archie18

Hi there

First off, great forum! Loving it! Hoping someone can help with my question:

My mum, brother and I have just booked a holiday to South Africa over Christmas. I was hoping to treat us to an upgrade from PE to UC using miles but have just realised we're class H tickets. Is there anyway to move from H class to an upgrade qualifying class? Or how much do you think an upgrade would cost in cash?

Even if I did manage to sort the classes out, is an upgrade guaranteed or are there only a certain number of reward upgrades per cabin?

Any help gratefully received - thanks in advance!

Nottingham Nick

Welcome to Flyertalk -

The H bucket is a Virgin Holidays bucket - I assume you have booked a package with them or another travel company?

If this is the case, then you will have to talk to them about the upgrade, rather than the airline.

There are lots of variables at work, and only your TA will be able to give you an accurate quote.

Nick

archie18

Thanks Nick - yes that's correct, we've booked a package holiday with Virgin. Wished we hadn't now!

backdoc

Since you're going to South Africa with Virgin Holidays I thought you might be going to Ulusaba.. ?


Steve

preiffer

VH can change fare buckets though - just give them a call and see what it would cost to get you to an S fare (which is what you'll need)

Agent73

The Virgin Holidays fare buckets are at the very bottom and an S upgrade will probably be pretty expensive. Your most economical option will probably be to upgrade with cash at the airport (if they have availabilty) as this is a fixed price irrespective of your booking class (I've done this before).

archie18

Hi guys

Thanks for your help. Virgin Holidays has quoted £3213 for the upgrade for the three of us. She's just finding out now what it would cost to go S class. But I'll then need to buy some extra miles for us at around £400 each, so may well not work out cheaper!

Does anyone know what kind of offer you can expect at check in? Or does it totally depend on demand (would expect all flights to be busy over Xmas?)

Thanks!

Agent73

I believe the one-way upgrade at the airport was something like £500-600. So if you do 3x (£600x2), thats £3,600 for the whole trip, which makes the quote from Virgin Hols pretty good, given that you'd have UC locked in (and wouldn't be dependent on space)

backdoc

Before you change anything make sure that there is availability on the flights that you want to upgrade to UC, or you'll just be purchasing very expensive PE tickets.

Try a dummy booking for 3 in UC on your route using miles. That'll tell you if there are any seats available. I just did this for a flight that I am on at the end of the month.

Also, when you upgrade your tickets the conditions can change dramatically with regard to the ability and cost to change them, ask a lot of questions.

It has been my experience that it is really cheap to upgrade from JNB back to LHR but not LHR to JNB. If you don't get the kind of price you want from Virgin Holidays, try an upgrade on the way back.

Get to JNB 4 hours early and get in line at the Virgin Atlantic Desk not the Check-In desk before they open. The desk opens before check-in begins. There is usually a sign on the desk that has the prices. I've done it for as low as £1000 from a regular non-S class ticket for one way from PE to UC.

Steve