LHR - SFO (For Gran)

Okay everyone, this is where I pick your brains...

My dear old Grandma (82 but acts like a teenager!) is going to SFO in mid April and staying for about a month. She does this twice a year to visit friends and usually flies with BA. She had a bad experience with them a few weeks ago and I have persuaded her to give Virgin a go
I would like to get her the best deal possible (looks like £709 for PE) but does anyone have any cunning plans to make her first Virgin flight extra special?
Can I use some of my miles to do anything for her?

1. I need to keep the cash cost below £1k
2. I can use some of my 95,000 miles (but not too many!)

Any ideas anyone?

[preiffer]

Hi Andy,

Well, the fare sale may cause a problem if you want to use miles, as they're in N for economy and K for PE (excluding weird circumstances, neither of which are upgradeable).

£652 will get you an L class ticket (Economy) that's upgradeable to PE for 10k each way, or Upper for 30k each way.

An S fare (PE, upgradeable) will set you back around £1150-1250 but could go to Upper for 40k return...

How about booking an s class seat and then upgrading one leg (probably best for the return leg) to UC using 20k miles. You could then think about throwing in a limo transfer on the same leg for a further 10k (depending on where you live this may or may not be a good use of your miles.)

You can also pre-book items for delivery to seat such as a mini bottle of Champagne or a celebration cake. Not sure about these myself, but it may be what you are looking for.

Paul

[mcmbenjamin]

You could: book her a UCS return using miles and she gives you GBP1K

Book a S PE ticket (1966USD) and use mile to upgrade

Book a K PE ticket (1197USD) and hope a VF is flying out of SFO

Hi Andy,

Flown my mother in-law on this same itinerary on VS. She has always been very well taken care of by Virgin. She has had special needs like requiring oxygen and wheelchair assitance on and off the plane and the TA and FA's has had all this taken care of when contacting VS ahead of time. Also due the special needs she has been upgraded a couple of times to UA and PE.