This is the main V-Flyer Forum for general discussion of everything related to flying with Virgin-branded travel companies.
#962021 by CommanderB
22 Jul 2023, 10:45
Well, good morning from a busy clubhouse!

Just finished breakfast and thought I’d share a story…

There’s been a number of threads recently about issues calculating upgrade “taxes”. Specifically from premium to upper. Something I often contribute on as it’s something I do extremely regularly.

On todays flight, they were selling 3 more J tickets this morning. The app showed an upgrade price of £949 (no thank you). But I thought, fantastic, clubhouse concierge can do a points upgrade for me as normal. Something I’ve done dozens of times. 2 seats left in upper, and 1G blocked as usual.

Two concierge agents on the desk. One very new and junior one, and another that’s been there years (someone that knows me by face and I get on well with).

Junior chap calls ticketing. Mistakenly calls ticketing desk downstairs rather than GTS. They quote £140 ish plus 40,000 points for the upgrade (USA west coast flight). That’s wrong. Per the sheet they have in the clubhouse plus the upgrade table on the website.

We politely put the phone down because we’re getting nowhere with him.

Consult the clubhouse sheets. £230 YQ and 38,700. Also wrong, YQ is £330 at the moment but their sheet is from 2022. Clubhouse manager says call GTS to ensure it’s correct.

Phone GTS, they say 40,000 points plus £330. Almost right. Argue the toss on the points. Won’t budge. Then they say “oh that seats not available for upgrade anymore”. I’m thinking someone at check in has leap frogged me because of all the farting about. Not a happy chappy now.

Continued to push back because I figured there was confusion between “blocked seat” and “unavailable for upgrade”.

Called a different GTS agent and started fresh.

Finally taxes and points taken (incorrect points, but we can fix that later). And new boarding pass issued. Only took 25 minutes.

Even the Clubhouse manager and senior concierge agent said “this is ridiculous”. And they thought it was hilarious that there was a customer schooling GTS on their own job. (I took over the phone to try and speed up the process).

Moral of the story…

If you think something isn’t right, push back.
4 different agents said different things. Clubhouse concierge were brilliant, but even they sometimes don’t know the true answers. Their paperwork is out of date for some reason. Although I did collect some pictures for my inevitable chat about YQ with customer service (probably a lost cause).

I expect I’m being quoted 40,000 for the upgrade because they’ve changed the rates but haven’t announced publicly. (Website still says the correct numbers). Not that it matters because one hand clearly isn’t talking to the other. I’ll call up next week and query why the website says on thing but someone “mistakenly” took more points ;-)

Finally. Get to the airport early if you want to do any kind of upgrade. Someone almost got that seat that I got if it wasn’t for me being early AND pushing back on the clearly incorrect information.

On the subject of YQ. It’s costing more than the reward YQ in total when doing upgrades as they’re using fixed fees rather than difference in YQ as it was in the past.

Well. That’s my morning. Out.
#962022 by mitchja
22 Jul 2023, 11:00
Glad you finally got it sorted!!

This is where airlines always fall down these days. Many airlines including VS (and BA are just as bad for this) can no longer re-issue or re-process tickets at airports and solely rely on their own call centres. Even if airport staff do know how to process these tasks (which I sure many do), their systems are now so locked down, it no longer lets them. Ticketing control has been taken away from airport staff. It's utterly ridiculous and needs to change.

I'd send an email directly to Shai to raise this with VS Exec office.

Anyway...enjoy your time in the CH and have a wonderful trip :cool:
#962023 by CommanderB
22 Jul 2023, 11:11
mitchja wrote:Glad you finally got it sorted!!

This is where airlines always fall down these days. Many airlines including VS (and BA are just as bad for this) can no longer re-issue or re-process tickets at airports and solely rely on their own call centres. Even if airport staff do know how to process these tasks (which I sure many do), their systems are now so locked down, it no longer lets them. Ticketing control has been taken away from airport staff. It's utterly ridiculous and needs to change.

I'd send an email directly to Shai to raise this with VS Exec office.

Anyway...enjoy your time in the CH and have a wonderful trip :cool:


Mentioned it to Rami as he’s very responsive. Not exec but at least he knows his staff are still superstars.

In all fairness, I view airport upgrades as a sport. And it’s a sport I’m good at! It’s just not fun if it isn’t hard.

:cool:
#962025 by Claphambear
22 Jul 2023, 11:47
mitchja wrote:Glad you finally got it sorted!!

This is where airlines always fall down these days. Many airlines including VS (and BA are just as bad for this) can no longer re-issue or re-process tickets at airports and solely rely on their own call centres. Even if airport staff do know how to process these tasks (which I sure many do), their systems are now so locked down, it no longer lets them. Ticketing control has been taken away from airport staff. It's utterly ridiculous and needs to change.

I'd send an email directly to Shai to raise this with VS Exec office.

Anyway...enjoy your time in the CH and have a wonderful trip :cool:


We mentioned something to Shai last weekend (a compliment) and Suzanne was right on the case . Feedback to SLT is all so important
Last edited by mitchja on 22 Jul 2023, 13:02, edited 2 times in total. Reason: please don't post full staff names without their permission. Thanks.
#962030 by dmc
22 Jul 2023, 23:58
CommanderB wrote:I expect I’m being quoted 40,000 for the upgrade because they’ve changed the rates but haven’t announced publicly. (Website still says the correct numbers). Not that it matters because one hand clearly isn’t talking to the other. I’ll call up next week and query why the website says on thing but someone “mistakenly” took more points ;-)


I think you're right that they've changed - it seems to depend which page you look at on the website; they have updated some and not others! - I think it changed a couple of weeks ago as I remember seeing it as 80,000 on there for a roundtrip upgrade from PE to Upper for West Coast when I last upgraded a flight.

On this page it shows 80,000 in the upgrade table (both off-peak and peak!):
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... oints.html

.. but on this page it still shows 67,400 (off-peak) and 77,400 (peak):
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... xtras.html

The first link is via: Flying Club > Spend points > Upgrade your seat
The second link is via: Destinations & onboard > Extras and upgrades
#962031 by CommanderB
23 Jul 2023, 00:42
dmc wrote:
CommanderB wrote:I expect I’m being quoted 40,000 for the upgrade because they’ve changed the rates but haven’t announced publicly. (Website still says the correct numbers). Not that it matters because one hand clearly isn’t talking to the other. I’ll call up next week and query why the website says on thing but someone “mistakenly” took more points ;-)


I think you're right that they've changed - it seems to depend which page you look at on the website; they have updated some and not others! - I think it changed a couple of weeks ago as I remember seeing it as 80,000 on there for a roundtrip upgrade from PE to Upper for West Coast when I last upgraded a flight.

On this page it shows 80,000 in the upgrade table (both off-peak and peak!):
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... oints.html

.. but on this page it still shows 67,400 (off-peak) and 77,400 (peak):
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... xtras.html

The first link is via: Flying Club > Spend points > Upgrade your seat
The second link is via: Destinations & onboard > Extras and upgrades


11th of July apparently it changed.

Clearly a lot of people didn’t get the memo.

Nothing from VS trade.
Clubhouse staff unaware.
Website half updated.

*eyerolls*
#962036 by dmc
23 Jul 2023, 17:20
CommanderB wrote:On the subject of YQ. It’s costing more than the reward YQ in total when doing upgrades as they’re using fixed fees rather than difference in YQ as it was in the past.


I noticed this as well - I recently upgraded the return leg of a PE cash fare to UC with points, and had to pay £330 in fees. A few weeks later I upgraded the return leg of a PE reward seat to UC with points (exact same route), and only had to pay £230.
#962037 by CommanderB
23 Jul 2023, 18:08
dmc wrote:
CommanderB wrote:On the subject of YQ. It’s costing more than the reward YQ in total when doing upgrades as they’re using fixed fees rather than difference in YQ as it was in the past.


I noticed this as well - I recently upgraded the return leg of a PE cash fare to UC with points, and had to pay £330 in fees. A few weeks later I upgraded the return leg of a PE reward seat to UC with points (exact same route), and only had to pay £230.


Not surprising. £230 was the old price for USA. See attached image from the Clubhouse (this has now been corrected). But clearly a lot of people have got outdated information or somehow make it up as they go along like in my experience yesterday.

Image

These prices (even +£100) are still fair. Whats not fair is that the base level of YQ isn't taken into account at all so you can end up paying way over the odds for your ticket if you upgrade both ways.

Example, my current ticket has £400 YQ on it already. Then £330 x 2 (out and inbound) + £400 = £1060. But the YQ for a reward fare for the USA costs about £700 right now. So upgraders are being seriously punished. If the old method was used, the cost would be about £150 each way - totally reasonable.
#962039 by mitchja
23 Jul 2023, 20:02
It look like VS have increased YQ on upgrades but not yet of pure reward fares as YQ on a revenue Upper fare is now £900 though £1060 is still not £900!
#962040 by CommanderB
23 Jul 2023, 20:58
mitchja wrote:It look like VS have increased YQ on upgrades but not yet of pure reward fares as YQ on a revenue Upper fare is now £900 though £1060 is still not £900!


Can you guess what my email to Shai will be about...? :-D
Virgin Atlantic

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests

Itinerary Calendar