transpac-canuck

I'm not sure you can be on a MC fare for one leg and MCS on another in the same point-to-point itinerary. I have never been offered a "partial" upgrade. But I suppose I haven't tried...

dhuey

My wild guess is that the VX system would demand or waive baggage fees based on the class of service in the first leg. But that's just a wild guess.

ssg10

Just trying to summarize what I read so far and hopefully it is still up to date:

I am flying VX from LAX to FLL this week and bought the regular economy/main class. So, if I want to try my luck for best deal upgrading to first class, then I have to wait 6 hours before flight time to check in online, and before checking in, I should be able to get an offer to first class or main class select?

Thanks

bevnetcraven

What you should do is this...

1. At 24 hours upgrade yourself to MCS. This helps you because a) if you don't get F you aren't in coach, and b) even if you do get F the upgrade fee of going from MC -> F is exactly the same as going from MC -> MCS -> F.

2. Check your flight at 12 hours out...This is when gold and silver members have had their chance to upgrade. If there are still seats at this point, you'll have a fair shot at an upgrade.

3. At 6 hours go to check in and see if you get the upgrade option OR call on the phone (the latter is something that you'll need to do if there are multiple people in your itinerary and you only want to upgrade 1 person...they'll have to split your itinerary).

ssg10

Hi bevnetcraven,

1) At 24 hours upgrade yourself to MCS.

The web system wants me to check in first in order to upgrade. Is this right? I clicked on the "M" seats (MCS) at seat selection screen.

bevnetcraven

It's been a while since I've done this, but even if you are checked in you can call and upgrade to F later if it's available. That I am 100% certain of.

ssg10

I just want to follow up. Inside 12 hours, I logged into my virgin account and view itinerary, there was no upgrade button. Only check in button, change flight and seat. I tried to click on MCS and first class seat on change seat menu, but it said to upgrade I need to change flight.
When I did try to change flight, the price was high for first class.
Inside 6 hours, I still saw no upgrade button. So I tried to check in and finally the upgrade button was there. 129 for MCS. Nothing available for first. So looks like we have to check in first...... To see upgrade option

satish_ny

It is less than 6 hours for my JFK-SFO flight and I do not see a "change seat" or "upgrade" button on my itinerary.

Has anyone seen this before? Any idea how I can get around this?

dhuey

I believe that the way the system is set up, you have to go through the check-in procedure to upgrade. You will see if any upgrade is available; if not, you might want to cancel the check-in and try again later. Once you complete the check-in, you can't upgrade online. You then have to call in and have the agent undo the check-in.

vvbkumar

I will be travelling next week from SEA - MCO (Via SFO), i am thinking if it is worth upgrading SFO - MCO leg to F. Also i have few questions (pardon my ignorance)

1. Is it possible to upgrade a part of my journey (or do i have to upgrade the entire journey)?
2. I believe window for upgrading to F stats 6 hrs before takeoff of the flight, is my assumption right?
3. Would i need to pay for baggage for SEA-SFO if i upgrade SFO-MCO only?

thanks in advance

bayhouse

1) Yes, it is possible to upgrade one leg. You can do it online, or you can call the call center.

If you've already checked in online, you'll need to call the call center or ask an airport agent to upgrade you. Perhaps the timing of your SEA-SFO leg is such that you could ask the SEA staff to upgrade your leg at T-6?

2) Yes, the T-6 window is before the scheduled departure of the flight. For connections, you can upgrade at T-6 for the second leg, but keep in mind that T-6 for the second leg occurs several hours after T-6 for the first leg.

3) I don't know about baggage. If you have one upgraded leg, I think they'll give you the more generous baggage rules, but it might depend. If they don't give you 2 free bags at SEA, I'd ask the SFO staff to refund the expense to you or write to Guest Services and ask them to do it. If you choose to upgrade at the airport, you could also ask the SEA staff to credit the bag fee against the upgrade fee. They've usually done that for me -- at their offering.

vvbkumar

Great, thanks. ^

My Flight from Seattle is ~3:30 before, so i guess i either need to do online or call them.

ptownca

Just be aware, SFO-MCO is often full in F, at least in my experience on VX. Good luck.

vvbkumar

Thanks for the heads up, i see 7 available seats for 15th, assuming every one who booked as F originally selected their seats.

dhuey

That's encouraging. Be ready to jump exactly at T-minus 6 hours if you want to grab one.