Virgin America Elevate - Post your 24-hour upgrade to F hits/misses here

Just got the 24-hour upgrade to F on tomorrow's 7:15 am SFO-IAD flight. There was only one F seat available, and being a FTer, I was right there to grab it at the moment online check-in opened. I'm now 4 for 5 in my upgrades in daytime flights between SFO and IAD.

Feel free to add your F upgrade successes and failures here.

I'm 100% lifetime on SEA-SFO/SFO-LAS/SEA-LAX upgrades. Typically these are available at T-24 hours, as opposed to the longhaul routes.

I forgot to mention that two weeks ago, I was able to snag 3 out of 4 desired F seats on LAX-SFO. I stayed back in coach while the rest of my family enjoyed the big seats.

I've only taken two flights on VX, one SFO-LAX and the other LAX-SEA. One flight was in ticketed F, the other I upgraded for $50. So 100% but a statistically insignifcant sample rate. :D

SAN-SFO/SFO-SAN

100% at 24hr in advance- 2 for 2. Evening departures (5:20pm and 9:10pm).

sfo-bos VX350 (9:05 am)

Booked at T-24.

6 for 7 SFO to LAS & back!

Successful upgrade at T-23.55 for JFK-SFO 7am flight.

2 for 2 on an SFO-IAD-SFO roundtrip I'm completing now.

I haven't decided if I like in-flight wi-fi or not. I can get a lot of work done, and that's helpful, but I sort of miss the ability to read and not have to feel guilty about being off work email for 6 hours or so.

Bob

Successful for tomorrow 9/23 8am SFO-SEA 1 seat

LAX-SEA upgrade wasn't available online, even though there were 5 seats available in F on seat map. If I attempted to select them at OLCI, it said I'd have to change my booking. (Trying that screen, I was told to pay the change fee, and pay heaps for the seats too.) However, the upgrade was available when we physically checked in at LAX.

LAX-SEA upgrade wasn't available online, even though there were 5 seats available in F on seat map. If I attempted to select them at OLCI, it said I'd have to change my booking. (Trying that screen, I was told to pay the change fee, and pay heaps for the seats too.) However, the upgrade was available when we physically checked in at LAX.

Read the FAQ. This is not the way to do the upgrade online.

Read the FAQ. This is not the way to do the upgrade online.

FAQ says "you can upgrade at check-in (including OLCI) or prior to check-in". Neither OLCI nor "change seats" worked. (Didn't wait around to try it all again later, as ship net costs 55c/min and isn't fast.)

Other factors which may be relevant, but only VX knows: VX was aware that one of us uses a wheelchair. VX had moved us from row 23 (the closest to front when we booked) to row 4 without us asking them or even knowing about it until we went to check in. Maybe their CS intervention locked us out of changing seats through the web site?

FAQ says "you can upgrade at check-in (including OLCI) or prior to check-in". Neither OLCI nor "change seats" worked. (Didn't wait around to try it all again later, as ship net costs 55c/min and isn't fast.)

Other factors which may be relevant, but only VX knows: VX was aware that one of us uses a wheelchair. VX had moved us from row 23 (the closest to front when we booked) to row 4 without us asking them or even knowing about it until we went to check in. Maybe their CS intervention locked us out of changing seats through the web site?

I do also mention in the FAQ that doing it at OLCI doesn't always work. If you try to do it with "change seat" after you've gotten through the first OLCI screen, it won't work. You must do the "change seat" before even attempting OLCI.

AFAIK, row 4 is only assignable at the airport, and CS agents cannot do this.

AFAIK, row 4 is only assignable at the airport, and CS agents cannot do this.

Clearly, you're wrong. :)

Clearly, you're wrong. :)

I suppose it's possible that someone at the airport may have done this. I have had CS agents on the phone try, and could not figure out a way.

In any case, I changed the FAQ a bit, to make it clearer about upgrading before even going to the check-in page.

I suppose it's possible that someone at the airport may have done this. I have had CS agents on the phone try, and could not figure out a way.

It doesn't seem likely that someone at the airport did it 23+ hours before departure. More likely, it was totally automated because a disabled passenger was in the booking, or that flag raised an alert with someone who manually moved us forward.

Good to change the FAQ if their system is that picky. I'd read discussions about which way worked for various people, but I'd never seen that simply going into the OLCI screen first would stop both methods working. (And since we might as well use OLCI anyhow, we were trying to minimise use of the 55c/min wifi.)

It doesn't seem likely that someone at the airport did it 23+ hours before departure. More likely, it was totally automated because a disabled passenger was in the booking, or that flag raised an alert with someone who manually moved us forward.

Good to change the FAQ if their system is that picky. I'd read discussions about which way worked for various people, but I'd never seen that simply going into the OLCI screen first would stop both methods working. (And since we might as well use OLCI anyhow, we were trying to minimise use of the 55c/min wifi.)

Row44 (the company that does the satellite-based wifi for Alaska and Southwest) should get into the ship-based wifi business! (Although, who knows? It might be the ships that are marking this up so much).

SFO-IAD: 2/2 with 1 pax
IAD-SFO: 1/1 with 1 pax
LAS-SFO: 1/1 with 2 pax
SFO-LAX: 1/1 with 2 pax

100% success every time I've tried so far!

I do also mention in the FAQ that doing it at OLCI doesn't always work. If you try to do it with "change seat" after you've gotten through the first OLCI screen, it won't work. You must do the "change seat" before even attempting OLCI.

Thanks for the tip! Flying SFO-SNA tomorrow morning on my "virgin" Virgin American flight. Only 2 out of 8 F seats taken so plenty of upgrade availability when I went in to change seat. Paid the $50 change/upgrade fee before checking in. Upgrading would have been confusing if I hadn't read some of the FT threads. Trying F going there and Y product on the way back... Will send in a trip report on my return.

Thanks for the tip! Flying SFO-SNA tomorrow morning on my "virgin" Virgin American flight. Only 2 out of 8 F seats taken so plenty of upgrade availability when I went in to change seat. Paid the $50 change/upgrade fee before checking in. Upgrading would have been confusing if I hadn't read some of the FT threads. Trying F going there and Y product on the way back... Will send in a trip report on my return.

Congrats! I hope you enjoy your flight :)

It's not long enough to enjoy the full F experience, but IMHO it's worth the extra $50. From reading your previous post, this is still less than the UA alternative?

It's not long enough to enjoy the full F experience, but IMHO it's worth the extra $50. From reading your previous post, this is still less than the UA alternative?

IME, when UA offers paid upgrades on routes under 500 miles, it's usually for $77. For 500-1000 miles, I usually see $154. And transcon can run $400-500 (possibly more). Not a good value compared to VX, and the paid upgrade option is not always offered. But at least on UA one can enjoy E+ and accumulate upgrade certs, among other perks. Value is in the eye of the beholder, of course.

IME, when UA offers paid upgrades on routes under 500 miles, it's usually for $77. For 500-1000 miles, I usually see $154. And transcon can run $400-500 (possibly more). Not a good value compared to VX, and the paid upgrade option is not always offered. But at least on UA one can enjoy E+ and accumulate upgrade certs, among other perks. Value is in the eye of the beholder, of course.

That's a good point. But I was referring to another post (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12428716-post172.html) about the original booking. VX was $79, where UA was $284 (∴ VX + T24 is still better than UA).

BTW - I remember being offered a UA transpac (SFO-SYD) u/g a couple years ago, I think the price was somewhere around US$800pp.

Doing lunch in Vegas tomorrow. Got upgrade for both my mom an I both ways. I called in to phone number and must have gotten a really good agent who seems to have bent the rules a bit. Was checkin in for out Lund at 24 hour mark and had credit to use for upgrade. We are on seperate pnrs so couldn't do the upgrade online for my mom and use credit. Agent did it over the phone no extra charge and did both outbound and inbound even though inbound was 34.5 hours away. I said that I wouldn't be able to do this for myself online so she processed both of mine as well.

Don't think vx is loosing out on any revenue by this little favor because even now we are the only two assigned seats on both flights in first.