How to use air miles for PE or UC - Help please!

Hi. I have accumulated over 100,000 miles over the last year, and currently have plans to tour the west coast of the USA next July / August as a 20th wedding anniversary. We thought it might be nice to take our two daughters to where we went on honeymoon all those years ago...

Anyway, as we are both teachers we are limited to travel from about 12th July onwards, and ideally would start in the NW (perhaps Vancouver) and return from LAX some time around 3-4 weeks later.

Where I need help is how to best use the air miles, as we don't get many opportunities to travel. Ideally, we would rather not travel cattle class, but miles + money doesn't seem to be a great option.

If it works, I would be happy for the kids to travel in PE if it means the wife & I can travel UC - they are old enough to want to stay up all night on the flight watching movies, and not so young that they need us sitting next to them!

Any advice on whether there is a way to combine companion flights with upgrades would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hello there and welcome to v-flyer.

I do love these kind of mileage puzzles so lets see what we can come up with..

First up, companion fares.. do you have any of the companion vouchers? (usually attained through AU renewal or amex spend) - if so see option 2 below

Usually I would say that the best use of miles would be upgrades from an 'M' class economy fare to PE and UC, however you would need a lot more than 100K to make that work for your family.



Okie doke, 2 options that come to mind..

Option 1: Book the kids into 'M' class economy and then use a total of 50K miles to upgrade them both round trip into PE. Book yourself and the wife into 'S' class PE and then use the remaining 50K for the upgrades into UC round trip for you both.

100K spent... the kids will also be in a reward fare class so if you guys find some more miles along the way you could always bump them into UC for a segment or perhaps two (you would need another 50K miles to bump them into UC for the whole trip)

Option 2: Only of use if you have any companion vouchers to spare.. : Book yourself and the wife into PE 'S' class. Using the companion tickets for the kids to get them into PE too. Then upgrade yourself and the wife to UC with 50K miles leaving you 50K to spare - companion tickets to the west coast run at 35K miles each for PE so this could also work (given available mileage) if you only have one companion voucher to spend.

Hope I have not confused you further 8D

Without knowing the exact number of miles available it's difficult to give specific advice.

However assuming it's exactly 100k, then option 1 above is likely to be the most cost effective option.

The other suggestion is to buy 2 x M class economy tickets for yourself and upgrade them both to Upper (100k for the round trip). You'll have to pay the taxes and surcharges on these. Then buy 2 x cash tickets in PE for your kids.

Either way you'll need to have a pretty lengthy telephone conversation with the FC team in VS to get it booked and the cheapest rate.

In addition, bear in mind that award availability from the west coast US has been notoriously stingy in recent times. You shouldn't have many issues with Vanvouver, by LAX/SFO in August may be tricky.

Lastly, you have my sympathy regarding school hols as my OH is a teacher!

Without knowing the exact number of miles available it's difficult to give specific advice.

However assuming it's exactly 100k, then option 1 above is likely to be the most cost effective option.

Let's not nitpick clarkey ... assuming 100K limit then isn't option 2 the most cost effective one? Taxes and surcharges payable on the companions will come under the amount of the 'M' fares and additional taxes/surcharges. Just depends on if the OP has a companion voucher..... if not he will need another 20K miles in his account :w

Anyways lots of possibilities 8D

I'm fairly new to all this too rfollet38 but have picked up loads of tips on here, and these guys know their stuff.

Having just done my own miles upgrades for my trip next year may I suggest being a bit nerdy and starting a spreadsheet or table so that you can start checking dates and fares, and do dummy run bookings to check for available reward seats. I found this helpful as I had to be flexible with dates in order to get my reward seats, in fact I moved my confirmed holiday booking because it was going to cost peanuts to do so and I was saving mega bucks on the upgrades.

It was helpful to have available when I phoned FC: the current costs of tickets in the class and fare bucket I wanted to book, the availability of reward seats, and the total cost of taxes etc that would be payable for reward seats (doing a dummy run booking for tickets to be paid for and then checking breakdown of fares). It prepared me in case the FC operator had any different (higher) fees, and I checked them one final time immediately before calling. Also bare in mind there's a 1.5% credit card surcharge, or at least there was on my VS Amex.

Another thing - if you have flown in the last 6 months you can do a miles booster very cheaply to boost base flown miles single or double, plus I think they're still giving 1000 bonus miles when you boost. I boosted my other half's miles this way and got 9426 + 1000 miles for £94.26 (base flown miles for Vancouver). That's cheaper than buying additional miles as 10,000 miles costs £165 ): It was a good way to top up to what we needed.

Hope that helps.

Option 2: Only of use if you have any companion vouchers to spare.. : Book yourself and the wife into PE 'S' class. Using the companion tickets for the kids to get them into PE too. Then upgrade yourself and the wife to UC with 50K miles leaving you 50K to spare - companion tickets to the west coast run at 35K miles each for PE so this could also work (given available mileage) if you only have one companion voucher to spend.

Hope I have not confused you further 8D

Can you upgrade a companion fare? Was under the impression you could not for some reason.

Can you upgrade a companion fare? Was under the impression you could not for some reason.

No you can't upgrade a companion ticket, the fare ticket purchased in order to use the companion reward on the other hand ..... ):

Can you upgrade a companion fare? Was under the impression you could not for some reason.

No you can't upgrade a companion ticket, the fare ticket purchased in order to use the companion reward on the other hand ..... ):

Ah right. Sorry, read your post wrong.

Awesome
You guys certainly know your onions
I will be needing this info next time I book a flight to the land of the rising sun

Awesome
You guys certainly know your onions
I will be needing this info next time I book a flight to the land of the rising sun

Lol, got to love a good puzzle.

The OP appears to have disappeared though ?|

The OP appears to have disappeared though ?|

Oh yeah :-0
Well I am almost as OCD as bretty (but not at his mr miyagi level lol) so will do that next time but am pretty sure I will have to ask the same question RE: miles and upgrading again nearer the time

The OP appears to have disappeared though ?|

Oh yeah :-0
Well I am almost as OCD as bretty (but not at his mr miyagi level lol) so will do that next time but am pretty sure I will have to ask the same question RE: miles and upgrading again nearer the time

Aha gfonk San, wax on, wax off...

I learned everything here except the spreadsheet! Actually it was a simple table in Word but it was a great help. I had all the different class prices listed by fare bucket, whether they were flexible or not, required advance payment or not, and the amount of taxes for each fare. It was a great help cross referencing the prices and options. Originally we were planning to pay for Z fares for our trip to Japan for next year and accumulate miles to use maybe in 2015 or if we decide to do another long haul in 2014 to upgrade an M fare. But then we thought about the savings if we upgraded from an S and it was a good saving. And with my VS Amex I'm accumulating miles pretty well. I used it to buy my tickets and get 4 miles per pound, plus I'm due a hefty bonus that was being promoted only in the clubhouse when I signed up. All crafty ways to build up miles when you're not a frequent flyer. ):

V-flyer is my Sensei! y) y)

Sounds good on the mileage front Bretty, keep it up.

A little confused about your spreadsheet though Do you not find that you constantly have to update the data to reflect the day to day fluctuations in price? or does a weekly or monthly mean suffice?

Regardless, with 23 fare classes (assuming you include reward fares as they are still liable to surcharges and taxes) I admire your persistence, although not exactly sure of which info you are taking from said spreadsheet to save you money... I am probably being thick given my brain stopped working properly a few hours ago. Perhaps best left till morning when I have coffee in hand

Sounds good on the mileage front Bretty, keep it up.

A little confused about your spreadsheet though Do you not find that you constantly have to update the data to reflect the day to day fluctuations in price? or does a weekly or monthly mean suffice?

Regardless, with 23 fare classes (assuming you include reward fares as they are still liable to surcharges and taxes) I admire your persistence, although not exactly sure of which info you are taking from said spreadsheet to save you money... I am probably being thick given my brain stopped working properly a few hours ago. Perhaps best left till morning when I have coffee in hand

Ah, well you see I didn't track all 23 fare buckets, but did note the taxes etc on the reward fares. I tracked UC J, I & Z (if paying for UC I would have booked Z). In PE I tracked W, S & H although H fares not upgradeable with miles. In Y I tracked Y, L, M & X. I was interested in highest and lowest fares, and one of the middle fares, then predominantly those upgradeable with miles.

I followed fares over a 4 week period, and changes from start to finish were about 50p - £1, so fairly stable which is why I booked.

Well coffee is in hand ... so if there is a barely measurable fluctuation in price you see that as a sign to book? Cool. I tend to just go with the flow, I need to travel somewhere on certain dates, take a gander and book. My holidays tend to be pretty spontaneous and last minute too, removes all that anxiety from the mix ii)

The planning comes in when I pick flight number, and book that 'M' fare - then I'm on the hunt for the 'G' ): and am nigh unstoppable

8D

Bretty I like you was actually in the process of creating the excel spreadsheet on the very morning I ended up booking the flight as I had previously been using the old skool version of excel (I think they used to call it a pen and paper) lol to record prices each week on a few set options.
But that was before I found out about V-flyer and the fountain of knowledge from the esteemed posters on here.
Next time I will have a game plan based on yours.
@joeyc lol like your booking strategy; simple and effective. You are a seasoned flyer me thinks.

Hi everyone. It was actually me who posted the original question as a guest, but (a) didn't expect such a quick and helpful response, and (b) thought I had registered and wondered why my Mac was not letting me log back in!

Anyway, it seems this website does not like my Mac (or iPad, or iMac!), so I have now registered using my old laptop, and here I am. I now even understand that when people put OC, they were referring to me!

Sorry if I appeared ungrateful for the quick response. I read the replies last night and they have been really useful, although I am still not entirely sure how to find out all the different fare codes, but perhaps that is because the flights are nearly a year away and there is not much available yet.

I assume everyone uses the Virgin website to find their fares, but can anyone offer feedback on the rewardseats.com website? Is it worth looking on there for the best fares or for availability of upgrade seats? It seems to show where reward flights are available even though the VS website doesn't, yet following it through the flights then appear.

As always, any tips gratefully appreciated!

Thanks again.

Joey you crack me up, lol. I don't do last minute because I like to know where I'm going, plan a few things out, leave room for some spontaneity etc. Yep, prices were stable but were starting to increase so I figured if I waited another month, those increases might be higher. You've obviously got a lot of accumulated miles to go hunting for your G's from an M when you want. Perhaps I'll get there one day, but I don't fly frequently enough.

Gfonk - I remember pen and paper lol! This site has certainly been a great help to me in recent months.

Anyway, it seems this website does not like my Mac (or iPad, or iMac!), so I have now registered using my old laptop, and here I am. I now even understand that when people put OC, they were referring to me!

Sorry if I appeared ungrateful for the quick response. I read the replies last night and they have been really useful, although I am still not entirely sure how to find out all the different fare codes, but perhaps that is because the flights are nearly a year away and there is not much available yet.

I assume everyone uses the Virgin website to find their fares, but can anyone offer feedback on the rewardseats.com website? Is it worth looking on there for the best fares or for availability of upgrade seats? It seems to show where reward flights are available even though the VS website doesn't, yet following it through the flights then appear.

Not to worry, there is a bit of a delay for new posters. Being due to the amount of spammers that hit the site on a daily basis, the mods have to approve the first three posts to ensure you are not a said spammer ii) - unsure as to why your mac tech is not reading the site correctly though, mine is seeing everything fine

Sorry, OP is short for original poster.. so yep that would be yourself.

As long as the flights are within the 11 month bracket they should be posted. In order to find the upgradeable and companion fare class prices you can use the VS site and navigate through Flying Club > spend miles > upgrade/companion flights... the search box allows you to change the fare class that you are looking at. If you get lost feel free to ask for further direction.

Yep, I have used the rewardseats.com site and it is good at giving an indicator as to when reward seats are available and where they are going. That being said nothing beats calling VS, listening to Madonna sing Holiday for the millionth time and informing a usually confused/impressed agent for exactly what I am looking for... let them do all the searching

Any other questions, just holla 8D

OK, similar question to the OP, i.e. two adults and two kids in summer holidays to the US.

A couple of questions:

1. I have 500K+ miles to spend so what's the best option to get UC.

2. I'm open to ideas on places to go. I've tried straight reward availability on the VS website but I can't seem to find any availability for four?

3. Looked at M class economy and then upgrading with miles, but it seems way too expensive. £1K to LAX?

All suggestions very welcome!!!

[honey lamb]

OK, similar question to the OP, i.e. two adults and two kids in summer holidays to the US.

A couple of questions:

1. I have 500K+ miles to spend so what's the best option to get UC.

2. I'm open to ideas on places to go. I've tried straight reward availability on the VS website but I can't seem to find any availability for four?

3. Looked at M class economy and then upgrading with miles, but it seems way too expensive. £1K to LAX?

All suggestions very welcome!!!

If there's no straight reward availability, then there would be no M class +miles availability as they both come from the same bucket. A reward seat is the same whether it is accessed entirely with miles, an upgrade or M+M OPTION

OK, similar question to the OP, i.e. two adults and two kids in summer holidays to the US.

A couple of questions:

1. I have 500K+ miles to spend so what's the best option to get UC.

2. I'm open to ideas on places to go. I've tried straight reward availability on the VS website but I can't seem to find any availability for four?

3. Looked at M class economy and then upgrading with miles, but it seems way too expensive. £1K to LAX?

All suggestions very welcome!!!

If there's no straight reward availability, then there would be no M class +miles availability as they both come from the same bucket. A reward seat is the same whether it is accessed entirely with miles, an upgrade or M+M OPTION

Thanks, only tried a single M economy and was surprised by the price.

Ideally want to use miles to get four UC tickets for miles plus no more than £2K. I though it would be easy but it seems not.

I'd say you'd be very lucky to find 4 UC reward seats on the same flight on any route. And you can slmost certainly rule out the Gatwick flights (ie Orlando & Vegas) as their UC cabins only have 14 seats.

I'd say you have two options for a reasonable chance of grabbing Gs for 4.

(1) be prepared to split up - ie you and one child take one flight, and your other half and the other child take another. New York, LA and Orlando all have at least two flights a day so if you can find two Gs on one flight and two on another the same day that could work.

(2) book economy/PE, take your chances and wait until you get to the airport. If any UC seats remain unsold on the day, anecdotal evidence suggests there's a decent chance VS will sell miles upgrades at the ticket desk. It's a big risk, but if there's availability that may be your best chance of getting 4 UC upgrades on the same flight.

As for getting 4 UC reward seats for under £2k - forget it. The taxes and fees alone come to more than that.

I'd say you'd be very lucky to find 4 UC reward seats on the same flight on any route. And you can slmost certainly rule out the Gatwick flights (ie Orlando & Vegas) as their UC cabins only have 14 seats.

I'd say you have two options for a reasonable chance of grabbing Gs for 4.

(1) be prepared to split up - ie you and one child take one flight, and your other half and the other child take another. New York, LA and Orlando all have at least two flights a day so if you can find two Gs on one flight and two on another the same day that could work.

(2) book economy/PE, take your chances and wait until you get to the airport. If any UC seats remain unsold on the day, anecdotal evidence suggests there's a decent chance VS will sell miles upgrades at the ticket desk. It's a big risk, but if there's availability that may be your best chance of getting 4 UC upgrades on the same flight.

Oh well. I really had hoped Virgin would offer more.

I moved to BA due to issues with using miles for upgrades and I'll definitely stay with BA now. They might not be great, but with a bit of flexibility four CW reward tickets isn't too difficult to find.

I guess I won't be using my Virgin miles any time soon :# :# :#

Fair enough, with their large CW cabins and much more extensive route network BA will always be able to offer more reward seats.

Having said that a quick browse on Flyertalk reveals lots of disquiet about reward availability there as well. And presumably, like with VS, you still have to pay taxes & fees of at least £500 each for a reward seat to the US in CW?