Finding point upgrade availability

Hi all,

My partner and I are flying on VS19 (LHR-SFO) on Feb 19th. We both have enough points for an EC->UC upgrade.

What is the best stratergy for finding the availability of UC seats that you can use points for an upgrade.

I phoned them the other day any they had 2 available, but went by the next morning; though you can still buy UC seats as normal.

Thank you for the help

[Neil]

Hi and welcome,

The easiest way to check mileage seat availability is on the Virgin website, select the use my miles button where you out the destination etc in.

As you have found out, seats, when they do become available don't tend to stay around long as only a limited number of miles seats are released for each flight. The miles seats and standard revenue fares come from different fare codes which is why you can still buy a UC ticket with money but not miles.

It is also Importent to note that you need an upgradable economy ticket, which is fare code M or higher (look in the fare codes section on here to see which are higher fare codes as it isn't just alphabetical). If you don't currently have one, you will need to pay to upgrade your current econ ticket to the higher code. You cannot just upgrade the cheapest economy tickets with miles (again, our fare code section helps explain this)

Good luck
Neil

I'm afraid you've learned an important lesson when it comes to UC reward seats (or Gs as they're often called on V-Flyer, as that's the bucket they book into). If you see any, snap them up there and then because they're unlikely to hang around. VS will happily put them on hold for you for 24 hours if you can't commit and pay on the spot.

As Neil says only a small percentage of seats on any one flight will be made available as Gs. Just because UC seats are still available to purchase doesn't mean Gs are available. There's every chance more WILL become available but it could be at any time so you'll just have to keep checking, daily if possible, bearing in mind others may well want them too so it's a race to get them.

If all else fails if there are still unsold UC seats on the day of the flight, you may be able to upgrade at the airport. Good luck.

VS will happily put them on hold for you for 24 hours if you can't commit and pay on the spot.

I don't know if there is a new policy or if I just had a particularly unhelpful agent, but I called on Monday to enquire about a miles upgrade. 2 seats were available but I was at work and didn't have the credit card I wanted to use with me (to pay for the M upgrade). I asked if he could put them on hold for me "for a few hours" and was told a very certain "no, that's not possible". Thankfully they were still there when I got home...

I don't know if there is a new policy or if I just had a particularly unhelpful agent, but I called on Monday to enquire about a miles upgrade. 2 seats were available but I was at work and didn't have the credit card I wanted to use with me (to pay for the M upgrade). I asked if he could put them on hold for me "for a few hours" and was told a very certain "no, that's not possible". Thankfully they were still there when I got home...

I'd go with the agent there Oceanscape - last week I had two G's in March put on hold for 72 hours on the Tuesday then on the Wednesday I switched them to May when they became available on line before finally paying for them on Friday. What was interesting however was that everytime I rang the "usual" FC helpline but as soon as I mentioned UC they transferred me to the UC team.

[Neil]

An agent can hold mileage seats if you are a new booking, it however is tricky (maybe impossible) for them to do it if you already have a booking and are looking to upgrade.