Upgrading with miles

Hi, newbie here, hoping you can help with a query about spending miles. Sorry if any of this is obvious, but I've never used miles before and am finding it all a bit confusing.

I'm looking to travel from London to San Francisco in the summer on economy tickets, but using miles to upgrade the return journey to premium economy.

Initially I thought you could upgrade any fare with miles, but I've just been reading about the different fare codes and realise that you can't. So, how do I find which fares can be upgraded?

When searching for flights, I've found a return economy trip is £949.56 and a trip with economy out and PE back is £1106.56. However, when I search for economy out and PE back, whilst selecting the option 'miles plus money', the price rises to £1120.56. Is this the price I would pay for the trip, which incorporates using the miles to upgrade the return?

Thanks

[Neil]

Hi and welcome.

To upgrade with miles, you need a M economy fare. The only way to price this up is to give Virgin a call and specify to the agent that you would like an M fare on whichever leg you want to upgrade on.
You also need to ensure that there are Premium Economy miles seats available to upgrade to. The easiest way to check this, is when doing a booking on the Virgin site, select the 'spend your miles' option. Just because there are PE seats for sale with money, doesn't mean you can use miles to upgrade to them.

Miles plus money, is not the same as upgrading with miles, a MPM fare is one that uses some miles and some money towards the fare. These are meant to offer a small discount on a normal cash fare, but sometimes when there is a sale on, it can actually be more expensive to use these.

Thanks.
Neil

Also worth noting that the M fare needed to upgrade is often a very similar price to the cheapest PE fare and so using miles to upgrade to PE is not really he best use of the miles.
Dick D

Dicky speaks the truth! I recently purchased an M class trip to NY (to upgrade with miles to Upper) and it cost approx. £1,100. A friend is now joining on the trip and he's just paid £960 for PE.
Given there's a sale on currently, it might actually be worth your while to buy the normal PE fare. That being said, you could give the call centre a try and ask them to price up both options for comparison.

Thanks for your responses. That all sounds clear and makes a bit more sense. I didn't realize it would be so complicated to spend our points!

I think we'll give them a call and discuss our options, so that we can make the best use of our points.

Thanks for your responses. That all sounds clear and makes a bit more sense. I didn't realize it would be so complicated to spend our points!

I think we'll give them a call and discuss our options, so that we can make the best use of our points.

Definitely give them a call. A few years ago I was in much the same position and I called to say, "you keep sending me emails to spend my miles but every time I try I can't use them." The wonderful lady I spoke to explained it all and being a bit slow I still didn't understand what, make a dummy booking meant so she very kindly offered to check each day she was working. Three weeks later she called me saying there were two Upper reward seats for my flight and did I want them. "Yes please." and a couple of weeks later she called again with Upper seats for the return journey.
I doubt very much you will get that level of service, but I'm sure they will do everything to talk you through the options available.
Dick D