armstwa

I booked my wife and I a trip to London in October. A great economy sale so I used Chase ultimate rewards to book via their portal. The catch was I could only find my itinerary on a Delta ticket even though the Atlanta to LHR segment is on Virgin Atlantic. I understand I have no way of upgrading with miles ahead of time so trying to figure out what my options are. Overnight flight on the way so I'd love upper class. I see lots of availability for seats.

I'm assuming my only options are on/after online check in:

1) pay cash for upgrade at check in (will do if reasonable)
2) call virgin once checked in and upgrade with miles. Is this possible?
3) plead at check in desk or gate for miles or cash upgrade. First leg is delta from Birmingham to Atlanta then Atlanta to London. Where should I target?

I have 0 Virgin Atlantic miles but a ton of Amex points so would have to transfer as soon as I found a viable option. Does anyone know if the transfer is immediate? Has anyone had any success with these strategies? Are there any other options?

Thanks!

Nottingham Nick

Can't comment on any upgrade strategy, but would suggest VS would be happy to take money from you if there are seats available as you check in.

I can tell you that Amex to VS transfers are immediate (or almost). I booked a rewards seats this week when two appeared on the date I wanted to travel The agent stayed on the phone with me while I transferred the miles on my laptop. They were in my VS account in about a minute. ^


Nick

CommanderB

Upgrades at the airport with miles & money are possible, depending on availability - but don't bank on it. Miles upgrades *usually* rely on you being in the right fare bucket too, but I have had occasions where I've used miles to upgrade on ineligible fare buckets (usually due to an oversold flight).

You can upgrade in advance, (subject to availability), with miles if you have an eligible fare bucket.

UKtravelbear

I though you still couldn't use VS miles to upgrade a DL booking even if the flight was on VS metal.

armstwa

My understanding is that once you check in Virgin has access to your itinerary and you can then upgrade with miles or cash supposedly. I may be incorrect, that's one thing I'm hoping to figure out ahead of time.

craigthemif

I would have thought that a miles upgrade "on the day" is much more likely in LHR/LGW, where you have VS staff who have more experience in these matters, than in ATL, which is likely to be staffed by somebody from DL.

As mentioned, a willingness to take miles (instead of cash) for the day-of upgrade is potentially dependent on the oversold nature of the flight (since VS will take almost anything from interested parties, rather than upgrade for free)

I wouldn't move Amex points to VS, just for the outside chance of using them on the day. (since you can't move them back)

Cash upgrade at check-in is a different matter. However, unless you see the offer at OLCI, you might struggle to get it done at ATL (unless you exit the security zone to talk to somebody at the check-in or ticketing desks) since it won't happen in Alabama.

Orange County Commuter

I have been looking at the same options. I booked Premium Economy but wouldn't mined upgrading to a better seat

I am flying MCO - JFK - LHR and it was booked via Delta. Right now I think my only hope is to go to the check in desk at JFK and see if they will sell me an upgrade for a reasonable rate (cash). Based on what I have read that's kind of the only option with the Delta booking engine controlling the reservation.

RAK24

Has anyone noticed that the app gives you more reward flight options than the desktop site?

I have 50k ish miles or so needing burned and looking to upgrade with miles from premium to upper. Virgin's desktop website indicates that there is no reward flight availability throughout all of August and the first 2 weeks of September. I tried the app as I couldn't get access to a desktop and low and behold there is availability most days throughout August and September.

I do wonder whether or not Virgin would actually allow you to book these OR if it's a website issue. Not a fan of their new website in the slightest.

MSPeconomist

DL and VS are becoming closer. Just recently it became possible to use DL instruments (IIRC both miles and upgrade certs known as GUCs) to upgrade on VS TATL flights, but AFAIK the complete rules on this (fare classes and inventory bucket that's required, waitlist possibilities) aren't yet published. If the OP can get some DL miles, it might be possible to upgrade through DL but YMMV. I'm guessing that if the flights were sold with DL flight numbers, OP has DL 006- ticket stock too. This means that DL controls the ticket until about 24 hours before departure. It might be useful to call DL and ask ASAP.