Upgrades during school holidays

Hi all,

This is my first post, but I have been a frequent Virgin customer since I first used them for LHR-SFO in 2001 - complete disaster after the passenger beside me wet herself during take-off :$ (I can't even begin to describe the smell!), and have been a regular visitor to the forums since 2005. Usually I find exactly what I need to know without any problem, but now I feel it's time to ask a question of my own, so thanks in advance for any answers!

I have a fair few Virgin miles burning an imaginary hole in my virtual pocket, and I would like to use some of them to bag a couple of UC upgrades for my partner and I. However, the problem I have is she is a teacher, and so can obviously only travel in the school holidays. I know from reading previous posts on here it can be hard to get an upgrade at the best of times, but I was just wondering if anyone has any experience trying to find some available in school holidays? I'm guessing it's going to be next to impossible.

The reason I'm asking now is I know if I tell my partner about upgrading she'll get pretty excited, and I hate the idea of disappointing her if it doesn't work out. I'd rather just not use them.

Note: Ideally we'd be looking for seats to LAX or SFO.

Thanks!

[Neil]

Hi and welcome,

The ability to predict the availability of reward seats is one many on here would love to have, but unfortunately there really does seem to be no set pattern or system to them.

Certainly for you, the good thing is your destination, with both SFO & LAX being twice daily or a/c configs that have large UC cabins, plus them not being so much of a typical kids holiday destination (compared to say MCO). I would say you should be able to find some flights with UC reward seats, providing you can be a little flexible with your dates, which is the main thing at any time of the year.

Do bear in mind you will have to book an upgradable fare code (Y,B,R,L in economy or W,S in PE) to be able to upgrade with miles and those fares are usually quite a bit higher than the lowest available fares on the VS site.

Good luck and let us know how you get on or if you have any more questions.

Hi Jaybe and welcome

I'm in the same position, tied to a provider of "a gold plated public sector pension" (c) Daily Mail and thus limited to school holidays. I've sucessfully used miles to get return UC flights to JFK (Christmas 2011) and SFO (August 2010). When booking the latter I could have had LAX also. I think the upgrades and rewards come out of the same allocation, so I presume I could have used a combination of cash and miles to achieve the same end.

As Neil says, flexibility about dates was key.

Good hunting!

Paul

phew that really is taking the p*ss

[honey lamb]

The best way to check if there is availability is to do a dummy booking using the Spend Miles option in the class to which you hope to upgrade. This should give you the dates for which there is availability and once you have your dates then call VS.

LAX and SFO are both easier to score during the school holidays so the best of luck

One of the better newbie thread openers ) y) .

As people have said, it is possible through to very difficult during the principal holidays. One thing to do is always keep checking, even up to the day before your flight to see if upgrades open up, sometimes you can be surprised!

Hi and welcome,

The ability to predict the availability of reward seats is one many on here would love to have, but unfortunately there really does seem to be no set pattern or system to them.

Certainly for you, the good thing is your destination, with both SFO & LAX being twice daily or a/c configs that have large UC cabins, plus them not being so much of a typical kids holiday destination (compared to say MCO). I would say you should be able to find some flights with UC reward seats, providing you can be a little flexible with your dates, which is the main thing at any time of the year.

Do bear in mind you will have to book an upgradable fare code (Y,B,R,L in economy or W,S in PE) to be able to upgrade with miles and those fares are usually quite a bit higher than the lowest available fares on the VS site.

Good luck and let us know how you get on or if you have any more questions.

when I enquired about upgrading a K class PE ticket to UC was quoted for M+M

Actually I think you have good chances of getting rewards to LAX or SFO, even in holidays. Provided you start to look long in advance and are reasonably flexible, you have a good chance of being lucky. My advice would be to grab the opportunities as they arise. If this means you subsequently have to adjust your booked dates a bit and possibly upgrade one leg before the other, then so be it. If you hang on waiting for the perfect combination at the outset, you may be waiting forever.

Good luck!