Flying Club Econ->PE Reward Upgrade and Companion Flights

Hi everyone

Hopefully someone will know the answers to these - I will keep trying FC but they are very busy today (or is this the norm?)

We have a companion flight from VA AMEX and I understand that you pay a fully flexible fare and then your companion pays just the tax - is there a way of checking availability of the companion seat online - e.g. is it as simple as there being 2 flexi fare seats available or is it a flexi fare seat and a reward set or something far more complicated.

We also have a few E->PE reward upgrades - similar question - can I check availability online and also how do these work - is it miles required for the economy seats or can I pay for economy and use the upgrades.

Hopefully this makes sense?

Thanks

[Neil]

You can check availability online by doing a dummy reward/miles booking. When you are selecting your destination/dates etc, you need to click the 'use miles' button, this will show what reward seats are available. Unfortunately, if there are 2 flexible revenue seats it doesn't mean there will necessarily be reward/companion seats.

You don't actually need fully flexible fare codes to use companion seats, for UC it is a J fare which is the highest, in PE it is S or W, and in Economy it is Y/B/L. Do check that 2 discounted fares aren't cheaper than the flexible and companion ticket, as quite often they are.

With regards to the Y-PE upgrade voucher, you just need to check reward availability in PE for the dates you want, there doesn't need to be Economy available to start with. Again, do a dummy reward/miles booking and see what is available, then call FC and they will book it for you. Do remember that you have to fully use miles for this, you can't pay for economy and then use the voucher to upgrade.

Hope all is clear, anything else, then just ask.

Neil

Thanks Neil - very helpful