upgrade at the airport

Hi all,
I'm looking at booking a last minute break to DXB departing Friday. PE fares in K are going for ~630 Pounds. Looking at Expertflyer I can see that there is plenty (~20 seats) of availability in UC but the u/g fares require me to buy a J at the moment which makes the price wholly unattractive. I only want outbound UC, PE is fine for our return trip.

From reading the FAQ I can see that I might be able to u/g using money at LHR. Where exactly do I go to do this? Do I ask at check-in?

Can I use miles for a K >> G upgrade on the day, or is it only S/W >> G?

Has anyone had any luck getting cheap UC upgrades from VS though the call centre on the day of departure? Any other tips would be appreciated too.

Thanks,
C.

I stand to be corrected but I believe officially you can't upgrade a K, but you might get lucky with someone bending the rules for you on the day.

[HighFlyer]

Technically you cannot upgrade a K with miles (though it can and does happen) but you can pay to upgrade it. Sometimes this works out to be hideously expensive as thwy'll ask you to pay the difference between your K and an S and then the upgrade cost to the Upper fare, but, if the loads are high in PE and they need to shift a few passengers forward you could find yourself lucky and avail yourself of a bargain price.

Its one of those tough calls, and its hard to give you an idea of what to expect as it really is unknown and down to loads on the day - and a bit of luck!.

DXB isnt a long flight, and the sale fare is pretty good. I'd definitely be tempted to take a chance [:D]

Thanks,
Sarah

Do you have the option to upgrade via the website 'Manage my flights' option? I've got a couple K flights booked for LHR-JFK in October, and it's allowing me to upgrade outbound for £583, or a round trip for £1180.. I'd prefer to book just the inbound (JFK - LHR), but it doesn't give that option this week (did last wee, grr!).

Originally posted by jafleming
I'd prefer to book just the inbound (JFK - LHR), but it doesn't give that option this week (did last wee, grr!).

Yes, I've noticed that. I was checking out upgrade prices for a Boston trip I have booked and it's the same deal - outbound only or return. I'm only really intersted in upgrading overnight flights so it's annoying. Is this a new policy by VS?

I must remember to check the pricing at the time of booking in future. I normally try to be frugal... only to give into temptation at a later date [:I]

Does anyone know why the ability to upgrade Inbound disappeared last week or thereabouts? There were three columns for upgrade, until I decided that I wanted to upgrade!!!

[HighFlyer]

I can only assume that there is no more availibility for the return. You could try looking at ExpertFlyer to see how busy the flight is - that might help explain things.

Thanks,
Sarah

I thought that too, but that wouldn't explain why I can upgrade the round-trip to UC, but not just the inbound. EF shows plenty of availability. I was hoping it was just a glitch in the VS website.

[Neil]

Why not just give FC a call, they should be able to either sort it, or advise why you can't upgrade.

K generally is NOT upgraded (hell, I've tried before).

:-
S.

Originally posted by jafleming
I thought that too, but that wouldn't explain why I can upgrade the round-trip to UC, but not just the inbound. EF shows plenty of availability. I was hoping it was just a glitch in the VS website.

How do you upgrade via the VS website if you have already made a booking? I'd be interested in upgrading my outward to Washington! [:)]

Go via Manage Your Flights, keep clicking through each page towards your flight and eventually you will see the choice to change food/seat allocations etc. If there is availability there'll be an option to upgrade, outward, return or both. If there's no availability the option won't even be visible. The picture is of a red carpet


I used it one way in June and it worked a treat!

Well I booked the two PE seats for 630 apiece via quidco to alt least get back 1% of the cost. I had a look at the manage-your-flights section and PE-UC outbound is about 1100 extra per person so I won't be doing that. I'll enquire at the airport as there is no harm in trying.

Thanks all for the responses.

Andy.

If those tickets are both on the same booking, I'm pretty sure that it shows you the upgrade cost for both of you.

ISTR that it was per person as the total cost was over 3 grand (up from 1300). Unfortunately I can't check now as the option has now vanished from the amend your booking area.!.!

Originally posted by contractor
Hi all,

I'm looking at booking a last minute break to DXB departing Friday. PE fares in K are going for ~630 Pounds. Looking at Expertflyer I can see that there is plenty (~20 seats) of availability in UC but the u/g fares require me to buy a J at the moment which makes the price wholly unattractive. I only want outbound UC, PE is fine for our return trip.

Expertflyer will only show you that there are 7 seats available so there may not be ~20. i.e. 7J, 7D is still 7 (or more) seats it is just that they would sell them as Ds or Js it does not mean there are 14 seats available.

I find it is usually best to try and upgrade at the ticket counter rather than at check in. (Or check in to PE as normal, try to upgrade and then try at the ticket counter). It may be possible to upgrade your K to an S or W fare for one leg and then upgrade to G with miles. My wife has definitely done this.