Help Please - Amex Upgrade Voucher

I have been following this very helpful forum for almost a year and have been picking up lots of very useful information, but can somebody please give me advice on the rules of using an Amex Upgrade Voucher.
After collecting over 100K miles, I was ready today to book 2 Economy M class tickets to New York in September and upgrade them to Upper Class. There were 2 available which I now have on hold until 11am tomorrow. For the return from Orlando I wanted to use my Amex upgrade voucher to upgrade two Economy Reward tickets to Premium Economy. However, contrary to what I have read on this forum, the reservations lady told me this was not allowed as the voucher could only be used for an outbound and return journey. I questioned this and she went away for a long time, but returned to tell me the same thing. Can anyone help me please as I have been saving my miles for a long time just this event and believe I have read others on this site being able to use it for two people travelling one way?

I'm doing exactly the same in March with no problem. You lose the other half of the upgrade voucher but there wasn't an issue with using it one way.

As usual with VS, try calling back and speak to someone else, a supervisor if necessary.

[Neil]

Hi,

I'll see if I can help, although I am already slightly confused.

You have said, you wanted, for your outbound to book an M fare to NYC, however to book an M fare, it needs to be a round trip, you cannot book a one way M fare. All one fares are booked in to the highest fare code in each class, so for economy it would be a Y.

To use the AmEx PE upgrade voucher, you need to buy a economy reward seat with miles and then upgrade to PE with the voucher. There doesn't need to be availability in the economy reward bucket, just the PE reward bucket. I have just re-read the rules and see no reason, why you cannot use the voucher for a return portion only. However, you will have to forfeit the whole voucher, you couldn't save the other leg to use on a future flight.

I'n not 100% sure how many pax you are trying to book for, but if it is 2 like you mention above, it seems to me that it would make most sense to book a M round trip fare, outbound to NYC returning from MCO, then use a total of 32.5k miles per person to upgrade to UC outbound (20k) and PE return (12.5k).

Neil

Many thanks gumshoe. The lady on the phone wasn't budging.
Neil, I'm sorry if I've not been very clear, but it's all so complicated to me. There are two of us travelling to New York we want to fly Upper and returning from Orlando - returning in PE. Are you saying that I need to forget the amex voucher as I have to book a return using money if I want an M fare and upgrade to premium that way?

You have said, you wanted, for your outbound to book an M fare to NYC, however to book an M fare, it needs to be a round trip, you cannot book a one way M fare.

Yes you can, with a combi fare.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/fl ... fares.html

I'm doing exactly what the OP's doing in March: outbound an 'M' fare to LAX and using miles to upgrade to a 'G', then return from EWR on an economy reward, and using my Amex voucher to upgrade to PE.

As you say, you forfeit half of the Amex voucher but for under £700 plus 37,500 miles it was still a good deal IMHO.

[Neil]

Many thanks gumshoe. The lady on the phone wasn't budging.
Neil, I'm sorry if I've not been very clear, but it's all so complicated to me. There are two of us travelling to New York we want to fly Upper and returning from Orlando - returning in PE. Are you saying that I need to forget the amex voucher as I have to book a return using money if I want an M fare and upgrade to premium that way?

Sorry, I have just remembered about the combi-fares that they offer now, which allows you to book revenue one way and miles the other, so you could do want you want.

I still question though if that makes sense. Doing an M fare round trip with 65k miles in total would almost be certainly the same cost and use less miles than the way you are proposing. I would certainly ask them to price it up and see what price it came back at.

Thank you so much for your replies Gumshoe and Neil, though I feel the hard part will be getting a telephone rep to agree I can use my voucher anyway. However, if I end up going the return M fare way would it not be more than 65K for 2 tickets outbound upgraded to Upper and return upgraded to PE?

[Neil]

Thank you so much for your replies Gumshoe and Neil, though I feel the hard part will be getting a telephone rep to agree I can use my voucher anyway. However, if I end up going the return M fare way would it not be more than 65K for 2 tickets outbound upgraded to Upper and return upgraded to PE?

No, it is 20k per person to upgrade from economy to UC and 12.5k to upgrade from economy to PE, so a total of 32.5k per person, and 65k in total.

Thanks Neil, I cant add up!
Will keep trying and let you know what I end up with.

[Neil]

Thanks Neil, I cant add up!
Will keep trying and let you know what I end up with.

No problem, it could save you about 10k milespp and some similar money, which is why I think it worth exploring.

Just an update from yesterday. I spoke to a different rep, who told me I could indeed use the Amex upgrade voucher for a single leg and upgrade to PE on the inbound, however, he then said I could not upgrade to Upper class with miles on the revenue part of a Combi fare (the outbound), only to PE? So, after being shot down for a different reason, I then asked him for a price as per Neil's suggestion and not wishing to lose the G's, I decided to go down that route which saved me some miles (thanks Neil). So in the end, I'm happy to say that thanks to the help of this brilliant forum, my partner and I will be taking our first UC flight in September and experiencing the delights of the LHR Clubhouse.
Alison

[Neil]

Just an update from yesterday. I spoke to a different rep, who told me I could indeed use the Amex upgrade voucher for a single leg and upgrade to PE on the inbound, however, he then said I could not upgrade to Upper class with miles on the revenue part of a Combi fare (the outbound), only to PE? So, after being shot down for a different reason, I then asked him for a price as per Neil's suggestion and not wishing to lose the G's, I decided to go down that route which saved me some miles (thanks Neil). So in the end, I'm happy to say that thanks to the help of this brilliant forum, my partner and I will be taking our first UC flight in September and experiencing the delights of the LHR Clubhouse.
Alison

Excellent news - really pleased you managed to get sorted. Still remember our first UC flights, just be warned, it becomes an expensive hobby

Bring it on!
But don't tell the OH I said that............... :w