Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - VS to trial 'bid' upgrade system from Y to W

Interesting - anyone else have any other insights on how this will work?

"Virgin Atlantic is launching a proof of concept trial of a bid priced upgrade platform, which allows passengers that booked direct with Virgin Atlantic the opportunity to bid for an upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy. The trial will be for a limited time and will utilise limited cabin availability.

This trial commences on 21 December (for departures after 06 January), and will only be available to passengers flying on VS15/16 to and from Orlando and VS45/46 to and from New York JFK."

It's an interesting concept. Will only be available on the lowest class of availability (K/Z).. if you have a confirmed booking, you'll be invited by email to make a bid.. you'll enter your credit card number and then have it confirmed 72 hours before the flight if your bid was successful or not - at which point payment will be taken if it was. Trial will last up to 12 months.

Will this mean full up PE sections? Even if you bid a very small amount, worth it just in case I guess.

My first thought was that this could mean full PE (and maybe UC if the scheme were eventually to be extended).

However, maybe it's just an easier way for VS to extract the maximum a customer is willing to pay for a product rather than missing out on revenue by offering fixed price upgrades. The price floor for upgrades under a bidding system doesn't necessarily have to be any different from the current prices offered for regular upgrades.