upgrading on the day with miles , NEWBIE !

Hello this is my first post , so please be gentle with this newbie !
great site guys , love it !
my question is please ...........

can any of you frequent flyers out there help me

booked a flight with virgin ages ago using 40,000 miles for an economy ticket

2 weeks before i travel i fancy an upgrade to premium using an extra 20,000 miles

phoned virgin up and they said they have no availability for this upgrade using miles . the lady said try closer to the day

i went onto virgin website and pretended to book a premium seat to check availibility , there were 8 seats , if you wanted to pay full price and not upgrade like me using miles

now my question is , i will be travelling alone and wondered how often they release seats on the day of flying for people wanting to upgrade with miles

have any of you done this before and can you give me any advice whether i should try on the day , before i go to the airport and what are my chances

thanking you all in advace

[Decker]

Toolio

Fares are issued in specific classes called "Buckets" - there's a good guide to VS ones here. Reward seats are always at a premium (sic) so there can be good availability of paying seats with no rewards available as all of the reward seats bucket have been used up.

Put yourself in the shows of the person at VS whose job is to maximise revenue. You'll try and SELL as many tickets as possible rather than let them go for miles which "cost less". Now closer to the day, the miles show up on the Airline's books as an accrued creditor - they owe YOU the value of those miles until they are spent. So if no one wants to pay money for the seat at say £800 it makes sense to get rid of some of the accrued credit at a nominal value of say £50.

So come flight day the chances of 8 people suddenly wanting to fly are minimal. Thus there's a good chance that they'll release seats for miles - assuming people don't want to buy them. In my limited experience of PE upgrades the pecking order is

1) People who want to pay for the upgrade
2) Gold card holders who want to use miles
3) Silver card holders who want to us miles
4) Red card holders who want to use miles
5) Operational upgrades

Now chances are there won't be many people wishing to cough up dosh, and most Gold Card holders are infrequent Y travellers. If you've got miles you're either a Red or a silver so you're towards the top of the stack!

I'd be tempted to try on the phone again a few days before travel and failing that go to the ticket desk at the airport before checking in and ask again there.

This is primarily theory on my part as the one time I remember doing it for Mrs D it was actually at the gate so I stand tobe corrected by my fellow forumistas.

Welcome aboard!

wow ! thanksfor the indepth answer its appreciated

has anyone been in the same situation as me and what was the outcome

cheers guys

Good answer Decker [y]

Deckers advice is excellent and I haven't been in your exact situation, but I have tried to book a reward seat in advance without luck. I read on here and was told by the chap on the phone at Virgin that if there are enough seats available 7 days before departure then they will release more reward seats then.

I remembered to phone up 6 days in advance and lo and behold there were 2 more available. Try 7 days before your flight and see what they can do for you.

Originally posted by toolio69
wow ! thanksfor the indepth answer its appreciated

has anyone been in the same situation as me and what was the outcome

cheers guys

Welcome to the forum!

On a recent flight with VS I decided to try and upgrade from PE to UC with miles. I had also called FC the day before to check availability, being told that there was none and to try at the airport on the day. I was fully prepared to be still sitting in PE come departure time so getting the upgrade would be a bonus.

After politely enquiring at the ticket desk to the possibility of upgrading with miles,I am please to say I was successful:D

As Decker says there are a lot of different factors involved in getting a miles upgrade. I feel that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Good luck with bagging the upgrade[y]

Hiya Newbie
Just out of interest when & where are you flying to? I feel as though I am reading a story I want a happy outcome for you, as I am sure we all do. X
PS Welcome.xx

also be aware that they will charge you 75,000 now for premium, so the upgrade will cost 35,000 not 20,000.

DD

thanks for the kind words roxy popsy
flying to vegas 19 october

dylan dog , VS website says its 20,000 miles to upgrade to premium
10,000 each way if you only want to do one leg
am i right guys !!!!!

thanks guys

Originally posted by toolio69
thanks for the kind words roxy popsy
flying to vegas 19 october

dylan dog , VS website says its 20,000 miles to upgrade to premium
10,000 each way if you only want to do one leg
am i right guys !!!!!

thanks guys

The 20,000 upgrade is only for qualifying revenue fares unfortunately. To upgrade mileage fares you need to pay the difference between the two mileage requirements. In your case the difference would be from 40,000 to 75,000.[n]

Oh, and as I found to my cost, be very careful upgrading only one leg as they need to rebook both legs and will charge you the new redemption rates for both legs[:0]

DD