Newbie Questions

Evening all

I am flying LGW - MCO on my honeymoon in 2 months time, this is the first time I have flown Virgin and so don't have any frequent flyer points etc.

We just booked economy seats, but I haven't received my tickets yet so I can't tell what is the fare class of the tickets.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how likely it is to get a free upgrade for our flight out. I'm afraid the only upgrade we will get will be blagged as the £600 or so it would cost for the two of us to go PE is outside our budget.
We will be availing of the twilight check in.

Bearing all those facts (esp the honeymoon bit) in mind can anyone tell me how likely it is that we will be get a pleasant surprise at check in. The flight is VS027 on 3rd May (but I don't know how to check how full it is).

I presume our best plan of attack is just to pre book economy seats for the time being.
Once again any advice here would be appreciated.

TIA

[Nottingham Nick]

Hustler

Welcome to Virginflyer.

The answers to all of your questions are to be found in various place around the site, the upgrade situation is covered here

http://www.virginflyer.com/upgrades.asp

Even though you are on your honeymoon, you will be VERY lucky if chosen.

Nick

Hi Hustler

On the day upgrades to PE can be around £185 per person if that makes it anymore affordable. Over the Christmas period was booked in economy with VH to SFO we paid £185 each to go up to PE then got chatting to the check in agent and it was my partners birthday he noticed this. When we got to the gate was upgraded to UC the both of us, the check in agent kept saying to us its worth getting to the gate early now i know why. He obviously applied an SFU code, i just think we were really lucky on the day, but it could always happen again.

All depends on how booked the flight is and which check in agent you get.

Nick - I had a read around the site and I seen the upgrade bit.

I guess I was just looking to know how much influence the honeymoon bit would have.

I reckoned that seasoned flyers would have know the answer.

Thanks for the reply, even if it wasn't the answer I was looking for.[:I]

db1 - now that's the sort of reply I was after:)

I haven't yet received my tickets and the confirmation invoice from Virgin doesn't mention either my ticket class or whether I am SFU.

So, I would be safer pre booking a seat in economy now, and as I will be using twilight check in I will be among the first people checking in early - therefore I should stand a better chance of being able to buy an upgrade to PE at a reasonable price.
Is that correct?

Will it make any difference if I have pre booked my seat? EG, will they say that because I have went to the bother of pre booking a seat that I won't either be offered a cheap payable upgrade or a possible free upgrade?

I apprecaite your experiences as I want to make sure that I maximise whatever small chance I have of blagging an upgrade, and at less than £200 I would seriously consider paying for the PE upgrade.

There's the dilemma, do you volunteer to pay or sit back and hope to get lucky?

One more thing, how likely is it that I will be able to upgrade at £185 at check in, ie do most flights still have these available at check in or would they generally have already been sold by that time?

Sorry for the million questions

[RichardMannion]

First of all, please don't take this personally.

Problem is that the Honeymoon thign is tried on every day, and those genuine one's suffer as a result. Not being funny, but just because you're on honeymoon whys should any airline upgrade you? There is no obligation. I get asked nearly every day in our office if I can get them an upgrade - answer no - try gettign some proper status with them as that will help but then don't expect it. If you want to fly in a Premium Class for sure, then you have to pay for it. Just because there may be empty seats in PE or Upper Class, it does not mean that they have to shift people up. It devalues the premium brand and annoys the customers that do pay for the premium service.

It always makes me laugh, the average cost of a wedding being 5 figures now. People happy to spend £500 on a crap tiered cake, but won't spend the money on a nice pair of upgrades.

LGW is the worst, lost count of the amount of times I've heard the word Honeymoon especially for the Caribbean routes - as if that isn't a popular route for honeymoons. Hate to say it, but given a toss up of shifting a solo flying Gold member and a non-frequent coupel on honeymoon - err I think we know who would get the upgrade.

About 18 months ago, Virgin did a fantastic advertising campaign about Premium and the fact not to try and 'blag' an upgrade. One of them was entitled 'But we're on Honeymoon'. I have copies of all the original posters campaign framed at home, it really does make me smile. Especially the 'But I'm Richard's brother' one, holds some significance in our family....

But you never know, MCO is a strange route for upgrades....

Thanks,
Richard

Richard - that's grand, I'm more thick skinned than to take that personally.

It's at least good to know therefore that our chances would be negligible at best (which is something I didn't know an hour ago).

Following on from the point db1 made above, how likely is it that a pair of upgrades would be available on the day for less than £200?

I'm sure all flights are different etc, but generally if I asked to pay for a PE upgrade on arrival at the twilight check in would there be any available?

Sadly upgrades do not happen if its your honeymoon or birthday, they happen if your a gold card.

If the flight is oversold then ground staff will upgrade Flying club first so if i were u register now for the card. If there are not enough Gold or silver card on the day then normal flying club red will be selected.

Upgrades will not happen at Twilight check in they will happen at the gate on the day of deaprture.

Twilight check in staff are not Virgin so you will proabably not find them helpful.

The best thing to do is check on the day at check in speak to a supervisor (in a black or grey shirt) in the mean time ring res and reserve your seats the config is 3-4-3 the back narrows to 2-4-2 try to get a 2 if not free then try centre seats Row 22 or 23 DEFG at the front of economy which is quieter and youll get off the plane in orlando first avoiding the long qeues at immigration.

""Sadly upgrades do not happen if its your honeymoon or birthday they happen if your a gold card"