V-Flyer

Hi there

I am new to this forum, so apologies if this has already been answered.

What is Vs stance on upgrades for honeymooners/those who are off to marry? (space on a/c permitting?)

Thought I might ask at check in. After all, I have nothing to lose. Right...?

Welcome to the site. y)

The question is a frequent one, but that isn't a problem.

The simple answer is - there is no harm in asking, but the chances are VERY remote. Virgin do not give op-ups lightly. They normally only give them when they have to due to full cabins, and then there is USUALLY a pecking order - involving frequent fliers and full fare passengers.

Virgin also carry a LOT of honeymooning couples - especially on the LGW routes to MCO and the Caribbean. If they upgraded people because it was their honeymoon the premium cabins would be full of op-ups.

Having said that - there will be some anecdotal evidence of non-frequent fliers and people who charmed the check in agents and were given op-ups.

Never say never, but prepared to be politely declined.

Nick

checking seat availability for 22nd Sept to Vegas, there is 1 seat available in UC, and 1 in PE, plenty in Y

Hi Nick, and thank you for your warm welcome!

We are off to LAS this month to get married at the Bellagio. A/C on this route is normally full of stag/hen do's I'm guessing and not newlyweds. Although there might be few who might not remember getting married out there... ii)

I am a member of VS flying club, so it's worth a try I guess.

We are also flying Las to SFO while we are out there via Virgin America, so that might be worth an upgrade, no?!

Oh, and according to our seat map on the route home, we have a refit.

Gem

5th October return to LGW is showing 2 UC seats avalable, 4 in PE and 6 in Y, so quite a full flight.

That's what I thought Penny. We have allocated ourselves seats in the bubble on the away home though, so not all bad

Some of our friends who are joining us out there couldn't get seats on 22nd as it was full. but have booked with different airline.

Gemvic wrote:We are also flying Las to SFO while we are out there via Virgin America, so that might be worth an upgrade, no?!


Gem

A little tip - if you hold off from doing OLCI until 6 hours before departure time it may well be possible to buy cheap upgrades to First. In the run up to your flight go into the Manage Travel tab and click on View itinerary you will see an option to change seats. Click on that and you should be able to see if there are seats available in First (bearing in mind that there are only 8 seats) If there are seats then be sure to try and snag them exactly at T-6

A former colleague managed to bag free upgrades to business class when flying to Thailand for her honeymoon, on Thai Airways last summer. Maybe this is not such a massive honeymoon route or she charmed the ground staff? Or maybe, Thai are more generous with this kind of thing?

My mother bagged free upgrades from Heathrow to JFK, both ways from Economy to Premium Economy 3 years ago. She could not be considered a frequent flyer; that was her 6th return trip with VS over 13 years. However, we had flown from Manchester to Orlando 2.5 months ago which may have factored for her. Or perhaps she was just lucky!

Not without money changing hands

I don't mind paying something, but I think £2,000 (or more) each for pe is excessive.

This will be my 5th/6th flight with virgin in less than a year, so fingers crossed they look on me favourably as a loyal customer.

Gemvic wrote:I don't mind paying something, but I think £2,000 (or more) each for pe is excessive.

This will be my 5th/6th flight with virgin in less than a year, so fingers crossed they look on me favourably as a loyal customer.

If you are in Flying club and those sort of trips, you will likely to be Silver at least which gives more of a chance..

I think it unfair to set any expectation that this will be possible, VS simply doesn't do it Gemvic I'm afraid. Yes there will be the odd tale out there somewhere of someone who was upgraded as a consequence of an operational need or just perhaps because the know someone important enough at VS to make it possible. Really, you should expect not, do ask if you must but imagine that every day I'd guess several people if not more ask the same question and are politely declined.

I'm with Slinky on this, year before last when I flew economy to Orlando, 2 of the 3 couples in front of me at check in asked for an upgrade as it was their honeymoon, they were both declined.

I would suggest there are at least 4 or 5 couples per flight whose honeymoon,anniversary or some other special event falls on any flight at any given time, ! To be honest I'm sure check in staff must be tired of being asked and I also think that some people invent a special occasion in order to try and get an upgrade ( I'm not for one second implying that the OP is doing this )

By all means ask and you may be extremely extremely lucky, but don't get your hopes up or be disappointed if the answer is no.

I am heading to Cuba in November to get married and have paid for the PE service out and UC back. To be honest i'd be pretty annoyed if someone sitting in the cabin had blagged their way in for nothing !

For a honeymoon or special occasion, people are also far more likely to push the boat out and pay for either PE or UC. If you stand a decent chance of getting it for free, why would people bother paying for it. It makes no sense for Virgin to give these upgrades away for free. Plus, it is hardly fair on the full paying passengers either.

I would prefer to sit in economy in the exit row seats, than in PE personally. A cost effective way of getting far more comfort.

We went to Orlando on honeymoon with Virgin and were given exit row seats in economy, I reckon that's about the best you can hope for. They obviously thought they were doing us a good turn but on the return flight we were next to the toilet galley and didn't get any peace because of people queuing there.

I've flown on my birthday on a fairly regular basis (as it generally coincides with the easter hols). To date, it hasn't got me any extras of any sort - nor would I ask for them (which may be more about not wanting to draw attention to my age any longer!).

On a full 744, statistically you'd expect a fairly significant proportion of people to have some sort of 'special occasion', especially on the holiday routes. It would obviously be nice to get a glass of champagne, or even a 'happy birthday', but it's rather impractical if you have to do it for 10% of the people on the plane. And given they've never even managed a 'welcome back Mr RC' for my AU status, my hopes are low for my next birthday flight to BGI in 2013...