Very cheap UC upgrades?

I've noticed a few points on FC and Orlando forums/pages that I'm on of people claiming to have upgraded on the phone to UC for extremely low points and taxes?

One guy claims to have bagged 2 upgrades for 5k points and £134 (for 2 to Orlando, possibly one way) which just seems bonkers - even if this is just the return leg the additional taxes showing on the website are about £250 each?

Are these some sort of troll/bot things or are these cheap upgrades actually a thing now?

It is partly true.

I upgraded my LAS flight from premium to UC where it only cost £67 in taxes (£55 tax, £12 carbon surcharge).

But also to mention, right now plenty of UC seats available on MCO route for 29k points, as they are operating A350 business config (44 UC seats). So upgrades from premium to UC will be a lot cheaper.
29,000 - 22,500 (maximum saver premium) = 6,500 points upgrade to UC.
For winter season.

Thanks Oliver

I couldn't work out how they got the lower tax £ but obviously a good part must be the airline charge! The UC seats on the MCO-MAN flights still confuse me a bit as this is our most regular route and UC is always full!

Still, gives me hope for next year when I have 5 people to cover with my points!

Thanks Oliver

I couldn't work out how they got the lower tax £ but obviously a good part must be the airline charge! The UC seats on the MCO-MAN flights still confuse me a bit as this is our most regular route and UC is always full!

Still, gives me hope for next year when I have 5 people to cover with my points!

Yes; I was astonished when I was quoted the £67 supplement for the upgrade, I thought it would be more!

I think as MCO (both LHR&MAN) are now with 44 UC seats this winter instead of 16, the reward seats are cheaper. So hoping this will be the case for 2027 (even more so as I’m presuming Neo will replace A330 on the route).
It’s so irregular how these saver reward seats are released.

This is definitely correct, and one of the few benefits of the dynamic pricing.

Remember that for the cash portion, the Premium and Upper taxes are mostly the same, except the YQ element so if you’re upgrading from Premium and VS isn’t charging a lot of YQ, the tax portion shouldn’t be huge as you’re already paid the big ticket items like APD which are the same for Premium and Upper.

[mitchja]

This was picked up by HfP last week here, JFK along with a handful of other US destinations has also been reduced. Othe destinations have increased though sadly.

Thanks everyone, I was just about to go to my HfP email!

I can see a lot of MCO-MAN UC at 29k for November, but not fabulous prices elsewhere.

I will still hold out hope for our flights (Late Aug MAN-ATL, returning mid Sept MCO-MAN) but with 5 people to cover I figure I would need a miracle!

Silly question - but how can I find out pricing to upgrade with points etc.? I am flying on VS91 on 1/12 in premium and have a few points. UC looks like there is some space right now.

Silly question - but how can I find out pricing to upgrade with points etc.? I am flying on VS91 on 1/12 in premium and have a few points. UC looks like there is some space right now.

You’ll need to contact them I’m afraid, as they will need to price current UC seat in points minus maximum saver reward price in premium but don’t know if this has changed recently or not.

Thanks - I'll have a look at this