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Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 14:54
by wakefieldbr
Hi,
Can anyone please tell me how many virgin P.E to upperclass upgrade seats using miles are available each flight also how many miles plus money upper class seats are available.

Im always getting emails telling me I can use my miles for these upgrades but whenever I check no seats are available.

Many thanks

Brian w

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 15:12
by Neil
Hi and welcome.

Unfortunately there really is no definite answer to this. The amount of mileage seats (and MPM seats) in each cabin varies flight to flight, date to date, and route to route.

For example a flight to MCO during Easter holidays will be very difficult to get mileage seats on (not impossible though), but a flight in January there will be more chance.

It is all down to revenue management to decide and unfortunately there is also no set pattern as to when they are released so you just have to keep checking on a daily basis, as today there might not be any, but tomorrow some could become available, and that is the case right up until the day of the flight.

Thanks,
Neil

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 18:47
by DragonLady
And remember if you are looking to use miles to upgrade a revenue PE seat to UC ( assumimng you find a G UC reward fare) , it would need to be booked in a qualifying (ie more expensive) fare class (S or W for PE).
DL

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 19:12
by wakefieldbr
Thanks for the info, apart from miles plus money fares for e and p.e seats it's hard to make good use of the miles I have.

Brian

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 20:27
by at240
What routes do you fly, Brian? And how many miles do you have?

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 20:48
by alibeau
We have a similar problem. We fly MAN - MCO twice a year. Before the girls started school we were able to get an UC reward seat for flights in February. Fabulous! Now the girls are 8 & 6 we are tied to Easter and August and also don't have much flexibility at all in our dates. For the past few years I have been using my miles towards M&M fares but realise this is not the best use of them but given we are tied to school holidays for at least another decade I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to make best use of my miles ?|

Ali :)

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 20:57
by wakefieldbr
Hi,
Between me and the wife we have 50000 miles, we are flying to Orlando on sep 9th p.e but wanted to upgrade on the way out but didn't get the option.

I spoke to virgin about up grading our k class ticket so we could upgrade using miles but was told no up grade seats are available and chances there wouldn't be in the future.


We are planning to go to Boston or Vancouver sometime next year money premitting.


It seems these seats are like hens teeth on the holiday routes.

Many thanks for the info

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 22:10
by at240
Orlando is quite a tough route, by all accounts, but the trick is to keep at it -- check every day, as many times as you can. If rewards seats open up, book them immediately. The situation changes constantly and if you can be slightly flexible about flights and/or dates, you may well succeed.

Boston is a bit easier, and Vancouver currently looks comparatively plentiful! (NB if you are going to Boston, consider flying to NYC too because there is usually good availability.)

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 02 May 2012, 22:39
by tontybear
wakefieldbr wrote:
I spoke to virgin about up grading our k class ticket so we could upgrade using miles but was told no up grade seats are available and chances there wouldn't be in the future.



At least they didn't make you pay to change your K to a W or S before telling you there were no G's available.

Keep trying. It is quite a time until Sept so fingers crossed.

Re: Availability of miles upgrade seats

PostPosted: 03 May 2012, 09:28
by msmith
I just got a miles upgrade to SFO in a couple of weeks. I didn't know they changed availability over time but it makes sense given there's estimation of demand involved.

First time I've been able to spend any of my miles so quite pleased!

Martin