Likelihood of PE -> UC upgrade price reducing?

I'm booked on the 23 to LAX on Oct 23rd in PE (on a K)and back on a Z a week later - price was appx £1600.

When I now log in to the "Manage my Flights" section of the VAA site, I get an "offer" to upgrade the PE leg to UC for an additional £930 GBP. Is it likely that upgrade price may improve between now and departure, or is set in stone and immovable and I'm being unreasonably optimistic???

Have you checked load on the flight? I am guessing if it's wide open the price will reduce. From my first UC journey, I don't think it's worth 900GBP for a single leg ..

[Neil]

Just one thing to remember, the closer you get to the flight, the lower fare codes start to disappear as they have advance purchase restrictions on them, do don't leave it to late.

The 23rd is the day many schools break up for half term the following week so factor that into your thinking.

The question is are you happy to pay £930 to upgrade? If the answer is yes then do it. If not you can always wait and see but you are taking the risk that (a) the price changes (up or down) (b) upgrades are even still being offered.

Is it possible to check the load via v-flyer?

[Nottingham Nick]

Is it possible to check the load via v-flyer?

Unfortunately, not at the moment, the feed from Virgin is down.

Pete is aware of it, but is very busy in Edinburgh right now.

Nick

As things stand, I don't think it's worth the incremental £920 to UPGRADE the PE ticket, however if it dropped enough I'd consider it. I'd always planned to be happy(ish) with PE out-bound, so buying an upgrade is not a "must-do", just a "nice-to-have" if the price is sensible. Of course the magic-bing might always save the day, but that's not in my planning of course...

Can't check the load on v-fleyer, and am out of checks on ExF.

[honey lamb]

Can't check the load on v-fleyer, and am out of checks on ExF.

VS23 - October 23

J9 D9 R9 Z9 W9 S0 K0 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 X9 N9 O0

VS23 - October 23

J9 D9 R9 Z9 W9 S0 K0 Y9 B9 L9 M9 Q9 X9 N9 O0

If this holds (and IMO W9 S0 is a bit odd this far out, so it could change) you could be looking at a very full PE cabin, so they are selling Ws in the expectation of having to *potentially* upgrade a bunch of folks from PE to UC. In the past, when PE has been very full and UC not totally, I've seen folks advertising upgrades at the airport even from K fares (might as well collect some miles before doing any op-ups). If these loads stay close to the same over the next month or so, I would not bother with a cash upgrade up front especially if you are happy with PE, and try for a miles upgrade at the airport - just get there very early in the morning and see what happens.

@Markedman: That's exactly the sort of insight I was looking for - hadn't really considered the ramifications of there only being "W" seats available with still 2 months to go.

I've just checked the "Manage your Booking" page again for my flight, and there are indeed only 5 seats showing as available (which of course doesn't show/take into account bulkhead/row 18) in the whole PE section, so that would square with your interpretation of what the booking position shows/suggests.

I'm an Au card-holder and will be travelling alone on the flight, so hopefully might be a candidate when it comes to freeing up space on the flightii)!

@vizbiz
I'm in a very similar situation with my Oct MAN-MCO flights.
The Upgrade offering on the My Bookings page is now £787 (it was higher!) BUT if you click that Upgrade button you may well get a better offer - mine comes down to £536. It would be interesting to know if you have the same sort of reduction!

As discussed here there seems to be a website error but Fergus is kindly working on it.

Like you, I'm waiting to see. Seatmap shows NO PE seats available.
Shows one advantage of having expertflyer/loadcheck

BUT if you click that Upgrade button you may well get a better offer - mine comes down to £536. It would be interesting to know if you have the same sort of reduction!

Nice if you could keep clicking it :w

cheers
alex

BUT if you click that Upgrade button you may well get a better offer - mine comes down to £536. It would be interesting to know if you have the same sort of reduction!

Nice if you could keep clicking it :w

cheers
alex

Trouble is that with the VS "mind" that might indicate that there is "interest" thus time to put up prices. ):

@vizbiz
I'm in a very similar situation with my Oct MAN-MCO flights.
The Upgrade offering on the My Bookings page is now £787 (it was higher!) BUT if you click that Upgrade button you may well get a better offer - mine comes down to £536. It would be interesting to know if you have the same sort of reduction!

As discussed here there seems to be a website error but Fergus is kindly working on it.

Like you, I'm waiting to see. Seatmap shows NO PE seats available.
Shows one advantage of having expertflyer/loadcheck

Hrrmph! No such luck here for me apparently; it continues with the same price all the way through to the credit card details page ?| .

Well, patience pays off. Having been off on hols for a week, I've come back, checked the booking and the upgrade to UC is now £100. Bargain, all things considered.

And today I got my shiny new Au card, having been Ag for the last 20 weeks! Hurrah!

20 weeks! I've been AG for 3 years, got my AU yesterday - very happy

20 weeks! I've been AG for 3 years, got my AU yesterday - very happy

I'm so sorry for being the little show off, but I was AG for all of 14 weeks and 3 days, then got to AU.....

The new card and AU welcome pack was waiting for me when I got home top, so that was delivered within 12 days of getting AU.

Well, it was 20 weeks since being "down-graded" to Ag after failing to hit the required points in March. After a couple of flights (including SIA to SYD and back in Business) it was back to Au.