Upgrade have i got this correct?

I will have 20,000 points after my next flight, from what i can gather i can upgrade from economy to upper class one way if i book in the correct class. The classes being YBRLU &M.
Have i got this right? It seems a bit too good to be true, what am i missing?
Thank s for your help, i am very new to this so need all the help i can get.

[Neil]

Welcome,

Yes, you have got the basics correct.

In terms of cost, the upgradable fare codes do cost more than the cheapest available tickets and you do have to pay taxes and surcharges based on an UC fare.

In terms of availability, there has to be G Upper Class miles seats available for you to upgrade to. Just because there are UC seats available doesn't mean they are miles seats, only a limit number are released for each flight and sometimes none are released on busy routes in peak periods.

Neil

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to be so dumb, but how much will the additional taxes be say from man-mco? How can i find out what G seats are available?

Angie

Welcome to vflyer , did you have a particular route and destination in mind ?

[Neil]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to be so dumb, but how much will the additional taxes be say from man-mco? How can i find out what G seats are available?

Angie

To find out if there is G availability, do a dummy booking using miles on the VS website, this will show you if there are any Upper Class miles seats available.

MCO is one of the harder routes to get UC miles seats on, because the UC cabin is only 14 seats and it is a very popular route. It is however possible if you book early enough and can be flexible with your dates, we got 4 UC miles seats to MCO in May and have had a few over the years.

Welcome to v-flyer

To work out the extra taxes, you could try and do a dummy search on the VS website by putting in your route as one way, and selecting using money, and show me all classes. in the results, you could click on the fare details where a breakdown of fare and taxes plus surcharges will be given.Do that for economy and for UC then you can work out the difference.

Thanks for all your help and advise. I did what was suggested and did find some G seats in January. It looks like the tax difference is around £70, unless i am missing something.
Thanks again.

Angie

I paid £1847 for two upgradeable economy tickets and taxes to upgrade both ways to Upper to MCO next year.
I can't say how much of that is taxes, but I think the tax on the outbound is a fair bit more than inbound.
If you are only going one way in Upper, my choice would be the return leg to take advantage of the flatbed. (which would also mean less tax I think.)
Some may view it the other way round: If you are flying in Upper then be awake and enjoy it so upgrade the outbound. This may be especially true if you are doing the relatively short journey to New York or Boston.
It would be worth a phone call to Virgin to clarify exact breakdowns.
Best of luck.

Dick D

...also if you are thinking of flying UC on the outward journey.... do consider flying from London to MCO and MCO back to MAN. Reason being if you have bagged UC seats going out you get to enjoy the wonders of the Clubhouse !!

It is worth the little extra to fly down ( or take the train) to London just to experience the Clubhouse and that is where your holiday will officially start . BA fare one way is very reasonable. We are doing this in JAN '16 - flying LHR to MIA touring Florida then flying home MCO to MAN. UC out PE home.

I will have 20,000 points after my next flight, from what i can gather i can upgrade from economy to upper class one way if i book in the correct class. The classes being YBRLU &M.
...

these classes are correct if you book direct with VS, but be aware that if you book via a travel agent things get more restrictive with only W, Y and B tickets eligible for upgrade (and even then usually not in advance)

as others have said, you can check availability by making a dummy reward booking, but even if there're none available in advance it may still be possible on the day of travel, just ask at the check-in desk if there're seats available for miles upgrade, if there are unsold seats in UC (or PE) it's likely you'll be successful

i'm usually on a ticket from the company travel agent i do most of my upgrades this way and i know i'm not the only one who asks at checkin, it seems to be first come first served, so getting to the airport early improves your chances!