V-Flyer

New to this - BUT was told today by virgin flying club agent, that from tomorrow there will be a general policy change allowing X fare class (ECON) to use miles to upgrade from M.

I was looking at a M class to UC upgrade and he told me.

Anyway - someone else should check - does anyone know if this will be a big difference - my request would have been 10% cheaper or so.

HOPE THIS IS WHAT THE FORUM IS FOR !!

Welcome to the forum urbanman! This is certainly one of the many things the forum is for, thanks for posting.

I am not sure I have got the right end of the stick here but are you saying that from tomorrow Virgin are allowing upgrades from Ecomomy to higher cabins using miles if you have an Economy X bucket fare or above? If so that would be a significant change as X is several fares codes "lower" than M, so I assume somewhat cheaper?

I have not seen any announcement about such a change. Maybe others have heard something. I wait with bated breath.

Seems to be a hundred quid cheaper when just stuck into LAX comparison.

Personally, when I did LAX in 2012, the upgradable code of the time (L? Can't remember, think it changed) was around 900 quid. So the upgradable fares have gone up significantly since then.

I don't look at VS for economy upgradable fares anymore. Effectively its a PE fare price for an economy ticket, which usually is the same as an ex-DUB flight.

Welcome to the forum urbanman, we do love a good rumour!

For some random dates:

LHR - NYC in M return £1,167
LHR - NYC in X return £1,018
LHR - NYC in O return £940

If this is confirmed it would represent a significant saving. About 1/3rd of the ticket is taxes and fees that don't change between the Econ fare types so the discount VS are offering is quite large.

Yes. And this needs to be verified by someone else ringing the booking line. The agent definitely told me that from today the minimum ec fare class to to upgrade from was dropping from m to x. But not to N or O. He did a comparison of me booking 2 tickets for LHR to JFK back from BOS to LHR and it was around 100-150 pounds less per ticket . I was getting quote for EC to UC upgrade for 2 returns so 80,000 miles. I am new to upgrading (have had one UC reward flight to Vancouver before) so used this forum to understand the fare class system for the first time yesterday so it would be a Major coincidence if the rules changed the day I rang up! But he gave me his name and extension and told me to ring back tomorrow. I will let you know.

urbanman wrote:he gave me his name and extension and told me to ring back tomorrow. I will let you know.

Thanks urbanman, fingers crossed for you (and all future reward bookers!).

Did JFK is 2012, and it's upgradable fare was 650 (so after taxes, 800 total). Did LAX the same year, upgradable was around 800 (so about 950 after taxes), so its not making a great difference for me....

Vancouver in 2013, was up near 1000, so over 1150 after taxes. It's into the "why bother?" territory there...

Thing is that taxes for economy had went down, compared to PE/Upper, didn't they (or was that just on reward flights)? So they tax difference on upgrade should be more....

Looks like my 300K points won't be getting used anytime soon.... I only collect VS points to refresh the date of expiry. And yet, me and my other half are BA Gold with 160K earned this year.

All confirmed and now shown on the VS website, interestingly a PE H fare is now upgradable

Is H typically a fare code previously used? Ita matrix doesn't spit out any flights with that code....

I remember there being a code previous to M, the one I used to book under... Was that H? Maybe its new and being brought back in....

Isn't H a Virgin Holidays PE fare

I've had several fares booked under H before, not necessarily through VH.

Worth noting also that this has extended to Companion flights as well - no change for UC fares (still need a J) but PE now can utilise H fares!

Smid wrote:Is H typically a fare code previously used? Ita matrix doesn't spit out any flights with that code....

I remember there being a code previous to M, the one I used to book under... Was that H? Maybe its new and being brought back in....

H is a PE code, [M is EC]the VS website started to default to the H code when it stopped showing us W & S fares/codes, it is also used by Virgin Holidays --- I also checked ITA Matrix and noticed it was not showing any fares for that code at the moment, but it used to show them and they were handy and reasonable fares because unlike Flying club a H fare has always been upgradable with Flying Co miles

Welcome to the forum, Urbanman, and thank you for sharing this! I wouldn't have noticed this on the VS website!

I wonder if this is because of the changes BA was making to allow more discounted EC fares for upgrading with miles (following the Avios devaluation)?

Whilst H is used by VHols as well as by VS directly now (and has been for a whole now) , if it's issued as part of a package from VHols, it will be a H-IT fare (itinerary fare i.e. booked as part of a holiday package) so they will remain as before and will not be upgradable using miles.

Leaving Flying Co out of the equation, it's the same situation we had previously with S fare upgrades. Only those fare codes issued directly by VS will be upgradable. Even if the fare code is the same, if it's issued by anyone else other than VS, it's not upgradable using miles.

wow this may make the companion voucher almost worthwhile

Thanks for posting. I am intrigued to see a possible outlet with H fare and companion voucher. If anyone prices up difference between S and H fare please post

I really doubt that Virgin will do anything to make the companion voucher worthwhile to anyone except the rarest of customers. I am perfectly sure they know and are happy with that pointless thing.

vanilla8 wrote:Thanks for posting. I am intrigued to see a possible outlet with H fare and companion voucher. If anyone prices up difference between S and H fare please post

S fares can vary quite a lot depending on advance purchase. Historically though when buying in plenty of time they can vary from £100-£200 difference, whereas closer to the time (within 21 days usually) it can be around £500. Not a saving to be sniffed at in my opinion.

Smid wrote:I really doubt that Virgin will do anything to make the companion voucher worthwhile to anyone except the rarest of customers. I am perfectly sure they know and are happy with that pointless thing.

I think you're right - if we're talking about UC passengers.

For EC and PE though, I think this makes them a whole lot more accessible. Sure, VS would have crunched the numbers to make it economical still, but ultimately there are probably going to be a lot more H class folk than S (and X instead of M, and so on).

For example - a buddy and I are going to Vegas, it cost £1,705 for my round-trip ticket in S, plus his taxes, so it came to around a grand each (we split the cost). Take that same trip in H class and it comes to £1,350. Throw in his taxes and when we split it'll be around £800 each. Perhaps not a saving to make the eyes water, but it's still a couple hundred quid I'd rather have, and it's a good price to pay for a return trip to LAS in PE.

It's a positive change however you look at it.

SlimpyJones wrote:I think you're right - if we're talking about UC passengers.

True, I've vowed not to fly PE again after going back once, so I guess I'll always assume Upper/Business class now.

But I suppose its only recently that they've tried to make Flying Club anything apart from completely pointless when it comes to Y or PE redemptions...

Smid wrote:I really doubt that Virgin will do anything to make the companion voucher worthwhile to anyone except the rarest of customers. I am perfectly sure they know and are happy with that pointless thing.

Well, they need to change something... I almost got enough miles for another redemption.
Once I have the miles, I am cancelling my CC & getting an Avios one, simply for the Companion Voucher.
I have calculated that it may take me a little longer to collect the miles, but it will be worth it.

vanilla8 wrote:Thanks for posting. I am intrigued to see a possible outlet with H fare and companion voucher. If anyone prices up difference between S and H fare please post

H is usually a little cheaper than S (£100 or so) but you get one less TP so bear that in mind if getting status is important.

I only joined the forum today, and saw this message.
Background Info, I live in HK but all my flight originate in the UK, which usually works pretty well as we book trips well in advance.
I have recently booked a trip from HK to UK and it is always so much more expensive, so I booked a reward from HK to UK and a one way ticket UK to HK in economy (£536) which is cheaper than a return from HK, and now thanks to this info I have upgraded my X class UK to HK, happy days!! I did have pay £52.86 in tax but I am happy with that!
Great forum glad I joined!

JCBR wrote:

vanilla8 wrote:Thanks for posting. I am intrigued to see a possible outlet with H fare and companion voucher. If anyone prices up difference between S and H fare please post

H is usually a little cheaper than S (£100 or so) but you get one less TP so bear that in mind if getting status is important.

Likewise between M and X fares, M is 3 points, X is 2 points

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

Are these subject to reward seats availability or just upgradeable if any seats are available in the cabin?