Economy LHR - IAD / LAS - LGW - L Class Upgrades

Just had a rather frustrating day with VS and our AMEX travel centre...

I'm heading out the the US on 3rd July, outbound to Dulles, and returning to the UK on 29 Jul from Las Vegas. Due to budget constraints, I am flying economy and called VS FC Gold to confirm which class would be flexible and upgradeable. I was advised an L Class booking would do the job, so passed on that message to our travel booking agents. Cost - about £600.
Booking details coming winging back and I call FC Gold again to upgrade the flights using miles. "No can do" is the reply - "you need Y Class" which would now cost another £1100!!!!
All very apologetic but it seems that my only recourse is to hope they will accept a miles upgrade at check-in on the day.

So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury - what do you think? Will it work? I'm told the outward flight (VS21) is wide open. Should I just accept it or fight on?

Any advice welcome.

Regards

Tony

[RichardMannion]

You got thru to a Noddy.

L is indeed a qualifying revenue fare to use miles to upgrade from.

Ec: L, B or Y (B and Y only for ex-US purch fares)
PE: S or W
Upper: What are you going to upgrade to?

Do you have the name of whom you spoke to at FC Gold?

Thanks
Richard

Aahh...just got off the phone. The plot thickens!

Apparently the L Class rate that was booked for me is a 'Net Fare' and to be able to upgrade I need to have a 'published fare'. All to do with our discounted rates.

I want to upgrade to PE outbound and Upper on the homeward leg (LAS-LGW).

Thoughts?

Tony

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by sbg
Aahh...just got off the phone. The plot thickens!

Apparently the L Class rate that was booked for me is a 'Net Fare' and to be able to upgrade I need to have a 'published fare'. All to do with our discounted rates.

I want to upgrade to PE outbound and Upper on the homeward leg (LAS-LGW).

Thoughts?

Tony

Interesting, I've not heard that one before. It's not specifically called out in the T&C's - closet thing would be:

4.3.6 Flying Club upgrades cannot be used in conjunction with any promotional fare or discount.

I need to check something, as I am sure that you can still use miles. It would be like saying people on discoutned corp tickets don't earn miles, when we know full well they do.

Thanks,
Richard

Thanks Richard

Cheers

Tony

[mcmbenjamin]

Originally posted by sbg
Thanks Richard

Cheers

Tony

Any result?

[RichardMannion]

Hi,

Yes I checked - it's a strange technical rule that NET fares can't in theory upgraded using miles. It's an issue that arises from time to time. However if you call back and ask to speak to a supervisor, the fact that it is a NET fare is overlooked and you can use miles.

Thanks,
Richard

OK - I'll give it another go and let you know what FC say.

Cheers

Tony

Well, thanks to a very nice lady in FC Gold this evening (I won't name her, as I didn't ask permission), I am now travelling PE in both directions! It was extremely simple and only cost me the 40 quid additional APD. I'll try for an additional upgrade to UCS at the LAS check in - no availability at this time.

So why was it so hard this morning???

Thanks again Richard

Regards

Tony

[preiffer]

Nice one Tony [y]

(Be prepared for disappointment on the LAS upgrade, though. With 1/3 the J seats of a Heathrow plane, they don't tend to go empty...)

And huge [oo][oo][oo] to Mr Mannion once again for that superlative in depth knowledge of the arcane rules of VS.

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by slinky09
And huge [oo][oo][oo] to Mr Mannion once again for that superlative in depth knowledge of the arcane rules of VS.

I can't take credit for that, I checked with someone I know at VS that knows what they are talking about.

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by RichardMannion

Originally posted by slinky09
And huge [oo][oo][oo] to Mr Mannion once again for that superlative in depth knowledge of the arcane rules of VS.

I can't take credit for that, I checked with someone I know at VS that knows what they are talking about.

Well at least you know WHO to talk to [y]

This helps me understand why certain PE U fares can't be upgraded to G. Just like Tony's "L" fare, if the U isn't derived in a totally "normal" way then they're not upgradeable with miles. I had this experience trying to upgrade a U derived from using one of the AMEX T->U vouchers. Clearly though, unlike in the L case mentioned here,inthe case of a U derived from a voucher there's no leniancy given that no cash was spent at the outset!

Thanks
James

[Scrooge]

Am I the only one that thinks this sucks, VS tells someone to buy an L class ticket, they buy it, then they are told it is the wrong L class, FFS this is what the different ticket class thing is supposed to cover, if you want to run an L type ticket, but with limations, call it something else.

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by Scrooge
Am I the only one that thinks this sucks, VS tells someone to buy an L class ticket, they buy it, then they are told it is the wrong L class, FFS this is what the different ticket class thing is supposed to cover, if you want to run an L type ticket, but with limations, call it something else.

Totally agree. Similarly, how some U's are upgradeable ('full' redemption U's) but others are not (Companion voucher U's).

Thanks,
Sarah

[RichardMannion]

Problem is that there are not enough classes to cover all instances, you have to start going down to the full fare basis and that loses a lot of people very quickly.

As an example, you buy the DJWAP7 fare for MCo which is about £1800 - now that is a D class yet it is not changeable or refundable. Unless you know the rules for each exact fare basis or access to a tool such as ExpertFlyer to check the rules you would be none the wiser and presume it was a typical D.

There are stacks of different scenarios that share fare classes and that can cause confusion or possible upset, but how do you do it simply? There are only 26 top level fare classes as such, these are then expanded out via the fare basis.

See your points though, it would help if the staff actually were explicit in there information and knew the full in's and out's of the fares.

Thanks,
Richard

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by RichardMannion


See your points though, it would help if the staff actually were explicit in there information and knew the full in's and out's of the fares.

Thanks,
Richard

There in lays the problem in most cases, there have been many times that I have had to explain different fare classes to the person taking the reservations, I guess for the most part they deal with people trying to get the cheapest fare.However when calling to something like the FC or Exec for BA rather than the general reservations line you should be able to speak to someone that has a clue as to what they are doing and more importantly have a grasp of what you as the pax are trying to do, in the end the pax did what he/she was told to do by VS, it is down to VS and the TA to sort out the mess..at least in my mind.