Upgrading

Hi all

How can you tell what class of ticket your booking when checking prices, want to book a ticket and hopefully upgrade. Are upgrades guaranteed if you purchase the correc ticket i.e. Y,B,R,L,U,M and you have the correct amount of miles?

Thanks In advance

Trevor

Hi Trevor

When you click on the type and price of a ticket (but before you get to the screen to pay), watch on the right side of the screen. There, in "your basket", you can click on the link "View fare breakdown" to see the fare codes. Assuming that you selected the lowest fare in a particular class of service, you will often get a non-upgradeable fare (for example an H fare for Premium Economy). To get an S fare instead in this example, you would have to instead call Virgin.

But, many/most times an upgrade will not be available, even if you have the miles and are ticketed in a valid fare code. There has to be availability in a special upgrade class for the class of service you want. You can get a general idea if upgrades are available by doing a dummy booking using miles and money for the desired class of service, for example upper class. If there are "free" tickets available on a particular date, then often there will also be upgrades available (but not always). You still have to go through the hassle of calling to find out. (I'm actually ok with this as it prevents automated processes from reporting / grabbing all the upgrades for their subscribers!)

Found It!
Thanks Casey

But, many/most times an upgrade will not be available, even if you have the miles and are ticketed in a valid fare code. There has to be availability in a special upgrade class for the class of service you want. You can get a general idea if upgrades are available by doing a dummy booking using miles and money for the desired class of service, for example upper class. If there are "free" tickets available on a particular date, then often there will also be upgrades available (but not always). You still have to go through the hassle of calling to find out. (I'm actually ok with this as it prevents automated processes from reporting / grabbing all the upgrades for their subscribers!)

If you use the "Spend Your Miles" option and put in your dates you get a calendar that shows where full mileage redemptions are possible and therefore (I think but happy to stand corrected) where upgrades will also be available as they come out of the same "bucket"?

I always do it by trying a dummy booking for an Upper ticket using miles only.
If they are available I phone up and buy the economy ticket that can be upgraded.
They cost much the same as the cheapest fare PE ticket.
On occasions there have not been Upper reward seats available but have been PE I've upgraded to them then checked for Upper reward seats 5 or 6 times a day and called up to make the change when they appear.
Last year it didn't look like Upper was ever going to happen on our return but seats became available the next day so we extended our holiday by a day and paid £25 to change the flight.
Best of luck with your quest.
Dick D