V-Flyer

Hi All,

I am sure I should know this, but.......

I am looking at flights for next summer to MCO for 3 pax and I have a couple of Amex upgrade vouchers.

With the 330 (?) day rule there are seats released for the outbound, but not the return.

Does anyone know how I can bag the outbound until the returns are released?

I am looking for potentially 3 weeks so that is a very long time for those outbound seats to remain available unless I can hook them somehow.

Thanks

You can put them on hold for a short amount of time.. no longer than 48hrs though I believe it is. I suppose in theory you could call back every two days and put them on hold again, although this would no doubt be rather time consuming and annoying.

I am assuming it is the PE reward seats you are looking to bag as opposed to the economy redemption ones? If so, don't see why you shouldn't be able to 'buy' the outbound now and then get the returns in a few weeks?

That's exactly what I've done for the past few years. 'Buy' the outward when they're available, then 'buy' the return leg when that becomes available. It's the same number of points in total...

The only difference I've noticed is that at the entrance to the UC wing, the poor checkin girl asks 'errr - you ARE coming back to the UK aren't you sir?'. Showing them the separate reservation back to the UK usually makes them smile with relief

Peter

joeyc wrote:I am assuming it is the PE reward seats you are looking to bag as opposed to the economy redemption ones? If so, don't see why you shouldn't be able to 'buy' the outbound now and then get the returns in a few weeks?

It is the PE and this is where it gets more complicated.

If I 'buy' the outbound to secure them, I am not 100% certain that the returns will be released - even being fairly flexible may not be enough to get in quick for the return.

The other point is that using the Amex upgrade vouchers means that if I book the outbound that uses the voucher, it would not be valid for the return as they would see it as a different booking. But Peter, you are right if I were not using the Amex upgrades.

I have a horrible feeling that what I want to do is not possible.

spiceke wrote:If I 'buy' the outbound to secure them, I am not 100% certain that the returns will be released - even being fairly flexible may not be enough to get in quick for the return.

That is were you will be rolling the dice. 8D

The other point is that using the Amex upgrade vouchers means that if I book the outbound that uses the voucher, it would not be valid for the return as they would see it as a different booking. But Peter, you are right if I were not using the Amex upgrades.

I have a horrible feeling that what I want to do is not possible.

Anything it possible

With the Amex reward upgrades they are returns so in effect two one ways. I am sure a call to VS will help as they will be able to issue the two one way upgrades for you and then take the return reward voucher from your account. |:)

Let us know if it works, not sure if it has been tried before. Logically there shouldn't be a problem though - assuming VS is at all logical that is

joeyc wrote:
Anything it possible

With the Amex reward upgrades they are returns so in effect two one ways. I am sure a call to VS will help as they will be able to issue the two one way upgrades for you and then take the return reward voucher from your account. |:)

I would be quite surprised if they did (or could do) this. I think it would effectively mean applying a voucher to two bookings, and I suspect that they'd not want to set such a precedent.

at240 wrote:

joeyc wrote:
Anything it possible

With the Amex reward upgrades they are returns so in effect two one ways. I am sure a call to VS will help as they will be able to issue the two one way upgrades for you and then take the return reward voucher from your account. |:)

I would be quite surprised if they did (or could do) this. I think it would effectively mean applying a voucher to two bookings, and I suspect that they'd not want to set such a precedent.

I also think this might be stretching it a little too far, yes they can be helpful but allowing a portion of the voucher to remain open for us against a booking that might not happen seems a little obscure.

To the OP, if it were me I would wait until both legs are available. A good thing to remember is that a lot of people will be in exactly the same situation as you waiting for both legs to be available before booking, so fingers crossed they shouldn't go.

I HAVE done this - recently

I booked the return leg back from Boston separately to the outward leg that I'd booked 3 weeks before

When I booked the return, I used ONE Amex voucher to upgrade the two of us (self & wife) from Economy (paid for with miles) to PE
This still left me with ONE Amex voucher unused (for the outward we used miles for UC)Note that there was only ONE Booking for the return - we were both travelling under the same PNR

The fact that we were 'op-up'd for the return to London was the icing on the cake!

Peter

PeterStansfield wrote:I HAVE done this - recently

I booked the return leg back from Boston separately to the outward leg that I'd booked 3 weeks before

When I booked the return, I used ONE Amex voucher to upgrade the two of us (self & wife) from Economy (paid for with miles) to PE
This still left me with ONE Amex voucher unused (for the outward we used miles for UC)Note that there was only ONE Booking for the return - we were both travelling under the same PNR

The fact that we were 'op-up'd for the return to London was the icing on the cake!

Peter

That is slightly different to what the OP is asking, but does offer an alternative, as the could use one voucher to upgrade 2 of the outbound straight away and then do they same when their return flights are available. The fact there is 3 of them causes a slight issue with that way though as it still means trying to use only half a voucher initially, which is where I think the issue would be (if they want to keep it open to use the other half when they book the return)

at240 wrote:

joeyc wrote:
Anything it possible

With the Amex reward upgrades they are returns so in effect two one ways. I am sure a call to VS will help as they will be able to issue the two one way upgrades for you and then take the return reward voucher from your account. |:)

I would be quite surprised if they did (or could do) this. I think it would effectively mean applying a voucher to two bookings, and I suspect that they'd not want to set such a precedent.

Come on guys, where is the optimism?

Fun little thing with this is I have not seen this tried by someone on here before and could clear up the rather ambiguous t&cs regarding the reward ticket. I have just had a look through them and interestingly there is actually no mention of it being a return reward, just redeemable against "an economy reward redemption" ?|

I have a feeling the precedent has already been set by allowing people to redeem against a return reward redemption booked at the same time, however not to be taken as a couple of one-ways.. on those ground I am sorry to the OP I may have been wrong :0 Only a phone call to those helpful people at VS can help here, please do let us know how it goes, but good luck - hope I am not wrong y)

It's given me a headache just thinking about it !

spiceke wrote:It's given me a headache just thinking about it !

Sorry, have digressed slightly haven't we.

Back to your OP.. how you can bag the outbound until the returns are made available.. 2 upgrade vouchers and 3 people? correct?

Give FC a call and grab the three seats in economy on the outbound now, use one of the vouchers and upgrade 2 of your group from eco to PE.. unfortunately the 3rd wheel is going to cost you a bit more mileage to get from eco into PE but that was expected. Outbound done..

For the return, when the seats are made available, exactly the same thing.... I would suggest that you link the bookings to avoid any delays at check-in going on what Peter went through.

Hope that is clearer. y)

If you do happen to ask FC when booking as to whether or not you can split the 2 return reward upgrades into 4 one ways I would be interested to know the response.. cheers 8D

Thanks - I will give them a call to see if this is possible.

Bad mood today - received my RED FC card today. From Au down to Red in 2 years - Oh the humiliation !!!!!!

I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to find out what happened..........

Didn't 'split' the upgrade wouchers in the end and decided to sweat it out. Was so frustrating seeing all the availability on the outbound but nothing released on the inbound.

Anyway, last night they seemed to release a chunk of p/e for the returns so managed to get 3 outbound to MCO on 20/7/13 and return on 7th Aug. I did want 3 weeks (no pleasing some people!) so will just wait and change them if some become available for a few days later at just £25pp. Worst case is I keep the flights that I have so I am a very happy bunny.

Also, I will be on the new all Y & P/E plane - so will be able to judge for myself if they are any good (and won't have agony of praying for an upgrade and being disappointed !)

You can hold G's for 72 hours - then the internal system automatically releases them back into the pool if they're not ticketed.

It's no longer possible to "extend" them beyond that - they have to be cancelled off and re-held (which IS possible, but there's obviously a risk that during those minutes someone else grabs them).