First Class upgrade 6 hours prior question
 

Hi,

I've never flown Virgin America before and am considering them for LAX to JFK on 11/15 to 11/19. The fares seem quite a bit lower than what I could find for other airlines, and I'm intrigued by the good reviews people have told me.

So it seems that 6 hours prior to the flight I can attempt to pay to upgrade to First Class. The flights I'm looking at have 6 of 8 seats available as of now.

In your expert opinion and experience:

a) What are the chances there will be that many still available 10 days from now?
b) How hard is it to get 6 hours before?
c) If 6 hours before is right in the middle of the night, what are the chances of seats being available say 3 or 4 hours before?

Sorry if these seem like idiotic questions.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Ed,

A) chances are that there will be fewer seats available as your travel dates get closer. I too have monitored seat availability for my transcontinental VX flights and that always seems to be the case.

B) I've had some luck upgrading to F unexpectedly in the past. But now that silver and platinum levels can do so earlier tha six hours before the flight, good luck!

C) don't count on seats lasting too long is my advise to you once the 6 hr point has been reached. Rest assured that there are others out there setting alarms and will continue to upgrade to the minute before it's time to do an upgrade at the 6 hr time slot!

Cheers!

Thanks for your input!

Good advice. Re a JFK-SFO flight recently, I saw 5 F seats open the night before, so I got complacent and didn't sweat logging in right at the 6-hour mark. At about 5.5-hours prior, those seats were all gone. All it takes is a handful of travel geeks like us on the flight to make those seats go poof! in a jiffy.

Also, keep in mind that LAX - JFK is full of premium traffic with higher paying guests, and FC seats tend to go more quickly on this route. I don't think I have ever worked a LAX - JFK flight with any open FC seats. So if this is important to you, I would suggest logging in right at the 6-hour mark. Also, monitor seat availability for the next week or so....my educated guess is that most of those seats will get filled up.

Good luck :D

Thanks everyone for their input. I got scared off by online reviews of the web booking system of VX and ended up going with Delta instead.

@Ed: Thanks for the update! Maybe next time things will work out differently. I know for one that I have relatives coming to SFO from Philly in a couple weeks and they've been asking about the "upgrades" on VX as they opted to give VX a try.

So, for the moment, they've settled for MCX seats and will be ready to pull the triggers to upgrade to F at the moment they are at the six hour point before departure. Currently there are six F seats available and even more MCX/MCS seats available as well!

I'm kinda surprised about the load a little too. Maybe they are in luck since elites are in the MCX seats (perhaps) since there are even more of just MC seats available as well. Oh well, the fares are great during this break between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

What's the going rate for a T-6 transcon upgrade (PHL-SFO)?
Is it worth the $?

It would be $299 if you can upgrade. I've purchased a T-6 upgrade on IAD-SFO and thought it was worth it for length of flight.

Agree! Just purchased upgrade for parents departing PHL-SFO today for $299 pp. And it's well worth it.

I'd suggest being ready to purchase the UG exactly at the 6-hr point. Sometimes those UG-able seats go pretty fast when it get down the 6-hr point.

What's the process for getting the upgrade?
 

I'm about to fly from JFK-SFO this week. What's the process for getting the upgrade?

Based on the previous posters' responses, I need to login and do everything as quickly as possible. So what do I need to do to get the upgrade? Should I go through the check-in process right at 6 hours prior to take off and try to change my seat at check-in? Or should I check-in sometime sooner and then try to change my flight at t-6? Or something else?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Yes! Be ready to check-in exactly at the six hour point. Have credit card ready and be signed into you your account.

If an upgrade is available, it will appear on your sign-in page when the screen refreshes. I believe once you click the upgrade button though, you have so many minutes to complete the upgrading process. Hence, the reason to be ready!

Good Luck!

Ps. Don't check-in earlier too. You won't be able to upgrade online afterwards. You will have to do it at the airport if you check-in prior to the 6 hour point.

Thanks Zacnlinc! On what page does the upgrade button appear? Next to the change seat button on my itinerary?

I'm not completely sure about the exact location of the button. But when I upgraded the parents last month from MCE to F, there was a red button to the right that was clearly marked as an uption to upgrade (to first). I scanned perhaps too fast and did not notice if there was a different color box as an option to go to MCS as I was focused on F seats.

But you will see it! It's not hard! And again, Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply. I will post how it turns out...