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UPDATE! When to ring Au FC

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 11:48
by vizbiz
I'm booked on a flight with a W PE ticket on Friday evening, and the FC have said to call back at 9am on Thursday when they might release any UC tickets for an upgr. Is it worth calling earlier, or when they're so precise about time and day is that going to accurate - ie it's not worth calling them before 9 on Thurs?

Cheers all.

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 12:10
by Nottingham Nick
I don't know the answer to the question, but what is worst case scenario?

You ring early, and are told 'sorry you are too early, please ring at 9am.' or...you ring at 9am and are told 'sorry, all the upgrades have gone, you should have rung earlier.'

I know what I would do. ;)[8D]

Nick

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 12:20
by vizbiz
Yes, I'd more or less arrived at the same conclusion - just didn't want to keep ringing them, but there again it'd be worth it. Hmmm, think I'll be on the phone later tomorrow and early on Thursday.

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 12:23
by Clarkysun
Hi,

In my experience it's not worth calling earlier as they won't release them until the day before.

If you ask how many spots are still open in UC they should tell you. I was made to wait for an upgrade during a recent PE trip to JNB. There were seven spots open in UC but they waited until about six hours before the flight departed before releasing them.

No harm in getting your name and FC details on a wait list either.

Good luck!

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 12:55
by preiffer
Originally posted by Clarkysun
No harm in getting your name and FC details on a wait list either.
Except for the fact that there isn't actually a "wait list" anywhere with VS ;)


(excluding space-available company upgrades, of course)

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 13:44
by mike-smashing
From what I can tell of trying to work VS mysterious G bucket for the last 5 or 6 years, if no upgrades have opened up 7 days before departure, the next time seems to be 48 and then 24 hours before.

If there's nothing opened up shortly after 24 hour mark, it then seems to be "try at airport".

For example, today's (well loaded) VS19 was showing no upgrades last night, and none at 7am, but was showing them after 8am. For tomorrow's (slightly less busy) VS19, upgrades only opened up 24 hours beforehand.

Mike

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 13:47
by ChuckC
As of now your flight shows 4 UC seats unassigned and 4 "snooze zone" seats blocked. So, this could mean up to 8 available seats. BTW the unblocked seats are all in the rear section of UC.

Good luck!

Chuck-

PostPosted: 18 Sep 2007, 19:01
by vizbiz
Originally posted by ChuckC
As of now your flight shows 4 UC seats unassigned and 4 "snooze zone" seats blocked. So, this could mean up to 8 available seats. BTW the unblocked seats are all in the rear section of UC.

Good luck!

Chuck-


Thanks for that Chuck. Interestingly, they had mentioned the 4 unassigned UC seats but hadn't mentioned the snooze zone seats - this gives me a little more hope.

At the end of the day I'll take rear section UC over any-section PE:D for the long flight to SYD and back in a week (and of course probably repeat all this for the return trip...)

PostPosted: 21 Sep 2007, 11:13
by vizbiz
Nothing doing yesterday, and various "try at check-in" suggestions from the FC.[:#]

I had decided to check in at the crack of dawn in any event, on the basis that if I couldn't get a miles upgr then I wanted a PE bulkhead seat. Got to LHR at 06.10 (fortunately I only live 20 mins away), checked in for the VS200 and got the bulkhead seat in PE, then asked about a miles upgrade to UC...[?]

Success - upgraded all the way to SYD!!!:D:D:D This is going to make the 27 hours pass a LOT more quickly than my last trip to Australia - see my TR on that fiasco.[:0]

Now to take advantage of the Au card and set up camp in the CH...[}:)]
TR to follow...

PostPosted: 21 Sep 2007, 11:16
by honey lamb
Congrats on the upgrade [y]

PostPosted: 21 Sep 2007, 11:52
by fozzyo
Fantastic news ... Upper all the way makes such a difference to Syd! I'm so glad that's how we did it.

PostPosted: 21 Sep 2007, 12:05
by vizbiz
Originally posted by fozzyo
Fantastic news ... Upper all the way makes such a difference to Syd! I'm so glad that's how we did it.

It does make a huge difference, having travelled to SYD in all of the different cabins, once you've travelled that far in UC you just don't want to do it any other way.[8D]

Of course, this is all neatly balanced out by the fact that the fan-belt broke on the way back from the airport, so now I've got to sort out a taxi, fan-belt fix etc. Bugger![B)]