Virgin Upgrade
 

My company has booked me on a flight which is a O fare bucket which doesn't appear to allow me to upgrade using miles.

I called Virgin and they said I maybe able to upgrade at the airport. Would I still need to pay a fee to move to a fare which is upgradable or is that not taken into consideration and I could just use my miles + pay taxes.

You haven't said where your flight is to and from.

The answer is that any time you upgrade with points on VS, you have to either be in a bucket that permits mileage upgrades, or pay cash to get into one.

stuart_f's guide in the stickies at the top of the forum (which wasn't there when you posted your question) explains the process.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgi...ub-points.html

There have been a number of posts over the years about how the rules for upgrading are waived that the airport, generally when the flight is overbooked; and VS need to need passengers forward, but I have never experienced this personally.

Nick

I suspect that VS are referring to the fact that one can often pay a cash amount to upgrade at the airport.

Whether the upgrading using miles rules are waived at the airport is a different matter. As Nick says, it is most likely to occur when a flight is overbooked. With op-ups necessary, it makes sense to try to extract some cash or miles from people rather than just giving the upgrade away.

I fly to MIA this thursday, returning Sunday.

Rang up to see if there were any upgrades going.

Normal behaviour: Book semi flexible fare with the intention of using miles. No availability for this flight
Suggested behaviour: Asked to call up a week before, pay the difference between my actual fare (Which was £350 return!) and the first semi flexible fare, then upgrade. No availability
Actual behaviour: Given that the current PE return fare is £2587, I called yesterday, and was offered an upgrade outbound for £200, and £239 for the return.... Not bad :-)