Help for bear with little brain

I used to think that I understood the way that VS ran with upgrades, tickets and points. After some conversations today, I'm sure I don't.

I'm trying to find the most cost effective way of getting myself, wife & 9 year old to LA and back in February (12th to 27th approx)

I no longer have any FC status but I do have:

c180,000 points
A companion voucher
A frequent Virgin Hols number.

I suppose that we'd like UC both ways but will settle for PE out and UC back (seems best to get beds at night).

I seem to have had various confusing and contradictory messages about classes for the companion ticket and upgrades. It seems, like many airlines, that a companion ticket is only worth anything if you're already buying a fully flexible, full price ticket but I thought that the points should be useful.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

ps. Wife does not like idea of travelling with sprog in economy while I sit up front.

Originally posted by Gareth Morgan
I used to think that I understood the way that VS ran with upgrades, tickets and points. After some conversations today, I'm sure I don't.

I'm trying to find the most cost effective way of getting myself, wife & 9 year old to LA and back in February (12th to 27th approx)

I no longer have any FC status but I do have:

c180,000 points
A companion voucher
A frequent Virgin Hols number.

I suppose that we'd like UC both ways but will settle for PE out and UC back (seems best to get beds at night).

I seem to have had various confusing and contradictory messages about classes for the companion ticket and upgrades. It seems, like many airlines, that a companion ticket is only worth anything if you're already buying a fully flexible, full price ticket but I thought that the points should be useful.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

ps. Wife does not like idea of travelling with sprog in economy while I sit up front.

Gareth

I'll try and help, but others are often much more clued up on this than I so take my advice as a starter for ten rather than the definitive answer.

1. Frequent Virgin Holiday number is probably not much use. You can get your 10% discount if you book through VH, but won't be able to use your miles to upgrade.

2. buy upgradeable class of Economy ticket and blow the 180k miles on a round trip upgrade to UC (60k each). You'd need to phone VS to establish the correct fare class AND whether there is any current upgrade capacity on the flights you want.

3. buy upgradeable class of PE ticket one way and non upgradeable the other. Again, you'd need to check with VS about the fare class and the upgrade availability.

4. Mix'n'match (2) and (3) in some way to get the best available combination of prices and use of miles.

5. I'm not sure about the companion voucher. The companion flight use of miles is based on someone buying a full revenue fare and then using miles to take someone else with them, but what the score is with a voucher is something I'll leave others to comment on.

Good luck and hope this helps.

Paul

[Nottingham Nick]

A warm welcome to V-Flyer.

You are no doubt already aware that these dates are around the half term week in most of the UK... therefore the flights will probably be busy. To compound this, the strong pound, and a run of VS fare sales seem to be making for heavy loads.

Even though you don't have status with VS... it is worth giving the Flying Club a ring. You MAY hit lucky, and get a helpful agent that knows what they are talking about. The big advantage is that you will be able to get instant answers to the availability of reward seats and upgradeable fares on the dates you are looking for.

Good luck with it.

Nick

[HighFlyer]

I seem to have had various confusing and contradictory messages about classes for the companion ticket and upgrades. It seems, like many airlines, that a companion ticket is only worth anything if you're already buying a fully flexible, full price ticket but I thought that the points should be useful.

To use a companion voucher for your flights to LAX, you'll need to book in an upgradeable class: (Y or B for Economy, S or W for PE and J for UC). These fares are flexible and are more expensive than restricted fares. For Economy and PE fares, one flexible and one companion fare can frequently work out cheaper that two less flexible tickets, but not always. Rarely is that the case for Upper Class. If you can get a reasonably priced PE S fare, that often represents the best value of the voucher - and should save you a good few bob.

Otherwise, i'd look to buy B or L class Economy tickets and use 60k miles each to upgrade you all to Upper Class, but as Nick says, you'll need to find out availability of Upper Class non-revenue seats (or 'G's' as we call them) and they are often not available on ideal travel dates - weekends and busy holidays.

Thanks,
Sarah

Thanks for the advice.

We got our L to G tickets, LHR - lAX and SFO - LHR with no problems.