V-Flyer

Hi all,

I'm planning on heading to Vegas in July, 22nd or so, for ten days-ish, and was tempted by the PE upgrade option. I know that there is a little bit of a gamble in that most of the planes are not refurbished yet but I flew the route once before and it was OK, although the IFE was a bit on the ropey side.

My plan is to fly out of Belfast, so I can't book the flight through the Virgin website (they seem to have a "dohop" partner to handle this). I found a good price for the full BHD-LGW-LAS flight using skyscanner. Will this harm my ability to upgrade to PE before the flight ? Do I need to checkin online for both the BHD-LGW and LGW-LAS legs separately ? Is it likely that I'll be able to score a better price for the upgrade if I do it a day or two before the flight rather than upfront ?

Thoughts welcome.

bheading wrote:Hi all,

I'm planning on heading to Vegas in July, 22nd or so, for ten days-ish, and was tempted by the PE upgrade option. I know that there is a little bit of a gamble in that most of the planes are not refurbished yet but I flew the route once before and it was OK, although the IFE was a bit on the ropey side.

My plan is to fly out of Belfast, so I can't book the flight through the Virgin website (they seem to have a "dohop" partner to handle this). I found a good price for the full BHD-LGW-LAS flight using skyscanner. Will this harm my ability to upgrade to PE before the flight ? Do I need to checkin online for both the BHD-LGW and LGW-LAS legs separately ? Is it likely that I'll be able to score a better price for the upgrade if I do it a day or two before the flight rather than upfront ?

Thoughts welcome.

Hi and welcome to V-Flyer.

Please be aware that if you do book via the Do-hop connector you will be booking through a third party and not directly with VS. This means that you will be on separate tickets and therefore will not be able to check your bags all the way through from BHD to LAS. You will have to collect them at LGW and re-check them. In addition if there is a delay in your flight from Belfast neither of the airlines has any responsibility for sorting out a missed flight - they are regarded as two separate journeys. VS does warn about this on the website but it is very easy to overlook.

The other thing to remember is that if you are booking an economy ticket and are planning to upgrade to PE if there is a cheap upgrade on offer you will probably be booked on one of the lower fares in economy and therefore any upgrade offers will be quite expensive. It may be worth your while to look at the PE options on the VS website and see what is on offer. You may well find it is within your budget even when factoring in a flight from Belfast. However you may also find at this late stage many of the cheaper fares have gone. LAS is a very popular route

Good luck with your search

Thank you for the advice.

The comment about dohop makes me a bit concerned. I thought if I booked through a travel agent that the airlines would be responsible for the whole journey, or are you saying that this is a problem specific to dohop ?

The rates on the VA website at the minute are actually quite good IMO, better than they were a week ago ..

Ah, I checked dohop again and I see the warning.

I assume if I book the thing via skyscanner it will set up a connected journey rather than two independent ones. It's odd that Virgin haven't sorted this out on their own site, most of the other airlines have ..

bheading wrote:Ah, I checked dohop again and I see the warning.

I assume if I book the thing via skyscanner it will set up a connected journey rather than two independent ones. It's odd that Virgin haven't sorted this out on their own site, most of the other airlines have ..

It probably will but it will be at a fare that probably will not be upgradeable.

Virgin can do it by calling and probably the BHD-LGW will be at a fully flexible fare. I live in County Cork and if I book a fare via VS out of there I am quoted such a fare. I choose to book separate fares and pad the schedule to allow for any delays from Cork

Well, I went ahead and called VA and booked the flight. Quite impressed by the VA telephone booking experience.

They actually put the through ticketed flight out of Belfast together at a rate slightly better than the one I had found online, so I'm chuffed with that. More strange was the rate they quoted for a PE upgrade - they wanted £2300, a rather drastic price increase. Checking just now, the website offers the PE upgrade for £600 on the LGW-LAS leg of the trip (both ways). I'm wondering if he accidentally quoted the UC rate. Not quite rich enough to jump for that.

The VA guy said that at the airport they may have an upgrade option depending on availability, so I'll chance my arm with that I think.

Just noticing I did not give him my middle name, it's on my passport but not the ticket. I presume this is not a problem.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

good you have got a price you like.

once you get your booking ref you may see some upgrade offers in 'manage your bookings' so keep checking there

And no the 'missing' middle name won't cause you any problems.

Thanks tonty

I got the booking ref and checked it on the site, nothing there offer-wise right now but I'll keep an eye out. Confirms that the ticket is a type O, which according to the handy checker in the toolbox confirms that it's bottom of the list. Ah well, can't complain.

Glad to hear that about the middle name. VA's site confirms that it should be OK in the booking ref section.