How do I use VA Amex upgrade reward?

Hi,

So I noticed on my account that I have an upgrade reward available (it says Econ - PE upgrade). Problem is, we want to fly UC!

Can I use it? I should also be receiving a companion voucher in the next few weeks, so if you can come up with the best way for me to make use of these 2 I'd be very grateful!

Thanks

Jackie

[Neil]

Not if you want to fly UC.

To use the Econ-PE AmEx upgrade voucher, you need to 'buy' an economy seat with miles and then you can use your voucher to upgrade to PE. There does need to be PE reward availability (U Class) for you to do this however. You cannot then use either cash or miles to then upgrade to UC.

Again, the companion voucher is pretty much useless if you want to fly in UC. To use the companion voucher you need to buy a flexible ticket, and for UC travel the only fare code you can buy is a J fare, which is the most expensive and 99% of the time, more expensive than just buying 2 Z class UC fares. The companion voucher seems to work best when flying in PE, as you can buy an S fare and then use your voucher, which is quite often less expensive than 2 K PE fares (the cheapest PE fare code).

Don't forget on all rewards, vouchers, you still have to pay the taxes, it is just the 'fare element' that is free.

Neil

quote:Originally posted by Neil

To use the Econ-PE AmEx upgrade voucher, you need to 'buy' an economy seat with miles and then you can use your voucher to upgrade to PE. There does need to be PE reward availability (U Class) for you to do this however. You cannot then use either cash or miles to then upgrade to UC.

Neil


Neil, you may well know the answer to this -it is related to a thread that Mitcha (James) kindly provided a steer on a few days ago. In that other thread James confirmed that it is possible to use BMI miles to purchase a VS reward ticket - great news as I have over 40K BMI miles to secure a VS Economy return ticket. You know what my next question is....having secured that reward ticket(albeit using BMI miles) can I then inject my VS amex Ec-->PE upgrade voucher into the equation to secure PE?

Many thanks
James

[Neil]

quote:Originally posted by Vegascrazy
quote:Originally posted by Neil

To use the Econ-PE AmEx upgrade voucher, you need to 'buy' an economy seat with miles and then you can use your voucher to upgrade to PE. There does need to be PE reward availability (U Class) for you to do this however. You cannot then use either cash or miles to then upgrade to UC.

Neil


Neil, you may well know the answer to this -it is related to a thread that Mitcha (James) kindly provided a steer on a few days ago. In that other thread James confirmed that it is possible to use BMI miles to purchase a VS reward ticket - great news as I have over 40K BMI miles to secure a VS Economy return ticket. You know what my next question is....having secured that reward ticket(albeit using BMI miles) can I then inject my VS amex Ec-->PE upgrade voucher into the equation to secure PE?

Many thanks
James


I'm pretty sure it is 45k miles for a VS Y to NYC/BOS/IAD using your BMI miles, but as you will have to book your flight through them you then won't be able to apply your VS AmEx upgrade voucher to that booking. To use it, you will have to use your FC miles booking direct with VS I am afraid.

Thanks for that Neil. My hope was that, as the fare class would presumably still be 'T', then VS may overlook the fact that the T ticket stemmed from BMI miles and therefore allow the voucher to be applied to move the ticket to 'U'! Perhaps though there is a separate, non T, bucket that Economy rewards stemming from VS partner airlines are allocated to and this is the trigger to disallow the voucher?

Cheers
James

[Neil]

As far as I am aware, when using the T>U upgrade voucher, the booking automatically goes in to the U class, because I know there does not have to be T availability to use the reward, just U.

I guess it is worth a try, although I still think that the fact your booking was made with BMI I imagine that any queries regarding upgrading etc will have to be dealt with by them and that VS won't even touch it.

Thanks for you help Neil