V-Flyer

I received an email from Virgin Flying Club, and tucked away in the T&C was this:

"You can upgrade cabins when purchasing a full adult fare (Economy booking classes Y, B, R and L. Premium Economy booking classes W and S)."


Webite shows something different.

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

"You can upgrade when purchasing a full adult published fare in the following booking classes: W, S, Y, B, R, L, U and M.

You can also upgrade other non-published ticket types such as discounted, corporate, travel agent or tour operator fares but ONLY in the following booking classes: W, Y and B."

A couple of years ago an L fare was the lowest fare bucket that miles could be used to upgrade with anyway, so I guess our U and M holiday is coming to an end

Let's hope they don't further increase the price gap between the fare classes too....

Sealink wrote:Webite shows something different.

Say it ain't so

A piece of news I did not want to hear today of all days

buns

Please can someone tell me that this isn't true?

If this were to be true, it would make some moral sense to allow those who booked the M under the old rules, to be allowed the flexibility it offered.

marshy11 wrote:If this were to be true, it would make some moral sense to allow those who booked the M under the old rules, to be allowed the flexibility it offered.

Would they not?? Surely the T&C's for M's would stay as they were a M when purchased

Sh*t is all I can say if that turns out to be true, just as I'd mastered the art! Thanks goodness I got my M to G for NRT route booked and paid already. Perhaps this explains why the ability to search for M fares disappeared a little while ago... curioser and curioser...

I also was on the phone with FC recently and the agent had issues finding M fares, sometning she noted she's never happened before and thought was odd....

It wasn't that long ago that a different fare code was the lowest upgradable economy (L?). I searched for M's one time and found them massively expensive and someone pointed out that M was what I wanted...

So if they restructure, I'd expect them to have a lowest upgradable fare code which wasn't M. If that doesn't exist anymore, and you've got to pay 1200 quid to get an upgradable fare code, then I'll resign myself to convert them to the slightless less useless hilton miles. If I got via the upgradable PE code, you virtually earn the miles back on the flight...

Bretty wrote:Sh*t is all I can say if that turns out to be true, just as I'd mastered the art! Thanks goodness I got my M to G for NRT route booked and paid already. Perhaps this explains why the ability to search for M fares disappeared a little while ago... curioser and curioser...

However Bretty, the ability to search for S & W fares disappeared at the same time -- whilst the demise of the M is disappointing I think the S fare although more expensive offers greater returns in terms of TPs, miles etc, especially if you are also a member of Flying Co. [Y.M.M.V]
My guess [if true] its juggling codes down to the tie in with Delta, and done in true VS style will puzzle us for months to come with both flyers and VS customer services in the dark

It was only within the last 2 years that M fares were upgradable so they are merely reverting back to a previous structure.
From my experience there is not a huge difference in price between M and L and I never understood why they needed 4 upgradable fare codes in economy.
Streamlining has to make the company more efficient and therefor emore viable long term which is what we all want.

JCBR wrote:From my experience there is not a huge difference in price between M and L and I never understood why they needed 4 upgradable fare codes in economy.

I just took a look for the Ms that I had booked (with Gs too, thankfully) for LHR to ORD return next June. The difference between M and L is £114 for the return. It's not huge, but would still make EC to UC upgrade a little less attractive.

If you are having trouble finding the old style page with the choice of both cabin and letter class go to Sitemap (red strap at bottom of page) and page down to Spend Miles and click on Upgrade/Companion page. In the search form make sure you have clicked on a cash fare, not spend miles option, and a click down menu of booking classes will become available for each leg. Have just checked and M is still available in EC as well as W/S in PE.
I have sometimes found M Class to be cheaper than sale fares if you get in early enough! So it will be a real shame to lose this upgrade option. In the old days a cash upgrade from X/O to L could be around £200 whereas to M seems to be £70-£90 on average.
So basically anyone wanting a miles upgrade do it now while you still can!

adambs wrote:If you are having trouble finding the old style page with the choice of both cabin and letter class go to Sitemap (red strap at bottom of page) and page down to Spend Miles and click on Upgrade/Companion page. In the search form make sure you have clicked on a cash fare, not spend miles option, and a click down menu of booking classes will become available for each leg. Have just checked and M is still available in EC as well as W/S in PE.
I have sometimes found M Class to be cheaper than sale fares if you get in early enough! So it will be a real shame to lose this upgrade option. In the old days a cash upgrade from X/O to L could be around £200 whereas to M seems to be £70-£90 on average.
So basically anyone wanting a miles upgrade do it now while you still can!

Hi adambs,

Welcome to V-Flyer,

Have you followed the whole process through?
This has been broken for several months now, although you can arrive at the old style page as you instructed, when you think you have your M fare, clicking on fare breakdown shows that the option has defaulted to an X fare [S fares defaulting to H fares]
Both M & S fares are currently still available but not via the VS website, have to either phone VS or check on sites like ITA matrix

International Hitman wrote:Hi adambs,

Welcome to V-Flyer,

Have you followed the whole process through?
This has been broken for several months now, although you can arrive at the old style page as you instructed, when you think you have your M fare, clicking on fare breakdown shows that the option has defaulted to an X fare [S fares defaulting to H fares]
Both M & S fares are currently still available but not via the VS website, have to either phone VS or check on sites like ITA matrix

Yes, when I did this recently, although I selected M fares, when I looked at the breakdown in results, the fares given were Ys which gave me quite a panic, thinking that all the lower fares were sold out for next June!

I got my fare difference as quoted above from ITA matrix.

Yep it always defaults to the lowest fare available which is not what all customers are looking for. No idea why they de-activated this as it must mean a lot more unnecessary calls to the booking line.

I'm also a little concerned about this and hope that the restructuring doesn't end up making things considerably more expensive. I have a flight I want to book this week and upgrade from M to G so will try to get it done before the 13th.

Just checked the VS website and the M fare is still shown as eligible for upgrade. Kind of reassuring, but then again it wouldn't be the first time that the VS website isn't up to date...

mrsw wrote:Just checked the VS website and the M fare is still shown as eligible for upgrade. Kind of reassuring, but then again it wouldn't be the first time that the VS website isn't up to date...

See the H class fiasco...!

http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?t=27 ... ic#_thread

Wow that was quite a read! and the generic and mediocre (at best) response you got was really, well, disappointing. Point taken though, do not trust the VS website!

Sealink wrote:

mrsw wrote:Just checked the VS website and the M fare is still shown as eligible for upgrade. Kind of reassuring, but then again it wouldn't be the first time that the VS website isn't up to date...

See the H class fiasco...!

http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?t=27 ... ic#_thread

Well, we all knew from the price that it wouldn't be. Just some people hoped it was...

Smid wrote:

Sealink wrote:

mrsw wrote:Just checked the VS website and the M fare is still shown as eligible for upgrade. Kind of reassuring, but then again it wouldn't be the first time that the VS website isn't up to date...

See the H class fiasco...!

http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?t=27 ... ic#_thread

Well, we all knew from the price that it wouldn't be. Just some people hoped it was...

Well not really Smid, let's face it, if you're used to BA's approach of allowing CW upgrades from the cheapest WTP buckets, then it was quite reasonable to think that maybe Virgin was finally falling in line. Sadly wasn't to be, and that's why I'm on BA to Cancun next easter!

I live for the day when Ks are upgradeable. But that would probably make me immortal :-)

Yes, and actually although I knew by the words preceding the link that it was not going to have a happy ending, when I read it a part of me really hoped that it was going to be honoured... And I was also thinking, ah maybe VS was finally matching BA's policy. Shame though that it didn't work out that time. But here's hoping.

I really wish I'd taken it further. Trading Standards would have had a field day: there was no other way to interpret that H class rule and for VS to hide behind print in the depths of their website was wrong.

But I did have the last laugh in a way.

ratechaser wrote:




I live for the day when Ks are upgradeable. But that would probably make me immortal

I have always found it odd that both H & Ks are upgradable if a member of Flying Co
Makes looking for rewards interesting when you have a surplus miles in both schemes