Upgrading from PE to UC

A few months ago I booked two return PE seats LHR-LAX for this September, we paid £1,188.20 incl. tax for both tickets and each of us injected 20,000 FC miles. From what I remember the agent (I booked with Virgin in Crawley over the phone) explained we were effectivey buying Economy class tickets & then using the miles to upgrade to PE. I'm sure she said that we would earn FC miles as we had paid out the equivalent of full fare economy (could this be right, surely full return fare to LAX is more that £594.1 each?) Anyway, on the confirmation email it states our Class as Premium (U). When I look at the fare codes on this site it says that "Flying Club Miles and Tier Points will be not be earned on this fare as it's a reward flight"

Question 1: Will we earn FC miles when we fly to LAX on 17/09?
Question 2: If we do, will Virgin credit our FC accounts in respect of the outbound flight while we are in USA (we're there for 8 nights)or do they credit the whole lot for the round trip after the whole trip is complete?
Question 3: If they do credit us while we are actually there, will we be able to phone Virgin reservations and ask if we can use our existing 15,000 miles we each in our FC accounts, along with whatever VA have just credited us fpr the LHR-LAX leg (which hopefully will be at least 5,000 miles each!) to request an upgrade from PE to UC? I'm pretty sure the miles needed to upgrade from PE to UC is 20,000 but somone correct me if I'm got this wrong!

By the way, the reason we are anxious to upgrade to UC on the return leg is that we are on the VS024 which is of course an A340-300 which everyone on this site says is c**p compared with the 747!! I've asked Virgin if we can switch to the 008 but there is no availability for people like us who used miles to upgrade to PE in the first place. Is the A340-300 really that inferior in PE.....do you agree we

[HighFlyer]

Hiya

If you booked EC seats and upgraded to PE with miles, you should be elligible to earn miles for the EC flight you purchased. The 'U' class is a 'reward economy/PE' ticket, so i guess you must have bought a Y EC ticket to be able to upgrade it

Miles are normally credited a few days after you take your flight, and each sector will be credited seperately (i.e. inbound and outbound)

Im not sure how it works with upgrading to UC with reward tickets, im not even sure you can do it, although someone here will be able to tell you. You may have to ask at check-in. You will likely have your inbound miles credited by the time your returm flight is due, but no guarantees as it can take over a week so see them, but my flights have always been credited within a few days so im sure yours will be fine. You cannot use miles you do not have showing in your account im sorry to say.

I would call Flying Club and ask them about upgrading to UC on your return leg, they will be able to advise you more accurately.

It has been mentioned on here before that miles/tp for Upgrade tickets for the bit your purchased, ie Economy, do not always appear automatically. However a quick phone call to Flying Club after the flight and they will credit these instantly for you. Something to do with how the reward ticket fare code is done I believe.

[RichardMannion]

Hi,

You will earn the mileage and TP on the revenue booked class - so in your case Economy. As you have done this already, you should get your miles and TP's a day or two after you actually take the flight - if not a simple call to FC would get them added. They are added by leg and not as a complete return journey.

If you use miles to upgrade at the airport, you will have to phone FC to get them to add the miles and TP's as you are shifted into a booking class (U for PE or G for UC) that would not normally earn mileage.

However, if you have bought Economy tickets (L, B or Y) and then used miles to upgrade to PE - your tickets will show as U class as that is the class that confirmed upgrades are booked out of for PE. You cannot then technically use more miles to upgrade from PE to UC - as the ticket would need to be booked in S or W class. However, on the day of departure at the airport, it has been known to have been done - if the plane is busy and there passengers offering to use up miles to upgrade then they will - I have upgraded from a V class Eco ticket to PE before.

There is always the option of a paid upgrade...

Thanks,
Richard

Hi there,

Have a few useful bits of info to tell you.

Mrs Nick and I just completed a trip that was originally booked in Economy (M - originating Tokyo hence mile-upgradable), but at the time of booking there was no availability in any of the G or U classes on either outbound or return flights. As they became available we mile-upgraded through PE out to PE both ways to PE out UC back to UC both ways. As one reward class was replaced with a higher they were kind enough to refund all original tendered miles (e.g. the 10k for PE) before taking the new mile chunk (e.g. 30k for UC).

The easiest way to check reward seat availability is to log in to VS website and then try to book reward seats on the flights you are interested in - the same class availability is used for reward seats as upgrade reward seats. Some people may change their plans, or more may be made available nearer the departure date, so it is well worth checking at least daily if you are initially told there is no availability.

Also - and I think most interestingly, not sure if this is a Gold/Silver perk - before the flights my (silver) wife's account was at minus 5k! The return flight mile requirements were taken knowing that the outbound flight would give sufficient credited miles to cover the deficit.

I would suggest a quick call to FC may resolve your request. Remember although your seats are in U now, it is the original booking class (Y, B, L) that determines the eligibility for further mile upgrades into UC - replacing the upgrade to PE.

Good Luck

Nick

It helps if your Gold or at least frequent to get a millage overdraft I was once -18k[8D] booked two flights one UC at the time though..

VSFC is very flexible IMHO..

Just thought I should add in some information that I would have found useful 2 weeks ago.

If you have booked a miles+money reward flight you cannot then upgrade it at the airport even if you have the miles in your account. I booked a PE flight from LHR to HKG rtn and was not allowed to upgrade even though I offered to pay the difference between my fare and the true PE price.

Perhaps it was just the staff at checkin, but there was absolutely no flexibility even though the flight was not full.

[Bazz]

Hi Shark Monster and welcome aboard.

Sorry you didn't get to upgrade your M+M fare but those are the rules I believe.

That having been said, rules are sometimes, exceptionally, broken and the check-in staff can and do make a difference some will interpret the rules more liberally, perhaps as guidelines, or maybe then again, perhaps they don't know the rules

Thanks to all of you who replied. I've just phoned Flying Club to establish what my "base fare" was at the time of booking and asked about using miles to upgrade to UC on the return leg. Situation is this:-

- Base fare was "L" and we used 20,000 miles to upgrade to PE both ways
- The helpful young lady I spoke to confirmed that we will each earn 13,606 miles for the return trip.
- We will be credited half of this (i.e. for outbound sector) within a few days of arriving at LAX.
- This will give each of us a balance of 21,812 miles (as we already have a balance of 15,990 in the bank"
- We are eligible to then request an upgrade to UC using 20,000 miles but we will need to phone FC when our balance is confirmed as 20,000+ miles. She explained that currently there are no UC seats available using miles but this can easily change, espacially on the day itself

So, maybe, just maybe we may end up in a position to sample UC!! I'm dreading the A340-300 (compared to the 744) from what everyone says, but if we can get into UC that would be great!

[Bazz]

Glad you have been able to clarify the situation Vegascrazy and good luck with some spare UCS becoming available for your return trip.

quote:Originally posted by Vegascrazy

We are eligible to then request an upgrade to UC using 20,000 miles but we will need to phone FC when our balance is confirmed as 20,000+ miles. She explained that currently there are no UC seats available using miles but this can easily change, espacially on the day itself

So, maybe, just maybe we may end up in a position to sample UC!! I'm dreading the A340-300 (compared to the 744) from what everyone says, but if we can get into UC that would be great!

you can get an idea of how full UC is by looking here
you'll see a string like:

Cabin class: F4 P4 A4 C4 Z0 J4 D0 S0 Y9 Z0 B0 M4 W0 H3

you need to see if any J/D/Z are available and that should indicate if reward availability is likely..

Obviously if there is a high number of J seats available chances are some of them will be available for reward travel nearer the time.

Vegascrazy,
If you need some miles in your FC account, I can arrange it for you if you have a FCCC. PM me to learn how.

Thanks Jonathan, I followed your link at typed in my details, i.e. VS024 on 25th Sept. Strange thing is that it says that 7 of most categories are available, e.g. J7 D7 Z3 S7 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X7 N6 0
Is it just chance that 7 of each are showing as available?

Thanks also Ian. What do I need to do to get extra miles in my account?