Upgrading reward fares later

Hi there,

Had a quick search of the site and there seemed to be mixed opinions on this... Has anyone ever booked a full reward fare, and then successfully upgraded it later using more miles? I'm just wondering if i'll be able to change one of the legs on a reward booking if I enough accrue miles further down the line (which is likely).

Reading the terms, I think the answer is yes for a £30 fee.
Dick D

4.2. Virgin Atlantic Flight Rewards

4.2.1 Once reward tickets are issued, you may amend your travel date, route or class of service prior to travel for an amendment fee of £30 per person for changes to international flights originating in the UK, US$50 per person for changes to international flights originating in the US or local currency equivalent of US$50 per person for changes to flights originating in any other region. Changes to domestic flights within the UK can be made for an amendment fee of £15 per person . Where the reward is a companion ticket and the person travelling on the paying ticket changes his or her flight or class of travel, the companion ticket may be similarly amended for the same amendment fees, subject to availability of seats and the provisions of section 4.4 of these Flying Club Terms.

[Neil]

As above, this is absolutely doable, the biggest issue is likely to be the availability of the reward seats which the closer you get to your date tend to become more scarce.

Yes for normal reward tickets but no for the Y to PE upgrade voucher tickets, they cannot be further upgraded.

The other issue to consider is the value for your miles.
Using miles for a reward economy seat you still have to pay the taxes and airport fees.
If you buy upgradeable seats and use the same miles to bump you to Upper it is going to cost you a bit more, but you are getting much more for your miles.
And you can get in early and bag the seats as soon as they are released.

Dick D

I did it for a return leg in upper as the fees paid covered the actual fare but paid a change fee as others have said. I am always on the lookout for sales etc right up to the date I leave

Interesting... Thanks for all the responses.

If the flights booked are at a peak time, does that mean that in actual fact the reward seats are the best value for the miles, rather than paying the higher M class? Hopefully I'll be able to pay the £30 fee later then and hope there are some seats released.

[Nottingham Nick]

Reward flights booked at peak times obviously offer the best value for your miles, but equally the chances of actually getting reward flights at peak times is greatly diminished.

Simple supply and demand applies - Rev Management aren't going to release reward inventory if they think the seats can be sold for cash.

The debate about buying M class and upgrading as opposed to booking outright points seats is a long and complicated one. There are a lot of variables at work.

Nick

yes it can be done.
I booked E out PE back
then upgraded PE to UC later
& the other to PE when my PE voucher became available with the seats.

Looks like a possible option then! I think I'm going to buy the extra miles for PE going back so at least have that to fall back on should there be no UC rewards again.

Looks like a possible option then! I think I'm going to buy the extra miles for PE going back so at least have that to fall back on should there be no UC rewards again.

Do you have to buy them? There are lots of ways to have them credited - albeit they may take some time - but buying them outright, makes my hair stand on end!

Alas there won't be enough time to accrue them, and i'm not far off the full reward amount. I do begrudge buying them though... But still worth it in this instance.

P.s. now that i've gone for flights in the reward sale (with only Y available), at 36000, can anybody tell me exactly what i would be paying to amend to UC if these became available later please?

I guess financial cost would be amendment fee plus additional taxes, and would the miles be the difference between the sale redemption of 36000 and cost of 50% of UC reward?

Any help as usual massively appreciated!

The reward seat sale miles will be refunded in full, and the full amount for the higher cabin reward will apply

[Neil]

P.s. now that i've gone for flights in the reward sale (with only Y available), at 36000, can anybody tell me exactly what i would be paying to amend to UC if these became available later please?

I guess financial cost would be amendment fee plus additional taxes, and would the miles be the difference between the sale redemption of 36000 and cost of 50% of UC reward?

Any help as usual massively appreciated!

You still have to pay whatever the current miles amount is for an UC miles seat - just because your Y reward was in the sale doesn't have any impact on the UC one.

Thanks Penny that makes sense. Always knew it would be the full amount Neil as UC isn't in in the sale (also no seats right now anyway).

I guess the question now would be if the miles are refunded later, would this be half of the 36000 (as i only want to change one way), meaning per person the difference in miles to pay would be 32000 plus taxes? (I'd be refunded 18000, and a one way Shanghai reward is 50000)

[Neil]

Thanks Penny that makes sense. Always knew it would be the full amount Neil as UC isn't in in the sale (also no seats right now anyway).

I guess the question now would be if the miles are refunded later, would this be half of the 36000 (as i only want to change one way), meaning per person the difference in miles to pay would be 32000 plus taxes? (I'd be refunded 18000, and a one way Shanghai reward is 50000)

It would all be done as one transaction, you are just 'paying' the difference however they way they do it is to refund the one way and then take the full amount of miles for the UC leg. You are correct, it would be 32000 extra plus the difference in the taxes per person.

Thanks. I'm still debating whether I have done the most cost effective thing with my miles by booking the economy sale rewards to Shanghai, and waiting for a one way UC reward to become available. At which point I'll need to buy the extra miles (would currently need 64000).

Perhaps I should have gone for a combi-fare, and then waited to change the economy reward sector to UC (whilst keeping 36000 miles towards it)...

[Neil]

I would have thought that if you want to fly UC then you would have been better buying an upgradable M econ fare and then using 25k miles per sector to upgrade.
To buy 64k miles will be a lot of money and will probably end up costing you more than other options.

So after a bit of a sleepless night worrying I did the wrong thing with my airmiles, I'm going to call FC and see what can be done. It looks like doing a combi with the outbound fare an 'M' (which is the sector we'd most like to upgrade) would work out to around £800, so approx £200 more than the taxes we paid to use all but 10k of our miles on an all out reward.

If it was possible to go for this, do you think they'll refund the taxes that I have already paid, along with all my miles? The t&cs seem to suggest the miles will but doesn't really cover the taxes.

Also it's difficult to know if it's worth doing this in the hopes of a UC reward being released later (nothing available right now), in which case it might be worth simply waiting until they are available before changing anything.

[Neil]

There might not be that much difference in the taxes anyway, but they should refund them. Even when you are booked in to a non refundable fare code, you can always still get the taxes back so don't let them tell you different.

The problem with waiting if that a) nothing might change for your return and b)it might not be until very close to the flight which could mean the M fares are gone or you are too close to the flight to be able get one.

Neil

Thanks for the info Neil.

Actually just had a long conversation with an incredibly helpful lady at flying club. She priced up all the options, and ultimately decided it would be better to wait until reward availabilty shows, call them up and they'll cost everything up again as either a combi-fare or extra miles on the reward. We agreed it's not worth paying the extra now in the hope of a G appearing as there never seem to be any Gs to Shanghai on a saturday, ever... But i live in hope!