V-Flyer

Hello,

We are flying with Virgin (Premium cabin) again in a few months time. Currently I have 99,000 air miles.

Our holiday is booked through Virgin Holidays (to Dubai) and I believe our tickets are classed as 'S'.

Does anyone know if I can upgrade our tickets (x5) from Premium Economy to Upper Class using just the airmiles? According to the VA site, Dubai can be upgraded both ways for 20,000 airmiles per person but apparently this can only be done on the day of departure?

Another reason for this question is it seems to be the only decent way of spending all the miles I've accumulated!

I tried to use the miles when booking the holiday but Virgin Holidays said no, any spending has to be done directly with Virgin Atlantic. ?|

mancini605 wrote:Our holiday is booked through Virgin Holidays (to Dubai) and I believe our tickets are classed as 'S'.

Does anyone know if I can upgrade our tickets (x5) from Premium Economy to Upper Class using just the airmiles? According to the VA site, Dubai can be upgraded both ways for 20,000 airmiles per person but apparently this can only be done on the day of departure?

Hello and welcome....

Good news - if an "S" class the ticket can be upgraded.

However, you can only be upgraded if there is "reward" availability in class you are upgrading to - that there unsold seats on the day doesn't necessarily mean they'll be made available for upgrades. Also, you may have to do it by leg - i.e. upgrade only the outbound when at LHR, upgrade the inbound when at the airport on the way back.

And, there will, I think, be a cost in terms of additional taxes.

Other opinions will undoubtedly be along shortly...

Oh, and remember to post a TR!

I'm not sure, but I think that the tickets being from virgin holidays complicate things a little and aren't necessarily an upgradeable ticket regardless of class. I could, and often am, be wrong however.

Thanks for your replies.

TR?

mancini605 wrote:Thanks for your replies.

TR?

Sorry, jargon. "Trip Report". Place to report, praise, vent, be humourous (at least attempt to be B)) about the experience of flying VS.

You can get an idea of availability far out by doing a dummy miles booking on the VS website, it one of your dates comes up then that means there's a mileage seat available now. However, mileage seats can and do come up within 24 hours of departure. As I say above though, I'm still not sure what influence V holiday being the agent has on the tickets and your ability to upgrade them.

I'd echo others, you'd do well to confirm 100% that they have you on a S fare, would seem unusual as part of a package, which assume it is?

VHols have been known to issue different cabin fares other than their usual ones.

I made a VHols booking a few years ago and almost ended up with a full W PE fare. It was a W until about 2 weeks before departure but then changed to a standard VHols H fare.

Apparently VHols had over-booked their PE cabin allocation for the flight I was on, but VS released an H fare for them 2 weeks before.

If you fare stays as an S fare, you can try upgrading at the airport but I would't get your hopes up too much. Agent issued S fares are not upgradable using miles. It's only directly issued S fares from VS that can be upgraded using miles.

mitchja wrote:Agent issued S fares are not upgradable using miles. It's only directly issued S fares from VS that can be upgraded using miles.

I stand corrected, and apologies for any misinformation in my earlier post. I was going from what it said on "The Toolbox -> Fare Codes"... :w

Thanks everyone for your replies.

As for package....what we do every year is call VHols and just state the dates, airline (Virgin) and cabin (Premium) and hotel we want, get a price and book and pay.

I found out we had 'S' class by logging into my Flying Club account, going to 'future flights' with booking ref and went to reserve our seats. I just happened to notice that that the information showing for both outbound and inbound itineraries it said 'Class S'.

TBH if I can't cabin upgrade using the miles then so be it but after this holiday I'll have many more miles to somehow use!

mancini605 wrote:Thanks everyone for your replies.

As for package....what we do every year is call VHols and just state the dates, airline (Virgin) and cabin (Premium) and hotel we want, get a price and book and pay.

I found out we had 'S' class by logging into my Flying Club account, going to 'future flights' with booking ref and went to reserve our seats. I just happened to notice that that the information showing for both outbound and inbound itineraries it said 'Class S'.

TBH if I can't cabin upgrade using the miles then so be it but after this holiday I'll have many more miles to somehow use!

Why don't you give Virgin Atlantic a call and see what they say? It may well be "no" but at least you will have clarified the point. If that is the case it may give you food for thought to consider a once-off booking next year of booking the flights and hotels independently. Some people have found that it is cheaper than booking with VHols

Good point Honey Lamb....I might just book independently for another trip at Christmas. Haven't told my wife yet though lol.

As we normally buy the tickets as soon as they are released we tend to get a "K" class (PE) which makes it hard or expensive for a M+M trip,we have now over 100,000 air miles each and was hopping to uprade to UC this years as it's our 40th wedding anniversary,but again quite expensive,so thought we would just keep collecting for another couple of years until our twin grandchildren are old enough to go to Disney,but assume will have same problem,although the miles do not cost anything as such,not much use if you struggle to use them!