Combine companion reward plus PE upgrades

I know this has been asked a few times and I've looked at the fare code info but wanted to check my options to get the best return from my miles and Amex rewards.

I have earned two PE upgrades on my CC
I also have one companion reward
I have around 115,000 miles

If I book one L class seat I can then get an economy companion reward seat
I can upgrade my L with miles to PE

Can I then upgrade the companion seat using my PE upgrade earned on the CC so we both end up in PE? The fare code info suggests yes.

Alternative

For 120,000 miles I could book two L seats and upgrade to UC with miles and forget about this year's PE rewards and companion reward.

Can anyone more experienced unravel the pitfalls of redeeming my miles in the best way? UC appeals and maybe the best use of the miles?

Cheers

[Neil]

Your first option isn't possible. The L fare upgraded to PE with miles would be fine, but the companion fare is not upgradable, even with cash, so you couldn't use your PE upgrade voucher. Also, it doesn't really make sense it terms of using your mileage (plus it would cost more money wise). You would be much better just 'buying' with miles two T economy tickets and using the 2xPE upgrade vouchers to put them both in to PE. The way you suggested, involved buying a companion ticket with miles and then using miles to upgrade the L.

For me personally, buying an L and upgrading to UC is the best use of miles and if possible I would suggest that is the option you go for. Yes you need another 5k miles, but you can buy them on the VS site, and then you are both flying in UC, with full CH access etc, plus you will both still earn miles and TP's on the economy fare, something you wouldn't on the other option.

I have had the VS AmEx since it was launched and have never used either the companion ticket or the PE reward vouchers.

Oh, and don't forget there will need to be reward availability in whichever class you decide to go with.

Neil

Thanks Neil

The reason I asked about using the companion reqard and then upgrading was because I read this on the fare class sections

Note: If you utilise the revenue fare for a companion reward, you can then also upgrade that revenue fare to a higher class but not the reward seat. So person X buys the L class revenue fare, and gets a companion reward for person Y (booked in T class), person A can then use miles to upgrade to Premium Economy (booked in U class) but person B cannot use miles to upgrade. The exception to this rule is if you have reached the threshold via spend on your Virgin Credit Card for the upgrade award, in this instance you can use the upgrade award to upgrade the Economy Companion seat to Premium Economy.

I thought this applied in my situation and as L seats are available at the moment at a reasonable rate then that might be the best way to obtain two PE's seats at a good price.

Since those terms and conditions are shown on V-Flyer rather than the VS website I would inclined to call up customer services to see if this is really the case. As far as I know you cannot upgrade a companion ticket using the upgrade voucher. Would be nice if you could.

[Neil]

Interesting, I am not 100% sure then, agree that a call the VS would be best to clarify. Thinking about it a bit more, I suppose the companion ticket was effectively bought with miles so maybe that then allows the use of the upgrade voucher.

I would be interested to know what the answer from VS is.

Oh, and I would still go for the UC option!!!

Neil

Called VS and the answer was an immediate 'no you cannot combine the CC reward flight with the PE upgrade'

The guy was very helpful but sadly on our dates there was very limited (no!) reward availability.

The UC upgrade certainly looks like the best use of points to me so whilst we will be travelling PE on our original dates I will look at another flight on a later date to use the points up on UC.

[Neil]

Thanks for letting us know, and confirming what I thought.

Def look to use the miles for UC and if at all possible on a longish flight, that is where the savings really start to be large.

Neil