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Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 10:42
by LucePorti
Is there a way of finding out how full the plane I'm travelling on is?

Flight is VS075 MAN MCO on 19/06/12 and any tips for blagging a PE upgrade as its our wedding / honeymoon? Lol...

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 11:38
by Neil
If you register on flightstats.com you can do load checks, although this far out they are still pretty pointless and of course only show a max of 9 per fare code, so won't tell you exactly how many seats are left.

Free upgrade? The only way you will get a free upgrade, regardless of the fact it is your honeymoon (really makes no difference) is because Virgin *need* to move you. If say economy was oversold and PE has space then they would mvoe some pax up a cabin to get everyone on the flight. This however is done is a strict order with flying club gold members first and then those on higher fare bucket tickets next. Plus it will also depend on how many people they need to move, if they need 3 seats in economy they will look for a party of 3 to move etc.

Basically what I am trying to say is, you have very little chance, and count yourself very lucky if it does happen, but please I really wouldn't get your hopes up as op-ups are very rare nowadays.

Thanks,
Neil

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 11:43
by JCBR
If you bear in mind that the chance of a free upgrade is as close to zero as you can measure you might want to think about paying to sit in the PE seats. This is the only realistic way to sit there !

Find out the price - it may be a lot less than you expected. (depending on your expectations of course !!).

An alternative is to use miles to upgrade. It only uses 10k each person each way. If you do not have enough then you can buy some.

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 11:46
by Neil
JCBR wrote:
An alternative is to use miles to upgrade. It only uses 10k each person each way. If you do not have enough then you can buy some.


Do remember though you need to be in an upgradable fare class to use miles (Y,B,R,L) and there needs to be PE miles seats available also (P).

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 12:51
by allymc316
you know, I have thought that way myself for a long time. I was always trying to see about blagging upgrades.

In the end I have just Purchased any upgrades I wanted. On my honeymoon in June I paid a total of £650 for Premium Economy return tickets to Cancun for 2. I booked through Thomas Cook and they got me an amazing deal.

I played all the travel agents off each other to lower the price. The original cost of my honeymoon was £4650. I paid just £3530.

So you can get upgrades a lot cheaper than you might expected.

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 13:38
by Daffodil
I just did a dummy booking for your flight for the 19/06/12 on orbitz.com, where you are able to look at seat maps. At the moment there is lots of availabilty in economy.

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 14:00
by LucePorti
Thanks so much for the replies, I will check that site out later.

I was more thinking of a cheaper PE upgrade, I can't imagine getting for free. Just wondered if they can sometimes offer a reduced upgrade price at check in. Not enough miles either, I've only about 4k.

Thanks for the replies, appreciate it.

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 14:01
by Neil
The average upgrade price at the airport seems to be around the £250pp one way currently.

Re: Flight capacity

PostPosted: 23 Apr 2012, 17:27
by JCBR
don't forget you can buy miles