V-Flyer

hi everyone,

In order for me to get a free upgrade from premium economy to upper class using my earned miles I've been told I can only use certain seat classes / buckets. How do I know if I am buying an upgradable ticket at time of booking. I have the miles to upgrade but not the know how on when to book. It all seems a little grey / suspicious to me.

Thx in advance

There's nothing suspicious about it - put simply, the lowest PE fare that you see advertised on the website, K class, is not upgradable with miles. To upgrade with miles you need to buy a more expensive (but also more flexible) S or W fare.

Even better value, if you have enough miles, is to buy an M economy fare and upgrade to UC from that. It costs double the miles but even with the extra taxes & fees you can normally get an UC return to the USA for well under £1000.

gumshoe wrote:There's nothing suspicious about it - put simply, the lowest PE fare that you see advertised on the website, K class, is not upgradable with miles. To upgrade with miles you need to buy a more expensive (but also more flexible) S or W fare.

Even better value, if you have enough miles, is to buy an M economy fare and upgrade to UC from that. It costs double the miles but even with the extra taxes & fees you can normally get an UC return to the USA for well under £1000.

...........and if you register for this offer http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/fl ... wards.html and fly within the qualifying period, an M give you 10TPs and 50% bonus miles!

Maybe suspicious wasn't the word I was after, bloody confusing seems more appropriate. Can you specify you want to buy S or W fare when making the booking?

Easiest way is to just call customer services. They will sort it all out with you, even doing the upgrade there and then if G seats are available.

The trouble is getting an S or W or any other upgradable fare as well as G! Anyone who has managed to get a PE or EC and upgrade with miles what prices have you been able to get?

FLYERZ wrote:The trouble is getting an S or W or any other upgradable fare as well as G! Anyone who has managed to get a PE or EC and upgrade with miles what prices have you been able to get?

I'm not sure what the question is, but last month I bought seats for a flight next year to Orlando.
I bought upgradeable Economy and immediately upgraded to PE
It cost £1550 for the two of us.
Have since got UC on the way out for a further £100 tax.
Still checking on the return waiting to upgrade.
The upgradeable economy is not as expensive as the fully flexible one you see on line, but a fair bit more than the cheapest.
Dick D

FLYERZ wrote:The trouble is getting an S or W or any other upgradable fare as well as G! Anyone who has managed to get a PE or EC and upgrade with miles what prices have you been able to get?

Last week I managed to get 4 G's. LHR-JFK, IAD-LHR, booked in EC on a M class fare. £1721.
2 weeks prior to booking the sale was on and I was quoted £1341 return for the 2 of us, this didn't include any additional taxes for upgrading to UC.

Ballpark figure for an M upgraded to a G both ways is probably £800-900 for the US (dependent on route obviously).

Compared to lowest UC fare of about £1600 to the east coast in a sale or £3200 to the west coast not on sale.

Hence why many believe M-G upgrades are the most cost-effective use of miles.

Got 2x G reward flights to St Lucia today, total £1044 + 200000 miles- this is at peak Easter Holiday time.
Was quoted £1078 each for economy fare + 50000 miles each to get to upper that way. Hope this helps

Thanks for that guys. I just wanted a rough idea of how much it would cost doing EC and upgrading. My biggest thing is the risk of not getting any upgrades and being stuck in EC.

FLYERZ wrote:Thanks for that guys. I just wanted a rough idea of how much it would cost doing EC and upgrading. My biggest thing is the risk of not getting any upgrades and being stuck in EC.

check first on line that there are at least reward seats in PE before you buy, then phone and buy and upgrade in one go.
You just try and get your flights using the spend miles option and when flights you want come up log off and get on the phone.

There is always a risk you won't get further than PE, but keep checking. Some routes are better than others. Gatwick planes only have a small UC cabin so less reward seats are available than say Heathrow to New York.

It is always a possibility of an upgrade right up to the day of the flight.

If you haven't bought an upgradeable ticket (As I hadn't for this years trip, I'd bought cheapest PE) then even though there was a spare seat in UC on the way back, they wanted $950 to upgrade for one person.
Dick D

dickydotcom wrote:
Gatwick planes only have a small UC cabin so less reward seats are available than say Heathrow to New York.

True for flights on the 747 routes, but much of the traffic to the Caribbean is now carried on the A330, which is the same configuration as flies ex LHR to NYC. So hopefully, per Joannie who nabbed the G fares to St Lucia, there may now be more upgrade opportunity.

When I've done this my tactic, as etg suggests, has been to check for G's, and if available ring to see if I can get the cheapest upgradable economy and do the transaction in one go.

Hi all,

Thx for your info, i have now purchased upgradable seats so am entitled to upgrade when i fly next.

Awesome tips and other info on these forums.

Thx again

Fitzy589 wrote:Hi all,

Thx for your info, i have now purchased upgradable seats so am entitled to upgrade when i fly next.

Awesome tips and other info on these forums.

Thx again

Although you may have bought an upgradable bucket, you aren't necessarily 'entitled' to an upgrade unless one is available.

Fingers crossed though.

Yes, i am aware of that and virgin have said should a upgrade not be possible they will resell me the same seats at the discounted price.

As you say fingers crossed.

Fitzy589 wrote:Yes, i am aware of that and virgin have said should a upgrade not be possible they will resell me the same seats at the discounted price.

They did ????

I would be extremely shocked if that statement ended up being honoured.

Well if they don't they will know about it, I was told by 2 different sales staff at the time of booking, so on their heads be in. Thy did say due to the length of time from booking to flying, there shouldn't be an issue.

So now you've said that, i have finger and toes crossed.

joeyc wrote:

Fitzy589 wrote:Yes, i am aware of that and virgin have said should a upgrade not be possible they will resell me the same seats at the discounted price.

They did ????

I would be extremely shocked if that statement ended up being honoured.

This ^

Fitzy589 wrote:Well if they don't they will know about it, I was told by 2 different sales staff at the time of booking, so on their heads be in. Thy did say due to the length of time from booking to flying, there shouldn't be an issue.

So now you've said that, i have finger and toes crossed.

Huh, which fare class have you been sold? Fully flex W by chance?

The danger with doing it this way - even if they honour what they have said, is that there might not be any cheaper fares left, especially if left until close to the flight date as advance selling rules will apply.

the flight is 11 months away, so heres hoping.

Sorry to jump in on this post, but I tried calling the reservations number this morning from UK at 6am. Does anyone know if this goes through to the Welsh call centre or bounce to another one. The people I spoke to today we're completely useless, passed me from pillar to post and then hung up on me.

Also I was told on Tues that I could 'hold' reward seat for 48 but was told they were cancelled after 24 and now they have gone!!

It's not easy using these miles, switch to BA needed!

Ive tried calling early to find out they don't answer until after 9am. Not sure if this is the norm. Hope this helps