N class upgrades

I've just purchased a package deal to havana, flying VS of course! But the tickets are N class, will I be able to use my miles to upgrade at check in? If not, does anyone have any suggestions on a course of action... The reason i chose VS not Cubana was so I didnt have to fly in the back of the plane for 11 hrs...

[Scrooge]

An N class ticket is the bottom of the bottom,non flexible, non changeable and non-refundable,so im sorry to say the chances of upgrading are very slim,your only hope is to contact whoever you got it through and see if they can get the ticket moved either to a Y or straight to a W.

farecode

Are yes, the back of the plane. The N class discription from our own expert on the matter, Richard Mannion, is as follows:

"Flying Club Miles and Tier Points will be not be earned on this fare on most routes except London and Cape Town, Delhi, Johannesburg, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Tokyo. Lowest level of fare class for Economy, non flexible, non changeable and non-refundable. This fare class is often used for various promotional Economy fares by both Virgin Atlantic and third parties (in particular UK newspaper offers). One of the 2 fare classes that are used for Economy Flying Club MilesplusMoney fares (MpM). There will need to be availability in this or the other MpM fares class (X) for you to be able to take advantage of MpM. MilesplusMoney tickets do not earn Tier Points or Flying Club miles regardless of whether its booked under N or X class. Advance Purchase will be required. This fare class is also commonly used by agents that specialise in Student Fares as it is the lowest and special rates sometimes apply for student travellers. This fare class is also utilised on the Delhi route for redemption of Select voucher, if there is no availability in N and a customer wishes to use a Select voucher Ð Virgin will manually check through the sold allocation of N Class to see how many are Select voucher redemptions, as they are allowed to oversell this class to take them up to a maximum of 4 Select voucher redemptions." (See here for the source)

This is not a great fare to change, and change it you will have to do before you can throw some miles at it for an upgrade [:#] Ho humm! I am afraid I cannot see you being able to change it at all in fact. However if you have just purchased the package, you may have a cooling off period, in which case it may be worth contacting whoever sold you the package and seeing if they can help.

At least the back of VS is better than the back of Cubana.

[Nottingham Nick]

If you are a Flying Club member, then the Flying Club MAY be able to upgrade your ticket to a better (upgradeable) class of Y (if that makes sense), but it will depend on the package you have bought, and there will be quite a hefty supplement and change fee.

As the wise Sage of the Seas has pointed out, the TA that you have already dealt with, may be your best course of action - to see if you can get a better package. (so to speak [:I] )

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
As the wise Sage of the Seas

Huh! Who's that then?[:o)]

I have upgraded with cash from an N ticket on LAS-LGW sector - Cost me £250.

If you dont ask you dont get....

Rich.

Hi,

Upgrading with cash will be entirely dependent on availability at the airport and how much they need people to upgrade. As will the cost which can vary. In terms of milage upgrades, this is highly unlikely unless you pay the fare difference at check-in to an upgradable fare class.

As has been mentioned before, none of this is set in stone, just ask at check-in and hope for the best.

If you want to try and change fare classes or request a paid upgrade in advance, you will need to check directly with the company who issued the tickey (package holiday company, I presume VH?). You can try flying club, but they will usually have to check with the holiday company, or will advise you to do so.

If you did book directly with VS then you may be able to just pay the difference to an upgradale fare, and book the upgrade with miles.

Hope this helps.

Neil.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all you help on this, situation is pretty much as I expected, never mind I'll just use my 250,000 VS miles for a couple of upper class freebies instead! Why won't VS learn, that'll potentially cost them a lot more than a last minute upgrade ona half empty flight....

Ah well then ... squandering miles on an upgrade when you could do the whole hog might be a better use. Especially if there are plenty of free seats, being in the back with spare seats around can be surprisingly comfortable.

D'ya know, being at the back of a Cubana flight isn't entirely horrendous.. when I flew with them to Havana about two years ago, they were using a Novair (Swedish?) A330-200. It was reasonably comfortable, the service was good for Y, and the toilet area was intruiging! Downstairs from the middle of the cabin, and about 6 toilet cubicles.. hardly a queue developed. I haven't flown on any other A330s so I don't know if that is standard or not..