Purchasing PE ticket with a view to upgrading later?

First post so here goes!

We are flying LGW-MCO in Oct 2016 (just waiting another day or two for the return flights to become available). However we are torn between PE in the bubble or UC in the nose. It's a trip we've been planning for ages as its for my 50th birthday so want it to be special.
We are thinking about UC for the outbound to start the hols in a more relaxing way... chauffeur, Clubhouse, more space... I'm 6ft 4in but only about 13.5 stone by the way so legroom is a benefit for sure. However I'm finding it hard to justify the total extra cost of about £2500 for us, that's me the wife and our daughter.
So we were thinking of booking PE for both out and inbound with a view to reviewing finances and possible January sales of UC... wishful thinking maybe.
Of course I welcome the thoughts and experiences of others who may have been in a similar situation?

have you thought about maybe ending the holiday with UC?
Cheaper taxes & depending on your flight times, you get back to blighty hopefully a bit more relaxed.

Personally, I would rather spend the money having a better holiday once arrived at MCO. £2500 will go a long way to having nicer meals or room upgrades.

Or perhaps consider an EX EU fare? Identical VS flights but UC for around £1200 each, sometimes it comes in less than non ex EU PE

[buns]

Hi and welcome to V Flyer

With many schools opting for an extended half term holiday in October and the continued popularity of Halloween, you will find that fares will be higher in October than used to be the case.

With only 14 seats in Upper Class, there will always be demand greater than capacity - this year I travelled via Atlanta as this offers some 30 seats in Upper per flight and you might like to consider an indirect route.

One last thing, when the return date opens up, for some reason the first 24 hours only shows the most expensive fares - so hang back for that initial period.

Of the two options, I would always travel outbound - the Clubhouse is a great draw

buns

As Buns says, reward seats in Upper on the LGW MCO route are quite rare.
I have managed to bag them a few times, but I go out of season and book as soon as my return flight dates are open.
Certainly if you do choose the Atlanta route and fly from Heathrow then the Clubhouse is a must. However, for me the big draw of Upper is the flatbed which is great for the return journey.

Beware of stretching your finances for an Upper trip at the young age of 50 because as many people will tell you, once you have turned left there is no going back.

Which ever way you go, have a great trip.

Dick D

Check ex dublin thread, can be cheaper than buying an upgradable PE fare alone, never mind the miles and cost to upgrade.

You mention the "chauffeur". Bear in mind that this is generally only available with the really expensive UC fares. Most travelling on their own coin opt for a Z class fare and then arrange to get the airport themselves. Drive Through Check In can be used by anyone travelling Upper nowadays.

If you've some flexibility about the days travelling I'd definitely look at the Ex EU fares as mentioned by others and the subject of this thread.

And I'm in the "Upper on the Outbound" camp if it turns out you opt for one way only in Upper. Legendary CH and who wants to sleep when in Upper - I can do that at home.

have you thought about maybe ending the holiday with UC?
Cheaper taxes & depending on your flight times, you get back to blighty hopefully a bit more relaxed.

Personally, I would rather spend the money having a better holiday once arrived at MCO. £2500 will go a long way to having nicer meals or room upgrades.

I'd always plump for starting a holiday in UC rather than ending if its one of the other.

If you are flying PE the difference to upgrade is minimal anyway.

Some great answers thank you everyone!

I've spent the last few hours looking at this ex-DUB option and I must say it looks rather splendid. However no matter what dates I pluck to try it out for Oct 2016 I can't make it come up with any VS flights when selecting business class, only BA or airlines operated by BA. Am I doing something wrong?

To force it to show VS flights in the results just select Virgin Atlantic as preferred airline in the additional search options

Yes that's what I did, and no flights at all resulted... Even if changing dates quite dramatically. I'll try again of course

Yes that's what I did, and no flights at all resulted... Even if changing dates quite dramatically. I'll try again of course

Hi, are you sure you're opening up the full search result, as it'll only show the flight in the summary view, which will often be BA (for the DUB to London sector)? I've just (on expedia) plugged in Dublin to Orlando 20th - 27th October, selected VS as preferred airline and I get VS15 as the top hit. As mentioned though don't be deceived by "BA5902 operated by Are Lingus" showing as first sector. It'll always be a BA or EI flight as first sector if doing an EX DUB.

Also worth trying ex BRU & AMS, next year I'm doing ex BRU as that was cheaper than DUB

Aaah so entering as a single flight then virgin comes up ok, but I was entering as a multi flight to bush the DUB-Lon to another earlier date, but then the virgin flights disappear leaving just BA and those operating BA (Iberian, Finnair etc)
Odd and I don't understand why

Looking at the itamatrix, the virgin options don't seem to be on sale around there.

When it comes to ex-Dub, there are various sales, covering various times, and sometimes VS match some periods and sometimes not. However, booking 355/330 days beforehand is less important for those, I could get a cheap business class flight to Orlando in 15 days time.

BA's typical sale periods for ex-DUB and business class tends to match the peak holiday periods, so Christmas time, Easter and after, July to August. September and October are often never covered by such sales, so might be out of luck if VS specific. BA does have a non time limited one running sometimes, for a bit more, but it would be BA (but silver status you can earn on BA is so much more worthwhile, lounges, seat choice).

The logic of those sales is that its offpeak for Business class, but peak for economy and PE, so you can get ex-Dub cheaper on business than economy during those periods.

With VS I've checked every so often, and sometimes they are just there. You might suddenly see it appear. For instance, christmas time on VS was wide open for like 11 months beforehand ex-Dub, whereas was excluded for a long time on the BA sales...

Thank you

Looking at BA Club World LGW-MCO and MCO-LGW the prices ex-DUB are great! In fact about £300 higher than VS PE at about £4300 with BA.
I've seen reports that BA's IFE on the 777 is outdated to the point of useless?? On such a long flight that does worry me a little, does anyone have any knowledge of this please?
I'll keep looking at all options over the next few days before clicking the buy button

just to clarify that's £4300 for 2 adults and one child

I've seen reports that BA's IFE on the 777 is outdated to the point of useless?? On such a long flight that does worry me a little, does anyone have any knowledge of this please?

Not sure what 777 you are talking about, but none of the 777 to San Diego, A380 to LA or 747 from Vancouver were problematic for IFE at all, and recall much more problems with Heathrow Virgin 747 IFE, needing reboot, resistive screens wearing out and having to use the handset.

Once on a 747 from Chicago, the screen wasn't wonderful, so might have been a bit older, but still worked.

AA IFE on their A320 were annoyingly inaccurate on touchscreen, but still got there in the end. Never had any BA IFE problems.

I've flown several times BA to Florida on 777's and never had any problems with IFE. By comparison, sadly, I have when flying VS. ( on 747's ).

That's most reassuring thank you... the internet is a great resource but can also be a great platform for misinformation and exaggeration it appears.
Well, unless something changes in the next few days as the return flights become available we could well be BA instead of VS as I had originally foreseen.

Thanks again everyone for your input so far.

Me too, the BA 777's from Gatwick have great IFE, never had an issue on flights to MCO or TPA, like Hiljil says I've also had issues with the VS IFE!

First post so here goes!

We are flying LGW-MCO in Oct 2016 (just waiting another day or two for the return flights to become available). However we are torn between PE in the bubble or UC in the nose. It's a trip we've been planning for ages as its for my 50th birthday so want it to be special.
We are thinking about UC for the outbound to start the hols in a more relaxing way... chauffeur, Clubhouse, more space... I'm 6ft 4in but only about 13.5 stone by the way so legroom is a benefit for sure. However I'm finding it hard to justify the total extra cost of about £2500 for us, that's me the wife and our daughter.
So we were thinking of booking PE for both out and inbound with a view to reviewing finances and possible January sales of UC... wishful thinking maybe.
Of course I welcome the thoughts and experiences of others who may have been in a similar situation?

I'm in the same boat. I bought a PE class K ticket in the sale but was told that I cannot upgrade to UC with my miles or cash. There are currently 3 UC flights available on the flight and I fly in less than a month.

When I asked if there is a possibility that I could get offered an upgrade in the customer service calls that I often receive days before flying, she said no although she was very pleasant and helpful.

I guess i could bid for an upgrade but £1500 one way is a bit out of my budget. I cannot believe that they wouldn't offer a seat and make money purely because I bought a cheap PE ticket.

I'm in the same boat. I bought a PE class K ticket in the sale but was told that I cannot upgrade to UC with my miles or cash. There are currently 3 UC flights available on the flight and I fly in less than a month.

When I asked if there is a possibility that I could get offered an upgrade in the customer service calls that I often receive days before flying, she said no although she was very pleasant and helpful.

I guess i could bid for an upgrade but £1500 one way is a bit out of my budget. I cannot believe that they wouldn't offer a seat and make money purely because I bought a cheap PE ticket.

The following have been said many time before but are worth repeating

1. Just because there are still selling tickets does not mean that they will allow upgrades into them.

2. A month is a long time to go and if VS can sell them for cash they will. If closer to the flight they haven't then they might offer them as upgrades but see 1 above.

3. The ticket rules are the ticket rules. They may not make sense to mere mortals but they do to the airline. But their logic is 'if you want to upgrade then buy the (more expensive) upgradable fares'

4. It is always worth asking at the airport on the day.

Is it possible to upgrade the PE fare to an upgradeable PE fare then use miles to upgrade to UC?

And I always thought it was possible to upgrade with cash from any ticket? Has that changed?

Of course if the K was a sale K, the difference in fare this close to the flight will likely be high!

I'm in the same boat. I bought a PE class K ticket in the sale but was told that I cannot upgrade to UC with my miles or cash. There are currently 3 UC flights available on the flight and I fly in less than a month.

When I asked if there is a possibility that I could get offered an upgrade in the customer service calls that I often receive days before flying, she said no although she was very pleasant and helpful.

I guess i could bid for an upgrade but £1500 one way is a bit out of my budget. I cannot believe that they wouldn't offer a seat and make money purely because I bought a cheap PE ticket.

The following have been said many time before but are worth repeating

1. Just because there are still selling tickets does not mean that they will allow upgrades into them.

2. A month is a long time to go and if VS can sell them for cash they will. If closer to the flight they haven't then they might offer them as upgrades but see 1 above.

3. The ticket rules are the ticket rules. They may not make sense to mere mortals but they do to the airline. But their logic is 'if you want to upgrade then buy the (more expensive) upgradable fares'

4. It is always worth asking at the airport on the day.

thanks for the advice, much appreciated