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#937566 by Daniel Armstrong
16 Aug 2017, 16:52
Hello All

I am sure that this is on here somewhere - however after a search I cannot find it anywhere..!

I have circa 130,000 miles to play with and am thinking of taking 4 of us to New York - upgrading to U.C. for the first time ever! Very excited to put it mildly... However, if we are booking from ECO to U.C. how much extra would one have to pay? The flights are circa £450 return, - with U.C. being about £3k... Would we have a big bill on top of using points?

Does anyone know if its possible to upgrade in PE out and U.C. back from an Eco ticket as this also may have to be an option depending upon how far I can get with my points.

Hope you guys can help.

Dan
#937568 by SlimpyJones
16 Aug 2017, 17:44
Hey Dan,

The only cash cost you'd have to pay when booking or upgrading with miles are any carrier surcharges & government taxes.

So to give yours as an example, if you upgraded with miles from Econ -> PE there's an extra £75.77 per person based on some dummy dates I did LHR-JFK.
For Econ -> Upper it's an extra £161.77 per person.
PE -> Upper is of course the difference of that.

And yep - you can upgrade to different cabins on your outbound & inbound if you miles balance dictated. :)
#937569 by Daniel Armstrong
16 Aug 2017, 17:54
SlimpyJones wrote:Hey Dan,

The only cash cost you'd have to pay when booking or upgrading with miles are any carrier surcharges & government taxes.

So to give yours as an example, if you upgraded with miles from Econ -> PE there's an extra £75.77 per person based on some dummy dates I did LHR-JFK.
For Econ -> Upper it's an extra £161.77 per person.
PE -> Upper is of course the difference of that.

And yep - you can upgrade to different cabins on your outbound & inbound if you miles balance dictated. :)


Thanks for that..! Whilst its an extra £420 for all of us, its still cheaper than 1 ticket at full price..! Amazing!

Appreciate the help, now all I have to do is find a date range and call Flying Club to get it sorted - which will be fine, unlike sorting out the family. Its like herding cats...

Dan
#937571 by stevebrass
16 Aug 2017, 18:21
Bear in mind though the cheapest economy fare you can book might not be upgradeable. Economy fares that can be upgraded can be a lot more expensive.
#937572 by gumshoe
16 Aug 2017, 18:52
130,000 miles isn't enough to upgrade four people from Economy to UC both ways.

Economy to PE is 17,400 miles off-peak or 27,400 peak (per person round trip).

Economy to UC is 47,200 miles off-peak or 62,200 peak.

130,000 would just be enough for PE one way and UC the other as long as it's not peak season.

But as pointed out above, if you booked the cheapest economy cash fare it's unlikely to be upgradable.
#937573 by Daniel Armstrong
16 Aug 2017, 19:56
gumshoe wrote:130,000 miles isn't enough to upgrade four people from Economy to UC both ways.

Economy to PE is 17,400 miles off-peak or 27,400 peak (per person round trip).

Economy to UC is 47,200 miles off-peak or 62,200 peak.

130,000 would just be enough for PE one way and UC the other as long as it's not peak season.

But as pointed out above, if you booked the cheapest economy cash fare it's unlikely to be upgradable.


Gosh darn it - they seem to have made it more expensive... I swear it was 25,000 ECO to UC a year ago!

I guess I will have to look at 4 PE tickets and upgrade them - which will of course be a lot more expensive. Or Ill go UC and take the wife and guest the rest of the family into the Clubhouse. Can you still do that?

Seems like its all change on the use of miles... Unless anyone has any amazing ideas?
#937575 by SlimpyJones
16 Aug 2017, 20:08
Aye, the mileage amounts changed at the start of the year and peak and off-peak rates were introduced. The new amounts live here:

http://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/fly ... ights.html (Cabin Upgrades tab)

You can only guest one person into the Clubhouse, so for a family of four you may be out of luck there sadly :( Unfortunately it looks like you are just shy of miles to get all of you upgraded from Econ->PE with miles (you have 130,000 and 139,200 is needed).

Might be worth one of you buying a revenue PE ticket, and then 3 Economy tickets to upgrade to PE. That way you'll need less reward availability and you'd only need to spend 104,000 for the upgrades and it might keep a lid on the cash costs a bit.
#937579 by gumshoe
16 Aug 2017, 22:21
SlimpyJones wrote:Unfortunately it looks like you are just shy of miles to get all of you upgraded from Econ->PE with miles (you have 130,000 and 139,200 is needed).


No, it's only 69,600 miles for 4 x Economy-PE upgrades (17,400 each). The amounts quoted on the website are for a round trip, not one way.

OP - PE-UC is 47,400 each return so again you won't have enough for all four of you.

And to make matters worse I'm afraid I got the amounts wrong upthread. It's actually 71,200 miles to upgrade Economy-UC off-peak (86,200 peak).

So - assuming off-peak travel - 4 x Economy-UC return upgrades would be 284,800 miles.

4 x Economy-PE one way and UC the other upgrades would be 177,200 miles.

The changes last year were basically intended to restrict UC redemptions & upgrades to serious frequent flyers and high spenders, and to steer occasional flyers and casual miles earners towards Economy & PE. In other words VS thought they were giving away UC dirt cheap.
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