V-Flyer

Hi all,when I go to manage my booking on the virgin website is there any way I can check the UC availability.i have booked PE but it seems to only show the seats available to chose in the class you have booked which I guess makes sense but I would like to know the availability left in UC.
Thanks
Blacky

you can either do a dummy UC booking on the VS websire or check a site like http://www.flightstats.com and do a load check.

However a load check won't tell you if there are any reward seats available.

On the VS website you choose the 'use miles' option.

Thanks tontybear .on to it now

To add to what Tonty has already said, mileage upgrades to Upper from PE can only be achieved from either a W or an S fare

buns

I'm afraid that being a newcomer to flying with virgin my first flight being in aug I don't have the luxury of any miles to trade in.
Can I set the ball rolling now and claim back mileage on that first flight or are they gone?
The reason for the original question was that I want to keep an eye on UC availability right upto the day of my next flight to see if I can get an upgrade(paid for if need be)at the check in desk.
Any ideas?

Blacky1 wrote:I'm afraid that being a newcomer to flying with virgin my first flight being in aug I don't have the luxury of any miles to trade in.
Can I set the ball rolling now and claim back mileage on that first flight or are they gone?
The reason for the original question was that I want to keep an eye on UC availability right upto the day of my next flight to see if I can get an upgrade(paid for if need be)at the check in desk.
Any ideas?

you can claim miles on any flights taken in the last 6 months

post edited

I take it you can claim miles for a flight taken before you have joined the FC

If you log into manage my booking it usually offers you a cash upgrade price if available, or just call FC for a price.

Your miles are not available for redemption until after you have flown I'm afraid.

you can claim for flights made in the last six months. There is a link on the website.

TBH very, very unlikely you would get a free upgrade (op up). VS are very stingy on giving out free upgrades and tend to do it only when they need so if PE is pverbooked they will uupgrade some to UC but they have a pecking order of pax.

Paid ones will be expensive and depend on availabilty.

But keep an eye on manage your bookings as upgrades often advertised there.

And this may sound counter intuitive but just because there is space available it does not mean that VS will offer upgrades.

Thanks for the advice all,I seem to be posting things twice today .
Apologies,not sure how I'm doing it

I'm afraid that being a newcomer to flying with virgin my first flight being in aug I don't have the luxury of any miles to trade in.

Blacky1
Confused (not hard) have you already taken a VA flight (Aug12)
or taking your 1st one (Aug13)

if it was Aug12 then you can claim the miles back

Blacky1 wrote:Thanks for the advice all,I seem to be posting things twice today .
Apologies,not sure how I'm doing it

It usually happens when you use the back or refresh buttons.

Had first flight aug just gone ,me wife and four kids to st lucia in PE outbound economy back but I still haven't joined FC yet ,can I claim for everyone in my name?

Blacky1 wrote:Had first flight aug just gone ,me wife and four kids to st lucia in PE outbound economy back but I still haven't joined FC yet ,can I claim for everyone in my name?

No don't think you can,worth setting up as FC members for you and the wife and claim back for the St Lucia Trip (Im sure you can do that) not sure about your children and if you have to be a certain age to join FC,then you and the wife can claim miles for your flights and in other ways (see VA page),I know it's hard to get reward flights at times but you can use miles in other ways,it's free to join and if you fly VA a lot worth doing

no - one account per person and not for children (think min age for FC is twelve but it says on the VS website)

No, child fare tickets aren't eligible for miles and you can't claim your wife's miles.

However according to the T&Cs if she opened her own FC account and claimed the miles, she could then transfer them to you but VS would charge for that.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/fl ... miles.html

gumshoe wrote:No, child fare tickets aren't eligible for miles and you can't claim your wife's miles.

However according to the T&Cs if she opened her own FC account and claimed the miles, she could then transfer them to you but VS would charge for that.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/fl ... miles.html

I thought you could book flights using both of your miles,if you book on the phone and borth parties are there

The OP could become an "Authorised User" on his wife's account and redeem her miles for himself. But she would still need to open her own separate account and claim her own miles from St Lucia before he could spend them for himself. He can't simply ask for his wife's miles to be put straight into his account.

tontybear wrote:However a load check won't tell you if there are any reward seats available.

Even a barely populated UC cabin doesn't necessarily mean that they'll offer seats for upgrade at anything other than a premium. When we flew to Chicago 3 years ago, a flight with only 7 seats taken in UC, I asked about an upgrade in the CH; the offer was (one way) £1,500 each + miles.

Keep checking the MMB page; we we offered and bagged a decent price upgrade from lowest price PE to UC that way in 2011.

How much out of interest and where to?

pjh wrote: When we flew to Chicago 3 years ago, a flight with only 7 seats taken in UC, I asked about an upgrade in the CH; the offer was (one way) £1,500 each + miles..

Bloody hell, what class were you booked into?? Cargo?

Blacky1 wrote:How much out of interest and where to?

It was to Washington but for the life of me I can't remember how much it was. It obviously struck me as reasonable, but I may have been in one of my Rowley Birkin QC moods at the time.

joeyc wrote:Bloody hell, what class were you booked into?? Cargo?

Cargo ? Nay lad, that would have been luxury.

We were booked lowest price Premium Economy. It was something of a surprise, but hey ho, and most of the UC crew were reassigned to duties in PE so we had wonderful service.

gumshoe wrote:The OP could become an "Authorised User" on his wife's account and redeem her miles for himself. But she would still need to open her own separate account and claim her own miles from St Lucia before he could spend them for himself. He can't simply ask for his wife's miles to be put straight into his account.

Even then there would need to be enough miles in the wife account to cover at least one sector (i.e if he wanted to upgrade out and back for 25k miles and he had 20k he couldn't just use 5k from the wife. it would have to be split 12.5k and 12.5k miles)

Wouldn't be a problem as she would almost certainly have the same miles as me as cant seem to shake her off .

we upgraded our Chicago trip from PE to UC for a total of £980.00(both ways) this was done via the MMB page

Sounds very reasonable,I would definitely upgrade if it was around that price