Upgrade Fees
 

Hey folks,

Not sure if there's a thread already but FYI, upgrade fees (from when you check in) have increased as such:

Main Cabin Select
Short Haul - $25 (ex. SFO - LAX)
Medium Haul - $50 (ex. SEA - LAX)
Long Haul - $100 (ex. SFO - JFK)

First Class
Short Haul - $50 (ex. SFO - LAX)
Medium Haul - $100 (ex. SEA - LAX)
Long Haul - $200 (ex. SFO - JFK)

This caught me by surprise on Friday on my trip from SEA - LAX and back. :o

Sorry you were caught unaware. The fees increased a while back. Has been covered here before, and the First upgrade fees are in the FAQ. I know the MCS upgrade fees are covered in the FAQ thread, but I don't think they've been put in the FAQ post yet...aviators?

Main Cabin to First long haul is actually $250. The other two are correct, as are the MCS upgrade prices. Also, for reference, the MCS to First 24 hr upgrade prices are $25 (short), $50 (medium) and $150 (long).

I will fix the FAQ. However, last I heard, the MCS to First upgrade was actually the Y + YUpgrade cost minus the amount already paid for MCS? Someone wrote this in a thread here.

Nope, now there's a fixed fee schedule in place for MCS -> F. :) Makes things simpler.

http://www.virginamerica.com/va/news...d=showNewsMore

The MC->F upgrade fees are currently the same as: MC->MCS + MCS->F. But this scheme allows VX to change that.

Ah, thanks folks!

It's been a while since I went on a flight with VX. Last flight was back in May! :p

I updated the FAQ with this info. Thanks!

Thanks for the info and the FAQ update--I got the last F seat for my flight tomorrow. Although this "repeatedly refresh at 24 hours out" upgrade is reminiscent of WN OLCI before the A-list, it's well worth it!

I really wish VX would hold some F seats for people who want to book or change within 24 hours. Last Thursday I finished work early and wanted to change to an earlier flight. It was full, so I ended up having to travel on my originally scheduled later flight. The legacies are much better at maintaining inventory for those who are actually willing to pay full fare.

The VX Web site is showing $250 to upgrade to F from Y on long haul, thats $50 more than the OP. Not sure what the FAQ section has.

When you upgrade to MCS though does that include the seat plus the free food and entertainment? Or just the seat?

It's $250 (as in the FAQ, and in the second post of this thread). It includes the food, entertainment, priority boarding, and dedicated overhead space. The caveat is that if someone ends up getting moved to an MCS seat without paying for it, the food and entertainment is disabled by the inflight team.

I wonder if they'd let you just buy the seat without the food, premium entertainment etc. I normally just want a comfy seat (they can keep the pomp :p).

You *can* end up with just the seat. There's some provision whereby if they sell all of the seats other than MCS, they can move people around to allow for standbys and put reserved guests in the MCS seats. They can turn off the MCS portion of RED for the MCS seats.

Kinda.More like the legacies are much worse at actually selling those seats. I've found VX does a pretty good job of selling out. Even with the first fares increasing over the last 6 months, they're still good a getting from F8 to F0.

But I feel your pain. It's lack of inventory that has me usually going UA. I book late and just can't seem to get VX seats on the flights I want. Day of? Fuggeddaboutit.

While I'm sure VX does sometimes sell out their F cabins, my experience has been that there is usually at least one, if not multiple flights available for booking in F up to the 24-hour mark. The same is not true of at least one legacy carrier (CO). After the 24-hour mark, it becomes much more difficult to book or change flights, negating the benefit of a flexible ticket. It would be nice if VX wouldn't release all unsold inventory for upgrades so early.