One-way awards and existing bookings

I need some help!

I currently have a confirmed booking with Virgin Atlantic from LHR - BOS. It is booked in economy in Q class. This means that it is ineligible to be upgraded using miles. I am travelling with 2 other people on the same itinerary.

I have a dilemma! I want to travel back in Upper Class as I have a meeting to attend the morning I arrive and would like to get as much rest as possible on the way back to the UK.

Although my travel agent has said that he could change the class of my ticket, there are no award seats available for me to take advantage of (even if I was in the right class).

However, it does seem as though there are seats that I can use for a one-way award. So, here’s the problem. Can I book the one way award for the return journey, without upsetting the other two people in the original booking? Will their two return tickets be honoured – even if I am not with them? Will Virgin let me book another ticket, even though I already have a ticket? Is there anything else that I should think about before I do this?

Finally, when booking a one-way award from the US to the UK, the Virgin website thinks I am in the US – will it let me complete the booking if I put in a UK address?

Any help you can offer would be gratefully received.

Thanks

[preiffer]

Hi Jakester, and welcome [y]

Before we get stuck into the other questions you've posed, I need to clear up one thing:

Upgrade inventory and award inventory are one and the same thing. In Upper, they're both booked into the "G" bucket. Therefore, if there is an award seat in Upper for you to make use of as a one-way mileage flight, there is also an upgrade seat available.

It might be worth re-checking the availability for both scenarios before progressing...

I can let you know my experience which doesn't quite fit what you are looking for but may help.

I have had an economy flight LGW-MCO-LGW booked and then book a reward MCO-LGW flight without a problem. The difference is that I did not try to book this on the same flight I was already booked on and I believe this may well be a problem. Essentially VS will believe there are two people with the same name with the same passport number on the same aircraft. This obviously cannot happen and I am sure this will set alarm bells ringing. If you could come back on a different flight I am sure that this would not affect the other travelling people in your party.

As a rule of thumb if you fail to show for anyleg of a flight the operator will cancel all future legs on the same itinerary. So if this is you return leg, no problem.

Paul

Originally posted by preiffer
Upgrade inventory and award inventory are one and the same thing. In Upper, they're both booked into the "G" bucket. Therefore, if there is an award seat in Upper for you to make use of as a one-way mileage flight, there is also an upgrade seat available.

Well that's what I thought, which is why I could barely control myself when the reward availability showed itself!

It's about £70 cheaper for me to book a new ticket for the return journey than it is for me to change the existing ticket. I will check again though to see if the situation is still the same.

Is it possible that different availability shows depending on where you are booking from? For example, do they show more availability to US customers so that they are more inclined to book on VS?

Originally posted by preiffer
Hi Jakester, and welcome [y]

Thanks for the welcome by the way!

Originally posted by preiffer
Upgrade inventory and award inventory are one and the same thing. In Upper, they're both booked into the "G" bucket. Therefore, if there is an award seat in Upper for you to make use of as a one-way mileage flight, there is also an upgrade seat available.

Well, I called Virgin to see what they said, and they were happy for me to have two active itineraries. They said it would be a good idea to call my travel agent and let them know, they might be able to cancel one sector of the ticket.

If anyone here has any expertise in this area, I would welcome any further comments!