Was I wrong or VS (PE-UC upgrade)?

I am planning a trip to the USA west coast next June, and today 2 G's popped up outbound on a date that worked for me. This is LHR-SFO and then returning LAS-MAN.

On the website that itinery going out PE and back UC is about £1560 pp. I wanted to use miles to go from PE-UC out, so expected the difference to be about £150 per head (£100 fare and £50 tax) maybe £200 tops.

Imagine my horror at a quote of £2650 per head for an S fare out and a Z fare back. When I queried this I was told that was the difference between a K and S fare outbound. So I left it.

Checking now I see that the difference between a K fare and a S fare to SFO on a return is £100 each way, confirming my original thoughts.

So have I been misled or is it perhaps that I am booking a multi-city itinery that is making the S fare so expensive.

It is all a bit academic now because the G's have gone outbound on days that work for me.

Sorry I'm a little confused on your plans

You currently have a K PE seat outbound and a Z on the return and you want to upgrade your outbound to UC?

If that is the case you would have to pay to get from a PE K into an S bucket which should only be the fare difference plus the miles up to UC. There might be a change fee as well but that's in the range of £100

There would be no extra tax (APD) to pay as the UC rate is the same as the PE rate.

I think the OP means he's looking for 2 Gs outbound, upgrading from a K, with a Z inbound. So he needs to pay to convert the Ks to Ss and that is somehow bumping up the price by £1000 per person.

It doesn't sound right to me - I wonder whether they've quoted the price to change to Ws outbound. Or even just given you the cash upgrade price to Zs?

There won't be a change fee if you have already booked the K flight and are not changing to another one.

Hi Tontybear and at240.

at240 is on the money. I have nothing booked at the moment, wanted to book a S outbound (LHR-SFO)and a Z inbound (LAS-MAN), but the price I was quoted just didn't add up.

With hindsight wish I had booked K outbound and Z return for cash and then called to upgrade separately, although as I said the outbound G's have now gone on days that work for me.

Will probably book the fares as above for cash and just see if I get lucky with two G's popping up. At least that way I have UC on the night flight back.

With sale fares on to LAS at the moment, getting the Z inbound for cash is not too bad, given that G's are like hen's teeth on that route.

I picked a random date in June to have a look and I think at240 is right ,the diff between a k and a w is just under £ 1080 which approx the same as yours

Hi there,

I have booked an S fare LHR-SFO / LAS-LGW for next year looking on the website it was giving crazy figures but I called FC line and they did it for under £1200, it seems that the IT gremlins don't like multi city S fares.

Give them a call,

Best of luck.
Dominic

Looks like I probably got a call centre agent not on the ball, or maybe IT was playing up (computer says no).

Anyway booked for cash today, LHR-SFO (PE - K) and LAS-MAN (UC - Z). Did this because the reduced Z fares from LAS to the UK were only available on a couple of days (and about 5 others with no reduced Z's left) that worked for me and decided that getting UC on the LAS flight at a discounted UC rate was better than hoping for a reward on that flight. Looking forward to the two of us and no more than 12 other UC passengers.

Now just fingers crossed I can bag two UC rewards out to SFO.

There is one available now - anyone else ever take a single upgrade and hope that another turns up. Not sure I am prepared (or indeed lucky enough) to take a risk.

Jonathan

If you've got K fares for the LHR-SFO flight, remember you'll have to pay to upgrade them to S or W before you can grab any Gs that may become available.

That's fine, but the danger is that the cheaper S fares can and do sell out, meaning you run the risk of a nasty surprise if only W fares are available when those magic Gs appear.