V-Flyer

Just booked a Premium Economy flight to the Caribbean in January and have previously used air miles to upgrade our return flight to Upper Class. When I tried to upgrade today, I was told there were no air miles upgrades available in January, February or March from any Caribbean destination. When I completed a cash premium economy booking I got a 'bid to upgrade offer' from Virgin, is this why no air miles upgrades are available. Are reward flights and upgrades becoming more difficult to get?

They are different things. Virgin would rather get cold hard cash for those seats than miles, so will more than likely be trying to go for that. I imagine that the cold winter months is a good time to get people to part with £££ in UC.

However, you should check daily as availability is ever changing.

I have experienced this many times and am often amazed at how much the 'deal' costs to move from PE to UC. A PE LHR-HKG costs around £1500 and the 'deal' the other days was a bargain extra £4000 to go into UC !
If you were seriously considering spending £5500 then why would you buy a £1500 PE in the first place. It just seems a bit pojntless unless it really is a special deal.
I wonder how many people take them up on it ?

However, VS is a business and needs to sell as many seats as a high a price as it can. This is fair enough - so unsold UC seats are likely to be released only when it looks like they will remain unsold. The computer works this out.