VAA Decision criteria on "upgrade offers"?

Got a PE ticket to LAX booked for Friday 3/6/2011 (and back on Wed 8th), and the o/b leg has had an offer (on "Manage My Bookings") to upgr to UC for weeks, but the i/b leg didn't have this offer until a couple of days ago.

Does this indicate that VAA have expected the o/b leg to be oversold for ages now and that they've only now decided that the i/b leg is in a similar position? Given the timing of these offers (being different) it suggests they have a trigger point where they'd prefer people to move themselves up to UC in anticipation of an oversold flight? Is my understanding of this correct?

Needless to say I'm watching this to see if I'm likely (as an AU) to have a bit of a chance of an OP-UP and/or should look for better upgrade offers (i.e. a reducing UPGR price). There are about a dozen seats left in PE each way at the moment...

If there are a dozen seats remaining in PE I doubt an op-up will come - check the Y cabin though, because if that is rammed then maybe a domino effect may occur?

As to when and how upgrade offers appear, well it's a black art in VS's revenue management, and more likely down to low load in UC rather than high loads in Y and PE. There's probably no rhyme and reason to it, just revenue management periodically looking at flights and making decisions based on loads.

If there are a dozen seats remaining in PE I doubt an op-up will come - check the Y cabin though, because if that is rammed then maybe a domino effect may occur?

My logic is that they're making offers now, and there is a month to go before departure. Don't know what it looks like in Y though (as I can never login to FT).

** AMADEUS AVAILABILITY - AN ** LAX LOS ANGELES.USCA 30 FR 03JUN 0000
1 VS 007 J9 D9 R9 Z9 W9 S8 K7 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 X9 N2 O2
/LHR 3 LAX 2 1130 1450 E0.346 11:20
2 VS 023 J9 D9 R9 Z9 W8 S4 K3 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 X0 N0 O0
/LHR 3 LAX 2 1535 1905 E0.346 11:30

** AMADEUS AVAILABILITY - AN ** LAX LOS ANGELES.USCA 30 FR 03JUN 0000
1 VS 007 J9 D9 R9 Z9 W9 S8 K7 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 X9 N2 O2
/LHR 3 LAX 2 1130 1450 E0.346 11:20
2 VS 023 J9 D9 R9 Z9 W8 S4 K3 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 X0 N0 O0
/LHR 3 LAX 2 1535 1905 E0.346 11:30

Thanks very much for that - I'm on the 23, so looks like Y is wide open, and PE is filling up. Bit inconclusive really - have to hope PE is full by the day of departure... ):

Just checked the flight on Manage my Flights and I'm being offered the "bargain" price of £7,569 :0 (yes you did read that correctly) to upgrade the PE fare to UCS for out and inbound. Are these people completely daft???

You'd better book, it might not stay at that price for long!

Just checked the flight on Manage my Flights and I'm being offered the "bargain" price of £7,569 :0 (yes you did read that correctly) to upgrade the PE fare to UCS for out and inbound. Are these people completely daft???

No (but can't be 100% sure) but more likely due to there may only be the highest UC fare buckets available hence the very high cost. Either that or there is a glitch in the system.