cost of upgrade

Hi - what can you expect to pay at the at the airport at checkin for an upgrade.
econ up to pe? or econ up to upper class? does it purely depend on how full the flight is?

[Nottingham Nick]

Where are you flying to and from? What fare bucket are you booked into?

Nick

Some fair buckets will restrict you from even doing it, if you can do it I'd recommend doing it before you fly as at the airport upgrades are very expensive (especially upgrades to UC). I was quoted JFK-LHR a few months ago £1,000 each from PE-UC on top of what I paid for PE when I asked on check in

Last year I was quoted £900 for a PE to Upper for one person returning from MCO.
Didn't take it.
Dick D

I was quoted £1100 for PE to UC from LHR to EWR and EWR to LHR a few weeks go

As the others have said, it's down to your fare code, availability and the standard price list. You can check your fare code here:

http://v-flyer.com/the-toolbox/fare-codes

as above, fare code is the main factor

but be careful for tickets that were not purchased direct from VS as they can be zero value when it comes to cash upgrades - i've been quoted prices for airport upgrades that were higher than simpy buying a new ticket - also fewer fare codes are miles upgradeable

i don't think light loads will cause VS to drop cash upgrade prices, but it greatly increases the chance of being able to do a miles upgrade at the airport

if you're not in flying club, join immediately as at least you'll earn some on the first flight

if you do have FC miles, is it enough to get an upgrade? rate depends on route and cabin, you'll still have to pay a bit for "taxes and surcharges"

check if you've any hotel/store/card/other points you could transfer at a reasonable 'exchange rate', see... http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/fl ... miles.html

there's a 25% bonus on buying FC miles at the moment, if you are a bit short then topping up may be good value

Don't know what fare code it is - the flight is part of a virgin holiday booking - lgw to mco in April. When booking the holiday had the option to click the pe button (additional £1.4k ew or uc which was £4k ew) 4 passengers. But after I just forked out £12k didn't want anymore expense.

The price is the price. It does not vary just because there may be a lot of unsold seats in a cabin.

Also just because there may be empty seats VS does not always sell upgrades on the day.

You quote £1.4k each way which is £350 per person based on 4 people. That sounds about right to me for a one way east coast US upgrade based on what people have reported in the past.

It is highly unlikely that it would be cheaper than that at the airport even if seats were available - especially 4 seats.

I think that because it's a Virgin Holidays price as opposed to a Virgin Atlantic price will make it much harder to update.

Seem to recall that VH use some funny codes for their tickets., but as always, things change at the airport.

Hope you get some sort of deal that suits.

David

a VH booking is much flexible than a VS one, afaik it's not upgradeable with miles and at the airport it may be treated as a travel agent fare with no value (so cash 'upgrade' could be full ticket price)

if you really want to go PE or UC i'd contact VH now about upgrade prospects, MCO is a popular destination, i wouldn't be surprised if PE/UC sell-out
well before your travel dates

last time I flew back from MCO - the American Virgin staff were selling upgrades as if they were selling peanuts at a baseball match - walking up and down the checkin queue shouting out prices like it was a fire sale! It didn't seem to price sensitive and was almost as it they were hoping to free up some space in the Economy Cabin - perhaps it was over booked!

I have occasionally heard of 'bargains' at check-in but generally the prices I have seen on the display board are no cheaper than you would pay anyway and if you were willing/able to pay up to a PE or UC seat at check in you probably would have bought that seat when you booked.
What is helpful with the check-in offers is that it shows you when there are seats left unsold. If they remain unsold then there is an excellent chance you can use miles to grab them which is way better value than using money - even if you need to actually buy the miles in the first place.