tom911

That's a Virgin aircraft? I've had 11 flights with them already this year, all in economy, and with every single one I've boarded either with first class or right behind first class, based on how they make the boarding announcement for MVPG 75K. They must be calling group A or B after I'm on board.

DrAlex

I think you might have missed the call for elite members (and maybe they didn't say it), but it's right after 1st class.

dayone

Or sometimes with F if the loads are light.

UAPremierExec

I've noticed that my Alaska # doesn't carry over to VX quite a bit, so I have to go add it in. drewcwsj, I'd seriously think that your 75K # isn't in there. We haven't been given Group B boarding in at least 4 or 5 months, I believe. (September? October?)

drewcwsj

On my boarding pass it had my 75k status.... and group B.

dmodemd

Hmm... I am not sure how boarding works at a VX hub but my experience at SEA has been that first class and all elites are called up at once in first group and on my flights, that amounts to about 4 people
Are they calling Group A as Elevate Gold then Group B as Silver and the Alaska MVPs?? You should at least be with the Elevate Golds!

Well if it says Group B on your BP, go on in Group A and if they give trouble point out that Elevate no longer exists, you are top dog

maxp0wers

I'm getting this right now too unfortunately. Flight in 11 hours. 4 MCS available, 2 FC available. Opted in, but AS/VX says they can't process the upgrade.

was told that only a select number of MVP MCS upgrades are allowed and I didn't get one. He said the 4 remaining will stay as paid upgrades should anyone want them. If not, try again at the gate.

seems a bit ridiculous.

drewcwsj

It is ridiculous now that elevate is gone. I'll just avoid VX until after April.

tom911

I had all of row 3 to myself last night BWI-SFO, and the seating chart only showed one passenger back in row 10. There was a third MCS passenger but he upgraded to F once on board (gate agent came on board and processed it). I've had two other flights this year with three seats to myself. I decided not to even get on the list for one trip when the return flight showed only middle seats open days out.

maxp0wers

Everything worked out for us at the gate...but it was kind of a mess. The agent actually made us wait until group a finished boarding just in case any last minute customer ran up to the gate to upgrade.

nobody came and he upgraded the 2 of us ( both mvp ) into an open mcs row.

the seats and service on flight were great. Even the gate agent that eventually helped was really nice....but it's pretty clear that virgin and alaska are making this much harder than it needs to be right now.

anyways, don't want to sound ungrateful because it was processed and made for an enjoyable flight.

MJMLBBtoCPH

So, I'm flying VX for about the fourth time this Sunday (though I haven't been on a VX flight since November), and as an Alaska MVP Gold member, I must confess that the VX advanced upgrade thing is still a mystery to me. I have tried in futile attempts to somehow use the crummy virgin website to get on this mystery upgrade list. My virgin account does not even show any of my future flights. And, when I manually put in the VX number to look at my flight, there are no options available for any upgrade list (and I have tried this numerous times in the past for my previous VX flights), so I have no idea what people are talking about regarding this online thingy. Also in the past, I've tried calling the virgin number and calling the Alaska Gold line, etc (where the phone agents promise me I'm on a upgrade list) -- though it must be a phantom list, because I'm never on the upgrade list when I get to the gate connecting in Seattle. One time a VX gate agent felt sorry for me and gave me First Class last October though she technically was not supposed to. Another time, a VX gate agent hand-wrote my name on a blank boarding pass for a main cabin select seat, and that was my Boarding Pass! Hand Written!

So, for this Sunday, since the virgin website is no worky for me, I just got off the phone with an Alaska agent on the gold line that assured me that I am automatically placed on the upgrade list for my Sunday flight (though I don't think she could see anything... rather, I think it's something she has been told to tell gold customers), but I've heard that before.

I apologize in advance if there is some post from 8 weeks ago in this thread that may answer my question, but because this whole situation seems fluid, and I have not flown a Virgin flight since last November, I'm wondering if communication behind the scenes has changed. It's not the end of the world if I don't get upgraded, but is the gold phone agent correct?

jjmadison

My experiences have been much of the same. The AS Gold agents cannot see if you are on the upgrade list (one confessed this to me last week after 30 min on hold) yet they are telling people they are. RE: your trying to opt in on the virgin site, I find the option will not display if you have to enter your confirmation # manually. The "phantom" opt-in option will only display if your booking auto-syncs to your old VX elevate number and login. Very frustrating and IMHO another example of how AS does not care about how they are screwing over VX elites.

jjmadison

I've had that happen too. I recommend ignoring the group letter and board right after First as MVPG.

beckoa

AS elites have a similar feeling when it comes to flying on VX it seems. However this all goes away in a few months. So not really worth AS to spend limited resources for a fix for just over 2 months.

My experience mirrors others with a difficult time opting into MCS and such. However I have had agents offer a buyup to F when processing the MCS upgrade (I inquired, but was a bit steep for the flight I had).

dayone

This.

And my last 8 MCS auto-upgrades processed without a hitch. My only issue has been that I'm never offered a buy-up to F, even when F is wide open. When I've checked, it's been available at the gate.