reward seats

I have found this site of great interest over the last year or so and now I need a little help. I have to go to miami in the next week or so and fancy cashing in some miles. I have managed to get a seat in upper going out but not coming back. The date I want to return shows availability in J as 33. Virgin won't as yet release any more reward seats but state they may closer to the time. Has anybody any experience of this happening? Should I take the risk? I fancy being stranded there until a seat comes up but my wife is being a little prickly about it.Any ideas?

[RichardMannion]

Hi,

Virgin will sometimes release some more seats closer to the time. When you say J is showing 33, where are you getting this number from as Galileo does not show this level of number.

You have to have some flexibility when booking reward seats as they are capacity controlled as such. If you ask, they should be able to tell you the next date that have avail for the return - depends on how many seats you require. Have you checked for the other classes?

Thanks,
Richard

quote:Originally posted by dom
I have found this site of great interest over the last year or so and now I need a little help. I have to go to miami in the next week or so and fancy cashing in some miles. I have managed to get a seat in upper going out but not coming back. The date I want to return shows availability in J as 33. Virgin won't as yet release any more reward seats but state they may closer to the time. Has anybody any experience of this happening? Should I take the risk? I fancy being stranded there until a seat comes up but my wife is being a little prickly about it.Any ideas?

Hi there,

The stuff below is based on my experience of crossing the Pond way too often with a variety of carriers (but mostly UA and VS).

Compared to some of the US carriers, both BA and VS are slightly "tighter" about releasing reward upgrades in advance.

I understand that on the busy routes such as LHR-JFK, only two upper reward seats are available far in advance, and slightly more on the less busy routes.

However, it's true for all airlines that as the date of departure approaches, additional reward upgrades are released, usually depending on the current load in J-class, but sometimes triggered by high loads in economy.

It is often preferable to let someone claim an upgrade award, collect some miles and free up a seat in the economy cabin, than give the upgrade away completely free!

Customer is happy because they have a confirmed upgrade (and get lounge access on the day), airline is happy because they sort out their overbooking problem.

On United, you can have your name put on a waitlist for an upgrade, and once upgrade seats become available, the United computer will automatically clear your upgrade and move you up, giving preference firstly to those with status in their own frequent flyer programme, followed by Star Silver/Golds, followed by the order in which the passenger was added to the upgrade waitlist.

I'm not sure if VS operate this waitlist system, but I don't think so. They have never let me waitlist for a J upgrade reward.

You can also do a mileage upgrade at check-in, at which point they are usually happy to let any vacant J seats go to those with miles to spend.

There is some information specific to Virgin on this site - http://www.v-flyer.com/upgrades.asp

Good luck!

Cheers,
Mike