V-Flyer

A 9 hour economy flight with my wife and 2 small children. On the first weekend of the Easter holidays. Sounds like fun, yes?

Anyway, those of you that have read my ramblings over the past few weeks may remember that I was looking for any possibly angle to get an upgrade with my miles, plus worrying about being able to get the littl'uns into the CH with me. Well, as you can see from the title of this TR, I was totally unsuccessful with an upgrade. The various rationales I was given were:

1) Call to AU helpline 4 days before flight - "sorry sir but remaining seats only get released for rewards upgrades 48 hours prior to departure"

2) Call to AU helpline 2 days before flight - "sorry sir, but you're on an N class ticket, so no chance, but you can ask at the airport" (ok, I'm paraphrasing a bit here)

3) At twilight check-in day before flight - "sorry sir, but you'll need to go and talk to ticketing, although there are 10 PE seats still unsold"

4) At ticketing desk, 5 mins later - "sorry sir, but we can only do miles upgrades on day of departure"

5) At ticketing desk, 6am next morning - "sorry sir, but you're on N class tickets, so we can only sell you upgrades at £253 each"

So there you go. Can't say I didn't try. And not sure if they ever did fill those 10 seats, but moral of the story is definitely to aim for L class in future.

Anyway, having finally accepted defeat, I was hoping that I could at least get some joy from getting my family into the CH. And I did. Sort of... I only got charged for my older daughter (apparently 5 years and younger get in free) - so £25 for the ability to have a decent breakfast and several glasses of champagne (albeit Lanson) to fortify me for what came ahead seemed like a bargain.

As I normally do my business traveling in the afternoon, it was my first experience of the CH breakfast, and I have to say I was pretty impressed - having read various comments about stingy portions of food, it was actually very generous. It was also my first time in the LGW CH, and although nowhere as big as LHR, it was still very spacious, and certainly not crowded (although given there are only 14 UC seats on the LGW fleet, not entirely surprising...).

I did have one last attempt with the concierge to get an upgrade. But it was another "sorry sir... but you'll have to talk to your travel agent, get them to change your ticket to L class... blah blah" - oh well.

As for the flight itself. It was economy. The 'entertainment system' was Odyssey. There were lots of loud children (mine included). And I was sat next to a 'ahem' generously proportioned lady. It really doesn't bear expanding upon! In all fairness, I can't bring myself to mark it too harshly because if you book Y, you get Y... The only real ding has to be the IFE - Odyssey gets 'below average' and Nova gets 'poor' on principle for me, and I doubt many would disagree...

CC were lively and attentive - no recognition of my AU status (see what a snob I'm turning into!) but otherwise a decent stream of wine flowed - being near the galley certainly helped.

So all in all an 'as expected' flight, with a marginal bonus of using the CH at a very marginal cost. It did help cushion the blow somewhat...

Return TR to follow once I get time!

RC

A good result on entry to the CH, did not realise that you could pay for additional person, so nice one. I do enjoy the LGW CH, as you say smaller but that is not a bad thing.

At least the wine was flowing .

thanks
Iain

Agree, good tip and use of Au for the clubhouse at marginal cost to get three additional people in, so good marks to VS there.

Y on the LGW fleet, well, in N, you get what you pay for?

Hope the hols are great.

Thanks for the TR - £253 doesn't sound too bad to PE?

Hope you have a great trip.

Yep, trip was pretty good, although rather more rain/cloud than you'd expect in St Lucia at this time of year.

I wasn't sure how good a deal £253 was for a one way upgrade (although of course it's always a case of what you are prepared to pay for anyway), but I'm trying to gently introduce my wife to the benefits of PE. Spending 40,000 miles is a gentle introduction. Spending £1,012 most certainly isn't - in her view!

You indicate that the ticket was booked through an agent/3rd party ? Unless the ticket is booked with VS direct this is the problem - VS have no way of seeing what has been "paid " for the ticket (even if bought via VH). I had the same problem last month with my Mr Tesco "free" holiday booked via VH (and like you I had tried pretty much everything). I tried to book an L class fare when I made the booking with VH but was told I still wouldn't be able to upgrade to a G as it would still be a dicounted fare (maybe the travel agents amongst us here here can explain that bit?? ) It might hve been a different outcome if the flight had been rammed though .
I think the CH outcome was pretty good though .
DL

DL - yes, at the CH, the concierge was trying to explain that they cannot upgrade via agency bookings, although presumably that only applies to miles based upgrades, because they were quite happy to sell them to me. Possibly agencies get block allocations of cheap class fares at a lower rate than those same codes would come up at on the VS website? A couple of years ago I as told by an agent that if they hadn't used 'their seats' within 7 days of departure, they went back to virgin to sell directly...

Anyway, I was clearly the lowest of the low here in the upgrade pecking order. Wait till I have a go with my O class flights to Dubai!!

Thank you for the TR. Sorry to read that your many options to upgrade didn't succeed.

Nice report, im flying VS031 on 5th of may currently in Y at the minute, i have O class tickets and considering a upgrade on the day if its around the same price as you got offered!