Premium Economy reward upgrade

Just a quick question oh wise ones ........I have one of the above that expires on 6/10/11.
Do I have to book and use it by then or simply book for a future flight?

AFAIK you only have to book by the expiry date, not fly.

Yep, the expiry date reflects the date by which you must book, not fly.

And, if you didn't know already, the PE upgrades (assuming you mean the ones you get from the VS Amex card) will only upgrade miles reward economy bookings - i.e., you need to use miles to get your economy ticket, then you can use the PE upgrade voucher.

HTH

Many thanks to you both

AND there must be reward availability in both cabins (including the one you will not be in).

AND there must be reward availability in both cabins (including the one you will not be in).

Not true, there just needs to be 'U' class availability in PE. I was told this by the reservations agent I spoke to when I booked the other day.

Then they lied to me earlier this year did not make much sense at the time.

[Neil]

Then they lied to me earlier this year did not make much sense at the time.

Unfortunately it seems they did mis-inform you (lied is a strong word that would suggest they do so on purpose). To confirm, there only has to be PE reward availability, but you must you use miles only when wanting to use the voucher.

there only has to be PE reward availability, but you must you use miles only when wanting to use the voucher.

So do you need to book both the ticket with miles in Economy and the reward upgrade at the same time to avoid having to find reward availability in Economy?

The Amex PE upgrade voucher, upgrades the economy miles ticket to PE.

To book, you need to phone and state you want to use the PE upgrade voucher, at which point, the cal centre person will be looking for U (PE reward bucket) availability.

There does not need to be any kind of economy availability to book the ticket using the miles plus the PE Amex upgrade voucher.

Hope this clarifies.

Yes I see now. Thank you!

Sorry to hi-jack this thread but I have a question on these reward vouchers.

If I book a outgoing UC mileage reward with economy mileage reward returning can I use one of these vouchers to upgrade the economy to PE - availability dependent?

[Neil]

Sorry to hi-jack this thread but I have a question on these reward vouchers.

If I book a outgoing UC mileage reward with economy mileage reward returning can I use one of these vouchers to upgrade the economy to PE - availability dependent?

Yes, but you will obviously forfeit/lose one leg of the voucher. You have to use a whole voucher in one go, so you can't save the other leg of the round trip upgrade voucher for use on a different flight. But if you are willing to do that, then it isn't an issue.

Thanks, I have a couple of these vouchers on my account so it's no heartbreak loosing a sector. I am booking Mother Dubaiification to come and see me so will make it a more efficient use of miles.

Well it seems as though the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. I booked 2 Premium rewards a few weeks ago and was told that there must be availability in both classes. I wanted either MAN-LAS or LGW-LAS, gave them from March 2012 till late June with at least 7 days in between, nothing! So I asked for anything from now till middle October and the only date she came up with was August 18th, so I had to take that, even though we are going again in October.
So I gave them an 8 month spread to find me 2 seats in PE and there was only 1 date available, complete waste of time and effort collecting miles and spending on the VS Amex card

Unless it has changes very recently I can confirm you only need to have the U class available.

I did have a convesation with an agent on this once who tried to tell me otherwise, but when I asked them to speak to their supervisor they came back and agreed.

Nice to know the advice is consistently inconsistent. So that is two of us at least told both cabins need reward availability. Clearly this makes no sense at all and must be incorrect, why would an upgrade take a seat out of both buckets? Time for quick memo to your FC staff Virgin!

[Neil]

Yes, I am afraid there are a few members of the VS CS team that could do with some further training. It is very frustrating when people are told incorrect info, thankfully there are very useful sites like this that are here to help people out.

I have a VS Amex card but have never recevied a voucher, do they come in the post or do you have to download it? I have recently booked two tickets to Las Vegas in PE, could I have used a voucher and paid the Economy price and then upgraded. My husband has a card as well so we would have had two vouchers. Mind you we bought our tickets when the sale was on.

[Neil]

You don't get a physical voucher, it will show on your FC account summary once you have reached the required spend.

You couldn't have used the voucher in the circumstances you have given. To use the voucher you need to make a miles booking in economy and then use the voucher to upgrade that to PE. As this thread has stated, there only needs to PE reward availability and not economy.

Thanks Neil

I've just found it on the website, you need to spend £10,000 in a year to qualify for the voucher. I'll be putting everything om my VS Amex card from now on then.

[Neil]

Do just remember, to use them there needs to be PE reward availability and that is limited on each flight, and sometimes non-existent on busy routes/periods. Just because there are PE seats available for sale, you can't always use miles/upgrade vouchers.