UC from JFK?

My wife and I are going to New York in December for my 40th birthday. We've currently got reward UC seats to JFK and PE back from Newark (the 2x UC and one PE from my miles and the other PE from my wife's miles).

I'm really tempted to upgrade the PE return to UC from JFK (reward seats show as available), but I'll need to buy miles on my wife's account as she only has 1,000 miles left and would need a total of 12,500 on top of what she used for PE. The 30% bonus offer on buying miles ends today, but is it worth it (would be £150 for the miles) and what would be the other costs involved (difference in surcharges/change fee etc?)

I've got enough miles in my account for the other PE seat to upgrade to UC as I just got 8,000 miles from my Virgin CC bill today! I've now got 194,000 miles, but I need to keep 180,000 aside as we're planning a trip to the States next August for the eclipse followed by a trip to Yellowstone. We've got hotels booked, but I'm waiting on return Delta flights to be released from LHR to Salt Lake City which we're hoping to get in Delta One (90,000 miles each).

The need to travel UC and spend time in the CH certainly is addictive after tasting it once last year.

Only you can decide if it's worth it TBH.

Obviously the main draw of UC back from Newark is the flat bed, plus use of the Clubhouse and Revivals on arrival at LHR.

But for a 6 hour overnight flight, when you'll probably be asleep for half of it, you won't really make the most of UC and many would say PE is perfectly adequate for such a short flight.

The return would be from JFK as there's no reward UC availability from Newark. Only reason we currently have PE from Newark is there weren't any reward PE seats available from JFK. Obviously, UC from JFK would mean access to the CH there which might be a nice way to end the trip? How does it compare with the CH at LHR?

Much smaller than LHR but better service IMHO. Food & bar excellent (though no deli counter which is one of my favourite features of LHR). There are showers and a small spa.

UC taxes & fees will probably be another $150 or so per person on top of PE.

If you have 194k miles then there's no need to purchase any - you can use yours for both upgrades. OOPS reread and see you want to keep some ...

Are you FC Au, if so then of course you'll get the Clubhouse anyway but IMO for a couple of hundred dollars, yes, it's worth it.

Personal decision obviously but I would de upgrade to UC for return

For £150 I would do it. especially if its an overnight flight back!
it will also cost you the difference in taxes from PE to UC (bout £35? each)
Dont forget - you get the NY JFK Lounge as well.

Get on the phone & find how much it will cost & decide

I flew back from JFK last year in UC, was my first time in the JFK lounge and I thoroughly enjoyed it, great service and the food was really good too, had a shower and changed before boarding and felt wide awake. Virgin also gave me the chance to change flights, was a bit worried when I got paged to go to the desk, (thought I was going to get bumped) but they offered me a seat on the earlier flight I think because I only had cabin baggage, but I declined as I was enjoying the lounge so much and wanted to stay on the A346 I was due to be on.

To make the most of my time in UC on the way back I just stayed awake, as someone who used to work shifts it was easy for me and the crew were outstanding, virtually everyone else in UC was asleep and it was like having my own cabin crew, couldn't speak any higher of how they treated me.

So, if I was you, i'd upgrade and enjoy it.

Well I've bought the extra miles on my wife's FC account. Now though the UC reward seats aren't showing as available on a search (for 19th Dec), except for the 08:15 flight. Strangely though there's now loads of options for PE seats that weren't showing before (yesterday it only had UC with no EC or PE. It's not the first time I've seen it change weirdly in the past couple of weeks. I wonder if it has anything to do with it being the last day of the EC/PE reward seat sale.

Ring them, they sometimes see more than is shown online.

I'm a bit unclear about your miles, if you had enough for both you could have used those for you and your wife, she didn't need them in her account for her to use them.

I needed the miles in my wife's account so that I can keep enough aside for our flights to Salt Lake City next year. The miles in her account cover the whole of one sector redemption (27,000 for PE or 40,000 for UC) as you can't split a sector's required miles across different FC accounts.

I needed the miles in my wife's account so that I can keep enough aside for our flights to Salt Lake City next year. The miles in her account cover the whole of one sector redemption (27,000 for PE or 40,000 for UC) as you can't split a sector's required miles across different FC accounts.

Sorry, I too missed that you wanted to save your miles.

We have had the same 'discussion'...it's only a six hour flight and the argument has been made that you can save the miles and then use the balance to go again....but having turned left towards the pointy end after being in the clubhouse, the decision becomes more difficult and subjective.......I'm sure that has helped. Not.

I did it. £150 for the extra miles including 30% bonus.

When I checked the booking page today, I saw UC availability on VS010 from JFK and gave them a call. £30pp change fee and £33pp extra taxes. £126 in total to change the flight from PE to UC is definitely worth it I think. I agree with Dobbin, the clubhouse and pointy end are hard to let go of.

I did it. £150 for the extra miles including 30% bonus.

When I checked the booking page today, I saw UC availability on VS010 from JFK and gave them a call. £30pp change fee and £33pp extra taxes. £126 in total to change the flight from PE to UC is definitely worth it I think. I agree with Dobbin, the clubhouse and pointy end are hard to let go of.

Congratulations!