-intuitive is that the renewal ("membership") year is fixed, but the cycle for tier-upgrades is a rolling period. A mistake people sometimes make here is to assume that they both operate in the same way -- but they don't.

For someone in the red tier in Bretty's situation, the renewal year is moot. The rolling period determines your TPs for upgrade to AG, and then your renewal period opens when you get upgraded to AG.

It's complicated but it works to your advantage because accumulated TPs are not zeroed at membership-year-end for tier upgrades.

Still with me? ?| ][|)

Thanks at240, yes still with you

Whoa! I never thought my original question would elicit such a response!
Thank you one and all for sharing your knowledge once again. oo) I never realised I would have to call FC to claim the miles. :0

Bretty - hope the answers have helped you too.

Reading through all the responses got me thinking:

As of 6th December 2012, I became Ag. When I got this, my i-Phone app confirmed it and my tier points were 'reset' to zero.

My FC year ends on 31st December this year and on 1st January 2014 I'll be relegated to Red. :#

However, between now and the end of this year, I will earn another 12 tier points as a result of trips to BGI and LAS. These won't be enough to take me to Au.

So my question is this: come New Year's Day, will I have lost these 12 points earned from my forthcoming trips or will I keep them?

If it's the latter, then I will be able to regain Ag at some point in 2014 and VS will command my loyalty for another year at least. ^)

If it's the former, then Lucifer will be skiing to work before I get Ag again and I might be shopping around for my next flight... B)

Paul

I might be totally wrong here cos to be honest I've had a drink but if you achieved silver on the 6th of dec and then got the 12 more TP before the end of dec I think they will just disappear as you still won't have achieved enough to reach AU but for arguments sake if you had 28 TP and then got the 12 more before the end of dec you would achieve AU

for arguments sake if you had 28 TP and then got the 12 more before the end of dec you would achieve AU

Sadly not - I've got 18 and would need another 22 for Au. So, it seems that all those lovely tier points I'll be earning over the next couple of months will be of no use to me whatsoever as they'll simply disappear into the ether as the first bars of Auld Lang Syne ring out... !

...to be honest I've had a drink

It might be 'school night' but I think I'll join you Blacky... ii)

Unfortunately I tend to do silly things regarding booking flights if I've had too much ! Where's that bottle gone ?

@lettherebeflight - you will still have enough to retain Ag though for next year no?

Unfortunately I tend to do silly things regarding booking flights if I've had too much ! Where's that bottle gone ?

That would be my cue to go and bury my phone in the garden ii)

Well I just logged into my FC account to see if the miles and TP fairy had automatically credited my miles and TPs for the PE portion of my G fare to NRT, expecting I would have to call when I got back. And lo... they've been credited, and so have my OH's, so maybe the system glitch is being sorted. Anyway, the next credit for the return flight will bump us both to AG, I'm so excited I could crush a grape!

Well I just logged into my FC account to see if the miles and TP fairy had automatically credited my miles and TPs for the PE portion of my G fare to NRT, expecting I would have to call when I got back. And lo... they've been credited, and so have my OH's, so maybe the system glitch is being sorted. Anyway, the next credit for the return flight will bump us both to AG, I'm so excited I could crush a grape!

Or maybe the system glitch has only been sorted for you Bretty. Our outbound flights to JFK are not showing up so we'll have to call FC when we get back.

A few posters on here have reported that their points/miles have intermittently automatically been awarded, however I booked a reward upgrade last week and flying club stated that I would have to call them after my return for the points/miles to be awarded - so situation normal I think!

What a strange bleedin' IT system VS has, lol