To bubble or not to bubble, that is the question

[buns]

Super Result R-P ^) ^) ^)

buns

Thank you Blacky1 & Buns

I knew you'd be impressed.

I posted to give hope to others booking an M fare with a direct use of miles to PE, with fingers crossed that availability would appear courtesy of the elusive Reward Fairy

R-P

Whoop whoop glad you got your upgrades R-P, lucky things

Still checking for mine...

I agree with the majority of posters here - the bubble is dead. For the last 2 or 3 flights we have managed to snag 19A-C and have been more than happy. OK so we didn't get our first choice of meals but we didn't get them with our former favourites (79A-C in t'bubble) either. These seats make for a quick exit at MCO too, in fact on our last trip we were on the road with our Alamo hire car 40 mins after the aircraft doors opened.

Hi

I have been a lurker for a few months and have found out some great information. The bit I am still confused with is the upgrades e.g Roxy-Popsy says she grabbed a 'g' when it appeared. I have just about got to grips with the lettering for the type of seat you have booked but where do you need to look to see an available upgrade, I do realise these are paid for upgrades. Many thanks for your help.

[Neil]

Hi,

When people are talking about 'grabbing a G', that is usually related to the getting a miles reward seat, and usually in UC. It is when people are buying economy or PE fares and wanting to upgrade with miles to UC, which are often hard to come by or was not available when they made the initial booking.

To search for reward/miles seats, you just need to click the use miles butting on the VS website flight search page instead of the default +/- 3 days.

Paid upgrades with just cash are much easier to come by, there just needs to be a seat available in the class you want, give VS a call and then will tell you what price it would be to upgrade from your current fare. It's usually just the difference between what you paid and what the higher cabin is currently selling for.

Neil

Thanks Neil, a really helpful answer. We are flying to Vegas at the end of the month so would love to try to grab a bargain and 'save' the cash to lose in the casinos! lol

Tina

I do love the bubble - even though it is now shared with economy - because it is so much quieter and feels like you are travelling on a private jet rather than with with hundreds of other people. But the last 2 times we've landed in Vegas we have been virtually the last people off the plane. I've complained to Virgin and they say that they try and let the upstairs premium economy passengers off before downstairs economy where possible but it's not always feasible. Sadly the last 2 times the manchester plane has landed just after the gatwick plane so we've had to wait over an hour for immigration. This year we will book downstairs premium on our outward journey and upstairs for our return where we're not soo much in a rush to get off the plane

Double whoopie whoopie whoop whoop

I checked again this morning for a 'G' for my inbound flight & one had magically appeared!

For all V-Flyers hoping for the magic fare code to appear, don't give up hope.

May the fare code fairy shine upon you

R-P

Just out of interest what has changed in the bubble for PE that everyone is voting 19 downstairs? I sat in the bubble for the first time ever coming back from Cancun in Economy and loved it.

On the LGW/MAN 747's, travelling PE in the bubble was quiet & "exclusive", and on arrival the economy cabin downstairs was (usually) delayed so the bubble was off pretty quickly...

Now the bubble is split PE at the front and EC at the rear, it seems that the "hold back" on disembarkation no longer occurrs, so the PE passengers at the front of the bubble are hitting longer delays getting off, which is very important when arriving at many the overseas airports, where immigration delays can build very quickly...

Priority embarkation and debarkation *used to be* a PE benefit, now it depends which cabin you are in.

I presume it is a similar tale on the LHR 747's where the bubble is split UC at the front and EC at the rear...

Ah I see, did not realise the bubble used to be exclusively PE. Thanks for explaining.

I sat downstairs in PE on a flight to SFO and I just don't understand but I got off first, did not use the toilet, got straight into the immigration queue and I was literally the last person queueing in the immigration hall - perhaps I picked a bad queue ?|

I did feel bad on my return flight when I sat in the bubble in EC and got off before the PE at front They did however hold the EC downstairs so it was only a matter of perhaps an extra 30 EC people getting off. I must admit if I was travelling PE, I would pick a seat downstairs as the smell from the toilet in our bubble reached quite far :$

When it comes to the bubble, I might consider it on the way back to LGW when priority of exit is far less important, but will be downstairs on the way over, to get through that line. Done both PE (old bubble) and LAS, and at the taxi rank 10-20 minutes after doors have opened...