Combi-fare question...

On the VS website it states that a combi-fare can only be used in conjunction with an economy or PE 'fare'. Does this mean I can book a one way upper class reward with the other leg a paid economy or PE fare, or do they mean both the reward and the paid fare have to be in E or PE?
Confused...

Not sure I can answer this one but I know you cannot use it with an UC reward seat in any combination. I am sure somebody with more knowledge can offer you a solution. Or the good ole fallback is to ring VS they will tell you exactly what combination you can and cannot use.

CombiFare is surprisingly flexible ticket.

The underlying revenue sector has to be in EC or PE, yes, but you can book it any bucket. You will be charged 50% of the equivalent return ticket. The reward sector can be in any class you like (including UC), but you will be charged added taxes/fees if the reward sector is in a higher class than the revenue sector.

Because the revenue sector can be in any bucket, you can also buy a CombiFare where the underlying revenue sector is in an upgradeable bucket (i.e. M or S), which will be more expensive. Again you will be charged 50% of the equivalent return ticket. You can then use your miles to upgrade the revenue sector to UC.

For example you can buy a M (revenue) out, G (reward) back CombiFare, which will be priced at 50% of the equivalent return M (plus G sector taxes/fees). You can then use your miles (plus fees/taxes) to upgrade the M sector to a G, achieving UC in both directions.

You earn miles and Tier Points on the revenue sector (and you can even use Miles Booster too).

If you're only interested in EC on one sector and UC on the other, then it could be better value to buy a straight EC return in mixed buckets (i.e. O out, M back) and upgrade the upgradeable (M) sector to a G. This will be fairly close in price, use fewer miles, and will earn miles and TPs on both sectors.

One recent example of an all-revenue mixed-bucket EC return: LHR-JFK (EC)/JFK-LHR (UC) for £600 and 20k miles all in, earning miles & TPs on both sectors. An equivalent CombiFare would cost around the same (50% of a return M fare, plus added taxes/fees for the UC reward sector), but would need 40k miles, and you'd only earn TPs & miles one sector.

Wow - thanks for this information!

So knowing this, my situation is this:

I have 100k miles, 2 of us going to SFO.

Original plan outbound UC inbound Y or PE.

So now I need to figure out if combi-fare G+Y (or PE) will be cheaper than usual M+M with upgrades to G on both legs or 3rd option M(to G)+Y and save money and miles...

Yes, I'd phone up FC and ask them to price a bunch of things up for you, and just make note of where you're earning miles and TPs and where you're not.

And you can always hedge: even if in the same cabins, you can each be on different types of fares. It depends whether you want to use all your miles, or save some for another trip.

Did some quick calculations using online prices and the G+M (upgrading to PE) combi-fare works out to approx £810, requiring 124k miles, and earning no miles on outbound.

M (to UC) +M (to PE) fare works out to £940 and 74k miles and earning on both legs for the M base... I think the usual route is the best option although a little bit more.

Will certainly call them to confirm.

Thanks

One last thing to try: ask FC to price a mixed-bucket PE return (one sector restricted - i.e. non-upgradeable, one sector upgraded to G). That would be only 12,500 miles per ticket.

I know you cannot use it with an UC reward seat in any combination.

Has this changed recently?

I've got LHR - IAD booked for September with the outbound as UC reward and the return IAD - LHR leg in PE using a combi fare. It's always possible that Virgin have broken their own rules for me but I think the restriction is that the cash part of the fare cannot be in UC nor can it be upgraded to UC later (except that actually it can, I did it, but that's a different story).

The underlying revenue sector has to be EC or PE (in any bucket) but can then be upgraded to UC. If the reward sector is in UC, then both sectors can end up in UC. See above...