Apparently upgrade not possible??

Hi

I am a newbie to UC and I just posted a topic but I can't see it, so apologies if I appear twice.

I have a few questions please, I am flying LHR to JFK in December, flying UC outbound and PE inbound.

-I booked this yesterday but today I wanted to find out how much extra it would cost to upgrade from PE to UC and I was told that as I booked a combi flight it is not possible, can this be correct considering they would get more money from me?

- if it is not possible for me to upgrade, then I am thinking of paying £240 for the CH experience which would be at JFK, I don't mind spending the money but in your opinion do you think it is worth it and if so would the revival lounge on arrival at Heathrow be available to me or not?

- outbound and inbound is a 747-400, I was thinking of booking either 15 or 16a, is this a good seat for a solo traveller?, I obviously don't want someone else's face in my face or touching toes with anyone. Likewise for PE, coming back any preference of a seat.

Any other tips and advise for a newbie?
Thanks
Kelly

Well with the guest list package you would also get a car from NYC to JFK plus the CH there.

You won't get access to revivals on your arrival back at LHR as you won't be a UC passenger.


15/16a will be fine. It's only row 12 which are close enough to play footsie!


(New posters always have their first post checked by a moderator so it can sometimes take a little while for them to see them - they are all volunteers and aren't always available 24/7. It's nothing personal!)

Hi Kelly,

Welcome to v-flyer. I can answer the question about combi fares. These are fares that combine a reward flight on one sector, and revenue on the other. The reward sector can be in any cabin with availability, but the revenue fare is Y or PE only, and cannot be in UC, so you can't upgrade your return flight to UC I'm afraid. If you've paid cash for the whole trip then it's not a combi fare.

Your seat choice in UC sounds good, generally on the 747s the closer to the pointy the more intimate it is! I don't know about JFK clubhouse having never been there, but wouldn't consider £240 good value for access for a couple of hours at any of them. You can always rock up on the day and see if you can buy access, apparently about £60, subject to how busy it is. And unless you're travelling UC or have AU status you can't use revivals lounge when you arrive at LHR.

Hope that helps.

Hi Tontybear and Bretty

Thanks for your replies. Bretty, I think you are right about the £240, basically £80 per hour inc a car one way, with this money that will pay for my taxi to JFK and a cab from LHR to home, leaving roughly £160 to send as I like.

You was right about the combi as they did use 20,000 miles of mine for me to upgrade, oh well I guess I am saving even more money. I was worried I would get use to turning left and CH privileges, and I think I already have and I haven't even travelled yet!

Thanks again to you both
Kelly

Just to clarify a combi fare is booking 1 way entirely with miles and the other entirely as a cash fare.If you only paid 20,000 miles for the Upper flight then it was likely an upgrade, probably from an m class fare and not an straight miles redemption. If this is the case and you booked directly with Virgin you should be able to upgrade the return leg with miles if it is in an upgradable class (s or w). If it's not you should be able to pay the difference to upgrade to an s or w are and then be able to upgrade to Upper.

Or is it a MPM booking? Someone correct me please, but MPMs can't be upgraded (and might explain the mile figure)?

Ok, just to clarify the standard economy return fare was £780'ish. I only had 24,000 miles so Virgin used 20,000 and I ended up paying about a £1100, for the UC outbound and PE inbound. Hope that clarity's things.

Ps; I felt for the extra £300 it was worth me doing it to have the experience but hope this helps with the return upgrade question.

Thanks

It definitely sounds like you booked an m glass upgraded to g on the way out. I'm guessing Virgin must class combining even upgrades with cash as a combi fare.
If this is the case your only option for an upgrade to Upper on the return would be to pay to upgrade the return class to an s fare and use a further 10,000 miles to upgrade to an award seat.
Do you have any Tesco vouchers or American express points you could transfer to Virgin?
You could buy the extra 6000 miles for £165 but you'd still have to pay the upgrade to s and any any extra taxes.
I would phone Virgin and ask how much to upgrade the return to an s fare that +£165 to buy the miles + £60ish in extra tax would be your cost to upgrade.
Please Make sure there are available reward seats on your particular flight before you do this, it would be very annoying to pay the extra only to find out there's none available, although at the moment there are reward seats in Upper available every single day from New York in December.

Ok, I will call Virgin. I do have some American Express points. I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks everybody for your advise.
Kelly

Hi all

Just a quick update. You was right, I did have a H class ticket so I had to upgrade that to a S class for £133, plus pay for 6,000 miles which was £105. I do have AMEX miles but they will not sure up until the 20th March, so I decided to go ahead as it was 2000 miles.

Can I just ask, although I have the lowest grade ticket which is G class, am I right in thinking I am still entitled to everything else that the other class ticket holders get except for the ground transfer?

Also, LHR has the secret security drive through, is there anything like that in JFK or do I simply head to Upper Class check-in?

Thanks again everyone.
Kelly

Well done on getting what you wanted.

Your G ticket gets you the same as the other UC pax, with the exception of the ground transfer.

DTCI at LHR is an absolute must if you can manage it. I think it's the only airport where VS operate it.

So glad you were able to get the g you wanted.

Thanks, but it is thanks to you all for the tips and you all knowing what you are talking about. It was 2 online chat agents that told me No.

Thanks again!

The chauffeur driven car is available at both LHR & JFK, but only LHR has that exclusive drive thru checkin. You can book and pay for it by card as an add on or use miles, but at 17500 miles per trip, it's not considered good value.

Yeah, I don't think I will be paying for the chauffeur, 17,000 miles is a lot for this service, although I will check out the price just in case. Either way, I will do the exclusive drive thru.- Thanks Bretty

Typo - I meant I would not want to use my miles for this but I will see how much it was in cash.

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I have since checked and it is £86 to Heathrow and £92 from heathrow so I am really unsure why they want to charge you in miles 17,500, also what they charged me for my 6000 miles was less than what the milage calculator was suggesting.

I noticed that do as I had checked the price of buying 6000 miles before posting last night, always nice to get it for less than you thought though

Typo - I meant I would not want to use my miles for this but I will see how much it was in cash.

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I have since checked and it is £86 to Heathrow and £92 from heathrow so I am really unsure why they want to charge you in miles 17,500, also what they charged me for my 6000 miles was less than what the milage calculator was suggesting.

Who is that with? I assume tristar who VS use.

You can use any car company you want to when using DTCI when paying cash.

The 17.5k miles 'charge' is a way of VS reducing their miles liability in their accounts. For some people it would be a good deal but for others they would rather pay cash.

Glad it all got sorted , enjoy both the Clubhouses and as previously mentioned the DTCI is a must

You can get anyone (friend / family / taxi firm / chauffeur firm) to drop you off at DTCI at Heathrow - you just have to register the vehicle / driver details in advance with Virgin.