Travel agent E fare

We're going to Chicago in March (from MAN via ATL) and the flights were booked for us by a company who use a travel agent. I'd planned on upgrading the flights with some miles as we were booked into Y with an E fare code, but when I called FC I discovered that a booking made through a travel agent can only be altered through the travel agent, which is a real nuisance! As we never use a TA ourselves I was unaware of this. I was told, however, that we might be able to upgrade at the airport depending on availability; we'd just have to pay the difference to an upgradeable fare and then any extra taxes/fees, as per usual. Has anyone done this before with this type of fare class? The flight doesn't look terribly busy on Expert Flyer so I am hoping at the very least we can pay to upgrade to PE even if rewards seats aren't available.

In theory anything is possible at the airport. If there are spare seats there's every chance they'll sell you one but of course it's never guaranteed and flights can fill up last minute, particularly on a route like ATL which gets a lot of late corporate bookings.

VS are right though I'm afraid - they can't touch bookings made through travel agents until T-24 and as a general rule they can't be upgraded with miles.

It's also worth noting that VS tend not to touch bookings made through Virgin Holidays too. A friend flew PE to New York on a VHols booking & tried to upgrade to Upper at Heathrow. All was going fine at the ticket desk (seats available / miles & taxes agreed) until a supervisor had to be called. She clocked the fare code & the upgrade was instantly off. No amount of persuasion would make her change her mind - the fact that he was trying to give Virgin more money was of no relevance.

i've been through the TA ticket upgrade maze many times, the definitive position from FC is...

Having checked your below booking reference I am able to confirm that you are travelling on what we call a nett fare. These are non-published ticket types such as discounted, corporate, travel agent or tour operator fares and can only be upgraded using miles in the following booking classes: W, Y and B.

If you decide however on the spur of the moment to upgrade your flight when at the airport, simply let one of our staff members know so they can check the availability of reward seats in the cabin you want to move up to.

...when it comes to upgrading at check-in, the effective value of any TA ticket that isn't W, Y or B seems to be zero, so although you can pay to change it to a points-upgradeable ticket, the cost of doing so can be far higher than simply buying a discounted ticket in the class you actually want to be in, though it depends on availability/pricing on the day, fwiw i'm AU but it doesn't help at all with a TA ticket

first thing is to contact the TA and see if they can do the upgrade for you (in the past FC have suggested that to me, but i've not tried it), or see if the TA can do a refund then you buy direct

if you can get the TA to change you to B, then points upgrade at checkin works fine, i was surprised last year when VS let me points upgrade both legs on LHR-IAD to UC when i checked i at LHR (i'm sure it was due to low loads, but it does prove the VS system allows a return leg upgrade while checking in for the outbound)

I had a travel agent fare code when I travelled to JNB on business and despite VS telling me that I could potentially upgrade at the airport I was told quite firmly (in both directions) that it had to be done through the travel agent - they said they didn't know what I had paid for my ticket so couldn't work out how much it would be to change it to an upgradeable fare. They were quite adamant about it, so I had to forgo the upgrade despite having loads of points available to do it.

Thanks so much for all your replies, everyone! Ugh, it's not looking very good as we're sadly not in direct contact with the TA (the booking was made by a large company and trying to change it now would be a nightmare). The lady on the AU FC helpline also said there was nothing I could do until T-24 due to them not knowing the price of the ticket. I really hope we can upgrade at the airport as I need the extra TP and w'really always so much better prepared for work after a more comfortable flight. But I'll be prepared for it in the eventuality that they don't allow it :(

The silver lining is that due to us both being AU we got the ELR seats free of charge, so it's not all bad. ..

unfortunately i think the staff at the airport will say they cannot calculate the fare difference between the TA ticket and an upgradeable one, it gets treated as zero and the price quoted seems be full cost of an upgradeable one

btw do check that your outbound/return are the same code, tickets from our company TA sometimes have one leg that is points upgradeable

there's a VS desk airside in the ATL international terminal, they can do upgrades there if your ticket allows it for the return leg

Thanks, sungod!

I actually have a good news update. So, VS changing the fare codes required for an upgrade was very helpful. Our outbound flight was booked in an E fare. I called at T-24 and was told that there were upgrades available to PE for £199 PP. I was going to opt for this, but the agent advised that although there were currently no miles tickets for Upper available, he felt that due to the flight being only 1/3 full, there was a strong chance they might be available on the day. He also said PE had plenty of room, so if UC wasn't available, we should have no issues getting into PE.

When we arrived at check in we found out PE was full, which was a bit worrying! But after a quick phone call, we were told two seats in Upper could be ours for the princely sum of £125 PP in taxes and 35,000 miles each. So happy!! So we had a fabulous outbound trip.

Interestingly, PE was full because an entire family upgraded from Y. Once on board, they complained and demanded a refund as they didn't think the seats were good enough because they thought PE was Upper.

Our fare code is only an O for our inbound flight, so we'll see if we can do anything with it at the airport, but I will not hold my breath!

Glad to hear you got an upgrade.

I've got one of these coming up where corporate travel have booked a group of seats in EC to LAS which is going to be horrendous especially the flight back three days later

Good to hear you sorted out your upgrades in the end Spacedog.

I wonder, did the family uprading to PE then downgrade again? Can you downgrade once you have upgraded?

Fingers crossed for your inbound flight and enjoy the rest of your trip.

MoJoJo, I hope it's not too bad a flight! It's such a long way to go there and back in such a short time.

Maximus, I believe they were refunded, but it took a while. They felt the product had been misdescribed (I think truthfully they just misunderstood what was on offer). They felt the price wasn't worth it for "just a wider seat." PE is so much more than that, but I think they were only ever going to be disappointed if they were expecting an Upper Class suite.

Yes, it would be a shock if you were expecting an UC seat! But as you say, it is more than the seat itself. Although if I was spending hundreds to thousands of pounds to upgrade I sure as hell be sure what I was getting before handing over the credit card!

MoJoJo, I hope it's not too bad a flight! It's such a long way to go there and back in such a short time..

Thanks! Rather than run the risk of not being able to uprgade, being behind stuck in EC and not being able to prebook a decent seat I have booked and paid for my own flights using cash and miles via Detroit. Bonus is a flight out of LHR, the Clubhouse and two days to have a look at Vegas having never been before.

Maximus, like you, I would want to be very certain about what I was getting before paying.

MoJoJo, that is a most excellent solution! We'really spending an extra couple of days in Vegas in July as we had to fly out two days early for a work event... terrible shame ;)

Well, I have good news about our return trip, too! We checked in with Delta in ORD and I asked there if there was any possibility of us upgrading with cash or miles and the agent said definitely not, but said we could check with the VS desk in ATL (all said whilst grimacing shaking her head, so we were prepared for the worst). At ATL we headed straight for the desk and were told that although we couldn't upgrade with miles due to our O class tickets, they had a special on for PE for $254 per person, which we took them up on immediately. Interestingly, I asked if we'd be able to pay the difference to a higher Y fare code to use miles and the agent said yes, but that it was quite a jump in price. PE was great, we had an amazing crew and a very comfortable flight.

I realise we were very lucky both ways, so in future we'll avoid travel agent bookings at all costs!