UPPER CLASS Upgrade.. please help

Hi All,

I was wondering if somebody could please help me out. Im travelling LHR-DXB this sunday(13th)on the VS400 and am currently in W. I used miles for this ticket and managed to get J on the way back however outbound G seats were sold out even though i was told that there's lots of seats in J available. They told me to keep trying. Ever since november i have been looking daily but no seats ever appear to be released.

Can someone please tell me how many seats there are in upper free for this flight. Ive had a look on flightstats and it appears wide open but am baffled as to why no G seats are being released.

If worse comes to worse what are the chances of me getting a J upgrade using miles if i ask at the airport on the day of departure? Anybody had experience at this?

Any help would be much appreciated.

6 seats left

Hi

I don't think there's any necessary relationship between unsold seat capacity and seats made available for reward upgrades.

Paul

Don't equate empty seats with number of G's...
If they did that no one would book till last minute..?

Expect the worse and ask at the desk, you never know...

EF shows: J9 C9 D9 I9 Z9 W9 S9 H9 K9 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q9 X9 N9 O9 and I'd keep looking.

As for fare codes P is your code in PE on miles and G in UC .

The availability of G rewards is a mystery that no-one will ever unravel!

But presumably if VS reckon there's a chance they can sell UC seats for cash, they'll hold on to them as long as they can.

If UC is still wide open when you check in then yes, there's a decent chance of buying a miles upgrade at the airport.

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses and for checking the loads. I will keep checking otherwise will definetly try at the airport on the day.

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses and for checking the loads. I will keep checking otherwise will definetly try at the airport on the day.

What you need to be doing is carrying out dummy 'spend miles' bookings for your date as that is where you will see any availability for a G (VS reward availability isn't showing on sites like http://www.expertflyer.com and http://www.flightstats.com ) and if there is some you need to phone VS at once to try and get it as others may also be looking.

What you need to be doing is carrying out dummy 'spend miles' bookings for your date as that is where you will see any availability for a G (VS reward availability isn't showing on sites like http://www.expertflyer.com and http://www.flightstats.com ) and if there is some you need to phone VS at once to try and get it as others may also be looking.

Do the dummy booking on a one-way flight as you are only interested in one leg.

When you do see a G and then get through on the phone, don't be surprised if the person in the call centre can't see the G. I had this the other day trying to get a G on VS20, so I kept them talking for 15 minutes until it re-appeared in their system. (They can keep refreshing all the time). I could see it, but I think the problem is that I had the seat locked for a while, so the agent couldn't nab it.

Eventually the system freed the seat up and hey-presto I had my UC flight home.

Good luck

If you want an easy way to check, sign up for KVS Tool

http://www.kvstool.com/

Currently no G's though.

Shows:

[KVS Availability Tool 7.1.2/Diamond - Shares: Awards/VS]

LHR London Heathrow UK [EGLL]
DXB Dubai Intl AE [OMDB]
SUN 13 Jan 2013 | 1 Seat

Carrier Flight From Depart To Arrive St Availability
--------- ------ ---- -------- ---- -------- --- -- ------------
VS 400 LHR 21:10 DXB 08:00 +1 WS+ YS+

You are looking for CS, which is G.

Thanks everyone. I spoke to the Upper Class premier team yesterday and today. They were extremely helpful and much more so than reservations!. Reservations just say no and that's it.
The premier team put a note in my booking and said that currently there are approx 9 seats left for tomorrow but no G's. He said to call back tomorrow morning to see if there's anything they can do and if not to go to the airport and if there's still seats left the airport staff will convert one into G for me. He also said that the airport staff have the authority and discretion to convert any remaining J seats into redemption seats! Fingers crossed! y)

If you want an easy way to check, sign up for KVS Tool

Are you still charging the maximum subscription fee for access to VS redemption data?

He also said that the airport staff have the authority and discretion to convert any remaining J seats into redemption seats! Fingers crossed! y)

That's interesting to know.

Did he say whether the ticket desk or the check-in desk can do this or both?

He also said that the airport staff have the authority and discretion to convert any remaining J seats into redemption seats! Fingers crossed! y)

That's interesting to know.

Did he say whether the ticket desk or the check-in desk can do this or both?

Ask at check-in tonty, if there is availability in the cabin, they make a call and then send you to the ticketing desk to pay the diff in fees/taxes and take the miles then the ticket is yours....

I do this quite a lot... it never hurts to ask 8D

I tend to go straight to the ticketing desk and ask about Gs there. Once I am sorted, or not, I head to check in. I've noticed that at JFK they take a very pragmatic attitude to releasing Gs at the airport.

He told me to go straight to the check in desk. He also said it doesn't make a difference if you have checked in online the night before either.

Yes, checking in doesn't make a difference. But seeing as you need to go to ticketing to get your eticket re-synced, you might as well head there first because they are the ones who will get you your upgrade. If you go to check in and the last G is nabbed by someone else whilst you are going back to (or queueing at) the ticketing desk, then believe me you will kick yourself.

Edit: I may be wrong, of course, but that's how I'd do it.

Ha ha true enough at240

What check-in can do though is check you into UC so you don't lose the seat when queueing at the ticketing desk.... ii)

Got upgraded at the airport went straight to the ticket desk there was 1 seat left! They converted it to a 'G' after making a phone call and checked me in there and here I am in the clubhouse! )

Result y) y)

Enjoy the CH and your flight 8D

Absolutely great news to hear that the advice you were given worked. I was in exactly the same boat as you 10 days ago when I was nervous to purchase the M class fare to just take the risk of turning up at the airport in the hope that the upgrade would be available.

When I looked, G's especially to DXB were pretty much non existent. Yet on Expert Flyer only 4 seats in UC were booked. I needed to travel sometime mid this week and there was one day (8th) showing available and that was it till April!!! It would appear watching almost twice a day and a bit of patience paid off. Suddenly, a G appeared on the 17th. Perfect. It took a bit of time to get through and for FC to get it booked, but as I did not take advantage of the upgrade on the return leg, I can only assume this was the reason for the extra surprise of the final cost being £30 even cheaper!!!

Despite being an M class in both directions, the final booking has ended up being G out and O on the return leg. Anyone any idea why it's still not M on the return so I can upgrade if I decided at the airport if available? It's almost like as I said I was not going to, then the FC customer services guy has fixed the class.

Anyway, enjoy Dubai. Can't wait till Thursday

S