V-Flyer

Could someone please explain....we're booked combi fare man to mco economy, class x out class t return. We would like to upgrade to pe so reading the website I read it as class x can be upgraded for 12500 (to pe). Phoned flying club who told me i cant upgrade outbound,which is the leg i've paid for, class x, due to the ticket i have, but i can on return but it will be a total of 26000 miles plus £420. I couldn't get an explanation that made sense to me...can anyone explain the rules to me please!

See here for an explanation of the fare codes: the-toolbox/fare-codes

An X can't be upgraded with miles. How did you get a T coming back? They're normally reward seats or companion tickets.

Humm..i can see that x cant be upgraded but if you go on va website under combi fare page it says one way upgrades are allowed if booked in qualifing class...and x is listed, in fact most of the codes are. I hadn't read the table in this link b4 so that's conflicting info. Our return flight is where we used our miles so that's why its T..i didn't think i would be able to upgrade the portion that we've already used miles on!?

Whilst an X fare can be used to purchase a combi fare (where you fly Y one way and PE the other paid for using a mix of miles and cash) an X fare cannot be upgraded using miles.

It looks like they are repricing the trip to put you both in an upgradable fare bucket to be able to get you in to PE on the out bound. The £420 will be a mix of the cost of changing your fare to an upgradeable one and the additional APD you pay in PE (but that is only £67 per person)

aust296 wrote:Humm..i can see that x cant be upgraded but if you go on va website under combi fare page it says one way upgrades are allowed if booked in qualifing class...and x is listed, in fact most of the codes are. I hadn't read the table in this link b4 so that's conflicting info. Our return flight is where we used our miles so that's why its T..i didn't think i would be able to upgrade the portion that we've already used miles on!?

I see what you mean about the X - it's certainly very ambiguous on the website.

However I think what it means is this: when it talks about upgrades being allowed in qualifying classes it means the normal buckets that qualify for upgrades (ie not X). If you click on the link to the T&Cs it makes this clear (paragraph 4.5m).

But then when it goes on to list qualifying classes, in this case it means classes that qualify for buying a combi fare, not a miles upgrade. It's extremely badly written and ambiguous (how unusual) but I suspect that's what they're getting at.

Re T - I thought you can use more miles to upgrade a reward seat that's been paid for with miles, providing there's reward availability in PE.

aust296 wrote:Humm..i can see that x cant be upgraded but if you go on va website under combi fare page it says one way upgrades are allowed if booked in qualifing class...and x is listed, in fact most of the codes are. I hadn't read the table in this link b4 so that's conflicting info. Our return flight is where we used our miles so that's why its T..i didn't think i would be able to upgrade the portion that we've already used miles on!?

I may be getting confused with your flights but with a combi fare you have already used miles to upgrade part of your flights - in this case your return and that is all you can do with a combi - upgrade one leg. In which case your Z outbound cannot be used to upgrade with miles.

Can you confirm which cabins you are in for both your flights.

I think it may have just clicked into place...huurrraahhh!!. We are in economy for the full flight, the return leg has been paid for with miles so therefore i cannot use more miles to upgrade the outbound flight, or it wouldn't be a combo fare. I also get the £420 is to pay for the difference and apd. I have the "make a bid" option so might make a cheeky offer and see what happens and keep my miles..strangely though i can bid to upgrade both flights!

Is X the lowest economy fare code for a combination reward?

sky0000547 wrote:Is X the lowest economy fare code for a combination reward?

No, according to the website you can do it on an N or an O (the cheapest bucket). Obviously they wouldn't be upgradeable though, and very restricted in terms of changes etc.

aust296 wrote:I think it may have just clicked into place...huurrraahhh!!. We are in economy for the full flight, the return leg has been paid for with miles so therefore i cannot use more miles to upgrade the outbound flight, or it wouldn't be a combo fare.

That's interesting to know (or maybe I'm just behind!) -- so you can't upgrade the cash sector on a combi ticket with miles, even if you are prepared to pay up to an upgradeable bucket?

at240 wrote:That's interesting to know (or maybe I'm just behind!) -- so you can't upgrade the cash sector on a combi ticket with miles, even if you are prepared to pay up to an upgradeable bucket?

Don't worry about it, this is all news to me to..

From what is said it sounds like you can't, but we all know that you can do a hell of a lot at airport check-in. As they don't have access to how the fare was ticketed they just go by the bucket you are sitting in.

The other option FC gave me was the full flight in PE but at an additional cost of £1200. Ive no idea what the type of booking that was, ie still combo fare etc, I still have the bid for an upgrade option so thinking of bidding £200 and see what happens

Sorry--dumb question likely but what's make a bid?

roadrunner wrote:Sorry--dumb question likely but what's make a bid?

On some flights on some routes, once you've made a booking in economy Virgin offer the option to put in a bid for an upgrade to premium economy.

As yet, however, there seems to be very little evidence of whether anyone's been successful and, if so, whether they got a genuinely good deal.