Upgrade possibility?

1st post here so go easy on me![:#]

Am flying back from LAX to LHR in a month or so with the family (wife and 2 girls - 8+10 yrs old + well behaved!).

The flight is overnight and we have PE seats booked through Virgin Holidays.

I have just over 65,000 FC miles in my account. What are the chances of being able to use these miles at check-in at LAX to upgrade the 4 of us to Upper for this return leg of the trip?

Is it a 'never happens ever' job or is it worth asking (and if so how many miles would be needed to upgrade 4 PE seats on a single US to UK leg?)

Thanks for any advice.

Matt

[Darren Wheeler]

Hi Matt and welcome to V-Flyer.

It never hurts to ask at check-in. It does depend on which fare code you are going on though. You may have to upgrade to an qualifying code (W, S, Y, B, L, M) first and then do a miles upgrade to Upper.

[honey lamb]

Hi Matt and welcome.

It's 20,000 miles to upgrade one way from PE to UC so you won't have enough although it is possible to buy miles up to 19,000

[Darren Wheeler]

Or someone gets the short straw [:w]

[HighFlyer]

Welcome to the forum, matthewlee! [y]

As Honey Lamb says, you dont have quite enough miles to upgrade all of you, so if you are lucky enough to find some free seats in Upper, might i suggest upgrading yourself and the missus and leaving the kids back in PE? [:)]

As to the likelyhood? The phrase 'all bets are off at the airport' is one commonly used here. As Darren says, technically you need to be booked on S or W PE fares to upgrade with miles but you often can upgrade on technically non-upgradeable with miles fares. There is no harm in asking - they can only say no. If the flight is busy and they need to move a few people up, they'll likely take your miles.

Thanks,
Sarah

Thanks to all.[y]

I suppose it is just possible that the points from our outbound flights and August VA credit card statement might make the balance up to 80,000 points by our return in early September but if not, at least I know where I stand.

Can you buy extra points on the spot at the airport if needed or does that have to happen in advance?

If not I guess we just make the best of a long night in PE... it won't be my first and probably not the last (given how expensive it is to buy 4 Upper Class tickets each time!)

Matt

I don't think that you will be able to buy miles at the airport, but as others have said it depends on how busy the flight is and also your booking class - my experience from LAX is that they aren't that clued up on everything and don't seem that helpful...might just have been a bad day for me!

[honey lamb]

What you could do is check when you get to LA to see if your miles have been added, which usually happens within a day of the flight and then if you need any extra miles purchase them on line. It may also help to check with Expert flyer as to how full your flight is. If it's full in UC then obviously there will be no availability for upgrades - or if it is full down the back they may well be happy to upgrade you to relieve an overbooked situation

Which flight are you booked on and what day - let me look up the loading and let you know if there is going to be capacity (always subject to change)?

Originally posted by HighFlyer

As Honey Lamb says, you dont have quite enough miles to upgrade all of you, so if you are lucky enough to find some free seats in Upper, might i suggest upgrading yourself and the missus and leaving the kids back in PE? [:)]

Welcome to V-flyer matthewlee.
The kids would then be classed as unaccompanied minors. Even if you're on the same flight but in a different cabin VS regard them as thus.I've done this several times with Dragonbaby (my daughter)but this has been via an original booking with me in UC and her in PE (wicked parent I know). There is a load of paperwork that needs to be filled in with an unaccompanied minor which may just be too much for the LAX staff to process at check in (or if it's even possible to arrange on day of departure? ). Best of luck regardless. As the others have said it all depends on the day.
DL

Check your booking class, SFO were under strict instructions to ring through to FC to check, and if your ticket class is non-upgradable chances are slim.. (see the fare codes link on the left side of the screen)

Booking class H (from Virgin Holidays) unfortunately so I guess chances are slim unless they need more space up the back of the plane...

Pity, as I reckon I'll have the 80,000 miles by then as well!

Slinky09 - thanks for the offer. I will send you a PM with flight details as I guess it would be helpful to know where we stand in terms of space in the various cabins. If Upper is fully booked then clearly this is a non starter...

Matt

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by matthewlee
Booking class H (from Virgin Holidays) unfortunately so I guess chances are slim unless they need more space up the back of the plane...

Pity, as I reckon I'll have the 80,000 miles by then as well!

Slinky09 - thanks for the offer. I will send you a PM with flight details as I guess it would be helpful to know where we stand in terms of space in the various cabins. If Upper is fully booked then clearly this is a non starter...

Matt

Matt, as you are now a member of the site you can look up Expert Flyer for yourself. Just click on this link and follow the instructions in the box at the top of the page

Thanks - just realised that.

I joined to be able to send a private message to Slinky09 but the free Expert Flyer searches are a bonus!

Out of interest, are there any websites (other than VS's own site) that search for VS reward seat availability?

Expert Flyer doesn't seem to include the T,U & G seat classes...

Matt

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by matthewlee

Expert Flyer doesn't seem to include the T,U & G seat classes...

ExpertFlyer wont include reward seats, only revenue. However its useful to see how full the cabin is. If you are getting lots of zero's then the cabin is full so chances of upgrading are likely to be slim.

To check for actual reward availibilty, go to VS.com and do a dummy booking for reward seats online. This will show you if there are any seats available. If there arent any, do still try on the day of departure though.

Thanks,
Sarah