Best time to upgrade seats?

Thought I should put a question mark at the end of the subject line in case people thought I was making a statement rather than for an opinion

Hi all,

I have recently booked a cruise for Feb 17. We are due to fly into MIA on 12 Feb 17. When we booked the holiday, flight upgrades from Economy weren't available, although I expect them to become available within the next month or so. I have done some dummy bookings on the VH site and upgrades are available up to the end of Dec, returning first week of Jan 17.

In your vast experience Do you think I should contact VH as soon as I am aware that upgrades are open, should I wait until 11 months before the flight, when they open for VA, or some other time?
Looking at the VH site, around £1200 seems to be the going rate for upgrading return flights (per couple). Is that a fairly average price? Last time I flew VA (2012, Cancun) we paid around £900 for the both of us to fly PE. I appreciate, time has moved on and it's a different route etc.

Thanks in advance

As you have booked through Virgin Holidays, you should be aware that some of the ticket buckets they use do not allow any upgrade (for cash / miles, or a combination of both). Rules can go out of the window at the airport on the day of travel, but don't bank on it always being the case.

I think (and someone more knowledgable than me will confirm) that must VH bookings in Economy allow an upgrade to Premium Economy & some to Upper Class. I have a friend who went to NYC earlier this year - booked through Virgin Holidays - and they selected Premium Economy both ways. They were ticketed in a fare bucket that does not allow any upgrades. They tried at the airport on the day & all was going fine (almost to the point of credit card out to pay) and then a supervisor came over and noticed they had booked through Virgin Holidays & the restricted fare class. No upgrade - even though space had seemingly been available.

In a way, Virgin Atlantic are shooting themselves in the foot here, as they could have taken probably close on £1000 (possibly more) for 3x 1 way upgrades on seats that would have gone empty. They could then have offered PE Upgrades on the freed up seats... easy revenue. Clearly they do stick to the letter of the ticketing rules on some fare buckets - does seem daft though if you are wanting to travel on the ticketed flights, on the same dates (so not trying to get a free date change).

Thanks for the advice Kraken. Hopefully we'll be ok. We did ask about upgrades at the time of booking, but as it was so far in advance, they weren't available, so hopefully we won't have that problem *fingers crossed *

Just to clarify further - I have spoken to my friend & he was booked in on H class tickets. These PE tickets cannot be upgraded with miles - and it was miles + the change fee he was trying to upgrade with. He nearly got there, but not quite!

I am sure that if you offer Virgin Hols cold hard cash for an upgrade, they will take your money if there is availability. As said above, easy revenue for both VH & VS. I do seem to recall some people saying that VH's upgrade prices are not always as competitive as if booked direct with VS though.

I'm a bit confused. I have flights from London, UC seats on an out flight to Chicago A good old G class. My return flight from Atlanta is prem class H....? I thought this was used for VH flights. I was still looking to upgrade this ticket... Can I is H used for other type ticket?

H code rules