Upgrading with miles at the airport

I'm interested in people's experience of upgrading at the airport. Just read some reviews on 'head for points' where a couple of people said that they had used the VA Amex card reward upgrade from EC to PE, and then, despite the Ts & Cs saying it wasn't possible, been able to upgrade this to UC at the airport.

The inference is that they aren't as fussy at check in, so its worth asking, but I wondered if anyone here had experience? I'm travelling in August from MAN to MCO, just me and my daughter and would have enough miles for it.

[Neil]

At the airport, it's always worth asking as sometimes circumstances mean things that usually aren't possible, suddenly are.

This is for various reasons including agents not knowing the rules correct (this tends to be at outsourced locations rather than the main VS staffed airports), also the need to move pax for operational reasons (one cabin oversold etc).

Always ensure you temper your expectations as these things, while they do happen, is not the norm and given the route you are travelling, UC seats are very limited so it is rare for seats to be free on the day.

Neil

I have upgraded nearly every time when I was not able to get a G and just recently from BGI this month

As stated the only problem is when you know more than the ticket agent.

Yes I agree always worth asking but unfortunately Orlando in August will be very hard to find any spare seats let alone a Premium or upper

I've only tried upgrading with miles at the airport once, at EWR, and it wasn't a problem. But it was a very quiet flight and the agent did have to call Crawley to get permission.

I'd used an Amex voucher to upgrade from Y to PE but they wouldn't let me upgrade again so I had to have the voucher credited back to my account and upgrade with miles direct from Y to UC.

Where would you ask this question?

I flew recently DUB-LGW-LAS but since I had checked in online and was carrying hand luggage only, I didn't see a Virgin rep till the gate.

Would you normally ask at bag drop?

Yes.

If you go the airside connections route you can ask at the VS desk in T3 flight connections just after security

The ladies there were lovely to me last week- even looking up my FC number for me to add it to the booking.

If you do the landslide transfer then ask at the VS ticket desks in T3 departures