Using miles to upgrade at airport: checkin or not?

I am flying LHR-HKG next week in Y and want to try to use my VS miles to upgrade to either PE or J. I am planning to go to reservations at T3 to ask about the possiblity of this, but should I online check in beforehand or will this make it harder to use my miles (assuming availability)?

Or should I wait and then ask at the checkin desks themselves?


If I cannot do so then I am returning from PVG in 2 weeks, when I plan to try the same thing. Again what order should I do these things in?

Thanks
John

[Scrooge]

first question to get out of the way is,you say you are traveling in Y,is it a Y fare code?

[preiffer]

Hi John,

I guess you're the same JSC as on FlyerTalk? Good darts - all bases covered

To save me typing again, you have my view on it - I dare say others on the site have different opinions/options to explore. I'd genuinely suggest, however, that OLCI doesn't make any difference for those that WANT to use cash/miles to upgrade on the day.

Hi preiffer - yes I am the one and the same...good to see we think alike though! I will checkin anyway then as I am not expecting any upgrades, as I am actually on an N ticket (yes that's right, the lowest of the low). Only reason I was wondering was because I have VS Silver (not worth too much I know but off the bottom rung) and also when I check seating online there are only 37 economy seats unallocated (don't know if I can read too much into that though). Also I will be going straight from work so will be in a suit at least.

Should I ask at both reservations/ticket sales and the checkin desk? Anywhere else worth enquiring eg. boarding/on board?

Thanks
John

[preiffer]

Ah,

If it's an N ticket, you can't use miles to upgrade anyway. It'd be an "airport special" (cash) transaction... [:I]

Originally posted by preiffer
Ah,

If it's an N ticket, you can't use miles to upgrade anyway. It'd be an "airport special" (cash) transaction... [:I]

What sort of cost would I be looking at for PE? Also if they find themselves overbooked and are looking for people to be offloaded (happened last time I went to HKG although that was BA) would they listen to someone who wanted to use miles even on an N ticket? Clutching at straws, I know...

Originally posted by JSC


What sort of cost would I be looking at for PE?

I paid £219 ( £199 + £20 fee ) for one way upgrade from a Q ticket to New York at the airport last June. I think the airport upgrades are around that level. I was told I couldn't use miles to upgrade as was at the airport too late to do this [?]

Not sure of J though....

Thanks,

David.

[preiffer]

Isn't the "£20 fee" actually the difference in the departure tax (from an Economy to "premium class" of travel)?

I'm not sure VS actually charge a "fee" for upgrades at the airport (except in the case of a fare bucket difference, of course)

Originally posted by David_Doyle
I was told I couldn't use miles to upgrade as was at the airport too late to do this [?]

Not sure of J though....

Thanks,

David.

How late was late? Am planning to be there 3 hours before.

We checked in online when we were flying to SFO last June. Turned up at the airport about 2 hours before the flight and decided to do a mileage upgrade to PE.

The upgrade process took a very long time (nearly an hour) - and I think that one of the reasons for that was because we had already checked in online (the VS staff weren't quite sure what to do on the system - probably not helped by the fact that the VS area was extremely busy). Anyway, we then had to "re check in" at the check in desk and were told that we may not make the flight (I heard someone saying they were going to offload our bags).

To cut a long story short - doing a mileage upgrade after having used OLCI can take a bit longer than you might imagine. However, if you're planning to be at the airport three hours before the flight, that should be sufficient.

Cheers,
Neal

Just got back from PVG yesterday and thanks to all for your advice as we managed to use miles to upgrade to UC at the airport. Had to pay a supplement to up our economy tickets from N to L before being able to use the miles but still worth it I reckon. Also as it was a daytime flight we got to enjoy the IFE and service, plus the UC cabin crew were very easy on the eye!

John

[preiffer]

Nice one, JSC - great result [y]

How much was the N > L, out of interest?

I wasnt aware you could upgrade from an N>L!! nice to know when im im in a cheap seat!
I spose if you can do N>L you should be able to do Q>L (thinking of my upcomming escapade!!)

What I did was I went to the ticket desk and asked whether I could upgrade my ticket using miles. I was told that as it was N I would need to pay an extra £250 first to upgrade to L, but that then I could use my miles to go up to G. It sounded steep at first but then the ticket was dirt cheap initially anyway and since we were jumping 2 classes I took the offer.

Interestingly I was given the option of upgrading both LHR-HKG and PVG-LHR as there was availability in both, although we went for the inbound in the end as it is a daytime flight. However when I checked online I was not able to find any redemption tickets on these 2 flights, so just goes to show it is always worth asking at the airport.

Was the extra slight complexity of un-checking us in (as I had already OCLI) but whole transaction only took 30 mins and brought a smile to our faces! What I don't know is whether it would have been better off buying an L ticket in the first place, especially now that both classes earn miles. However did mean I got the bonus for introducing my wife as a FC member (which I wouldn't have got if we had stayed on N)