Upgrading reward flights

Hi all.
Long time lurker here but have never posted before.
I am looking to book return flights to Vancouver for September 2015. As it currently stands, by November this year I will have enough miles for Premium Economy reward flights and want to book then.
My question is, if by Feb/March next year I have earned enough additional miles for upgrade to Upper, can I then change these tickets if there is availability?
I don't want to leave it later than Nov to book the original tickets as I want to make sure I at least get PE seats (but would obviously prefer UC without having to buy miles at the time)
Thanks in advance, Dylan

[Neil]

Hi and welcome.

Yes, it is fine to book a PE reward and then upgrade later with more miles if seats become available. You will only be able to upgrade with miles though, it isn't possible to upgrade a reward seat with cash.

Neil

Thanks, that's great news! Hopefully there will be availability nearer the time, the UC and PE cabins seem quite small on the Vancouver flights but not really sure how popular the route will be.

There is usually good reward availability to Vancouver in Upper, so be fairly flexible and you may be lucky. Remember an M economy plus 50,000 miles will only cost you the same as a Premium ticket or less. Linda

Thanks Linda.
I'm guessing that an M economy ticket will probably be out of my budget (vs about £500-£600 in taxes to buy a PE or UC ticket outright using miles). I will do some research though, as it's not something I have really looked into in the past

Think our M - G rewards to Vancouver cost £850 each last June. That was everything the cost of the tickets and about £150 extra in UC fees. Linda

In that case, I will do some more research nearer the time, as that would save me a lot of miles for very little extra cash!

Well, this thread has suddenly become redundant. Back to the drawing board. Ironically our last planned trip was Sydney where the same thing happened!

Sorry to hear that, I did think of this thread when I saw the announcement myself earlier!

So disappointed, the whole
Trip itinerary was organised, we were just waiting to book flights - thankfully we didn't I guess!
On a positive note, at least we have a whole heap of Virgin miles to head somewhere else next summer and can start saving Avios for vancouver in a few years.