Question about reward seats and fare codes

Apologies in advance, as I know there are lots of questions on this, but they all seem to be very specific due to their complicated nature.

Basically we're looking to fly to Johannesburg next May, and have around 25k miles each at the moment.

So options, subject to availability etc, I assume are to top that up, and upgrade from E to PE. Or maybe catch a reward seat sale and get a flight with just the tax, which I think is around £400.

But I know those options are dependent on what the fare code is. Looking at prices for around the time we plan to go, its about £870 cheapest return E fare on code X. The only other they quote is a flexible fare which is around £1800. So more than double which seems a lot. But is fare code Y.

Meanwhile the cheapest PE return fare is £1400

So it seems crazy to spend an extra £1800 for a flexible economy fare that can be used for an upgrade, if you can just book the lowest PE fare for £1400.

So I guess my question is are there other fare codes eligible for upgrades or reward seats that tend to be closer to the X code than the Y code?

[Neil]

Yep, you need an M fare code, which is the lowest flexible fare code, which you can search for on this page on the VS site. The standard search engine, always use you the fully flexible Y code when you select that option, which is why it is so expensive.

Neil

Brilliant - thanks Neil. Thought it might be a ringing up thing.

That's more like it - £970, if available, for PE flights to Johannesburg doesn't seem too bad at all.

[Neil]

Don't forget you have to pay PE taxes, so it will be slightly more than the basic M fare, but not massively.

Ah. Didn't think of that. Bumps it up by another £120 or so.