Decisions, decisions!

[honey lamb]

I am in the very happy position of being invited by a friend to join her and a few other friends at her condo on Lake Tahoe next May :D This of course means that I can fly VS into SFO and, even better, use the SFO Clubhouse on my return. (It goes without saying that I have been well and truly bitten by the "turn left" bug, which of course is incurable )

My dilemma is now:
1) Whether to pay for a Z fare - although on the return leg the availability tool is showing zero. So soon? Or maybe the seats, haven't been released yet?
2) Whether to book PE and upgrade using miles
3) Whether to book a reward flight

I have just under 83,000 miles in my account with little chance of increasing them before then (and if anyone says "Virgin Credit Card" I am living in Ireland and therefore ineligible for it [:(][:(])

What would you do?

You might also want to consider whether renewing your Silver status or reaching Gold status is a consideration as each option respectively gives you 10 tier points, 6 tier points or 0 tier pooints.

Seems strange to have zero Z availabilty for next May - have you tried booking a ticket on the VS website or another agent, and seeing if the price correlates with typical Z pricing rather than D/J? If you get Z both ways, you'd expect the price to be around 2 grand.

Using 80k miles for an UC reward is a good use of miles in my opinion, so you may wish to go for that and have a complete "freebie"!

[honey lamb]

I have already enough points to renew my Silver status and I haven't a hope of reaching Gold. I would still need another 20 points before the end of June 2005.

The lowest Upper Class fare on the website is coming in at 5 grand which seems to be waaaaay more than I paid two years ago - and that included a side trip to Hawaii.

That kind of price does sound more like J, D or a combination of the two for the two sectors.

Have you checked award availabilty yet by attempting to book the reward online?

You have to weigh up the relative costs by considering all of this:
1. PE to UC round trip upgrade is 40k miles which is half the number for a UC reward outright
2. You need a W or S fare to be able to upgrade in advance (the rule appears to disappear on day of travel at the airport), and you need reward availabilty to upgrade in advance (again, not necessarily true on day of travel).
3. You're missing out on 4 tier points and 50% mileage by not buying UC outright. For SFO, 50% extra mileage is nearly 5,400 miles. All this mileage coudl go towards a reward/upgrade at a later date!

A lot hinges on reward availabilty for your dates of travel, so i'd go look that up next and then bear that in mind when making your choices!

You might also want to bear in mind that the LHR clubhouse will be revamped by then (I think) and the SFO clubhouse and the LHR revivals lounge are highly regarded in these parts . So don't take risks with PE flights that you try to upgrade on the day, or you might be dissapointed!

honeylamb

If you're not going to be anywhere near Gold, then I'd probably book PE and upgrade with some of those miles. That way it'll cost you a bit less (especially if no Z fares are left!), you'll still earn PE miles (and TPs), you'll still get the Clubhouse & Revivals access and you won't zero out your mileage balance (and you never know when you might need them!)

Nice position to be in - Tahoe will be beautiful in May (I was last there in Sept 2002, should go back on my next visit!) [8D]

Cheers

Michael

[Pete]

If the discount fares have gone that early, then chances are the reward seats have too. Sounds like there's a big convention in town, or summink.

In situations like that, I've looked at the alternative West Coast destinations (in this case Los Angeles or Las Vegas). LAX in particular is easier to get availability due to there being double the number of flights. Internal flights from either LAX or LAS can be had for very little, and you can even bag a few extra FC miles if you chose the right partner.

Pix