virgin miles & PE upgrade

[tinkerella123]

Originally Posted by Frankie & gang

Hi hope you don't mind me asking. I'm due to get my 1st upgrade voucher next month & later this year am hoping to use it on a rtn flight Boston.
My question - does there have to be a PE miles flight available to upgrade or do I just check the EC availability? Thanks x

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There has to be availability in premium for you to be able to use your upgrade voucher.

[Alfiesmum]

I booked 3 PE reward seats for August 2017 man-mco. I used one free upgrade from my Amex account. I booked the two legs seperately, as they were released. So it definitely can be done. Make sure you keep a close eye on when they initially release the dates you want.

[BrightlyBob]

Originally Posted by firsttimemouse

Thank you. This is really helpful. I need to know the pitfalls so this great. My card year will finish in February 2018 and we won't be flying until 2019 so it should work using two vouchers. What I didn't think off is that the vouchers are for one way upgrades not returns (doh)!
I reckon at a push we might get to 100,000 miles before I book (although this won't be an annual repeatable level it's due to the first year bonus).
So I think best case scenario is I can upgrade one return flight using the vouchers and have a 100,000 miles to somehow make a small deduction off the other three flights.
I'm not expecting it to give a massive saving but any little bit will be of benefit.

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I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood me. The PE upgrade vouchers are return. You get one for every £5k you spend on your black AMEX, up to 2 each year. Each voucher can cover a return flight. I was pointing out the one way problem you face wanting to go to MCO using the vouchers in August, namely your (sensible) and oft-used plan here to redeem the outbound on day of launch as a one way and then the return on day of launch. Because you're only booking outbound on the day of launch that's all you can use the vouchers on that day. You *might* be able to upgrade both legs when you call up to book the return leg (you have to call VS to use the vouchers) but hopefully you can see the problem of doing so with 4 vouchers awarded over 2 years each having only one year validity...

[BrightlyBob]

Originally Posted by Frankie & gang

Hi hope you don't mind me asking. I'm due to get my 1st upgrade voucher next month & later this year am hoping to use it on a rtn flight Boston.
My question - does there have to be a PE miles flight available to upgrade or do I just check the EC availability? Thanks x

See more...

LHR-BOS is usually one of the easier redemption routes to get. You need to search for PE availability. If you find it for dates you want then you call VS and they book the tickets charging the Economy miles and the PE fees.

[BrightlyBob]

Originally Posted by Alfiesmum

I booked 3 PE reward seats for August 2017 man-mco. I used one free upgrade from my Amex account. I booked the two legs seperately, as they were released. So it definitely can be done. Make sure you keep a close eye on when they initially release the dates you want.

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Oh yes, this can be done. As you say, and as many have done, book each leg on release day. I was pointing out the logistical problem of doing so when you're using 2 years of vouchers which expire strictly in a year. In fact OP simply can't do it, her card anniversary date, being the date these Certs drop into her account, doesn't allow. She can use 2 on that tactic, but the other 2 will need to wait till the next years drop into the account and the chances of those self-same dates having PEAK PE reward inventory later on are vanishingly slim...

[tinkerella123]

Originally Posted by firsttimemouse

Thank you. This is really helpful. I need to know the pitfalls so this great. My card year will finish in February 2018 and we won't be flying until 2019 so it should work using two vouchers. What I didn't think off is that the vouchers are for one way upgrades not returns (doh)!
I reckon at a push we might get to 100,000 miles before I book (although this won't be an annual repeatable level it's due to the first year bonus).
So I think best case scenario is I can upgrade one return flight using the vouchers and have a 100,000 miles to somehow make a small deduction off the other three flights.
I'm not expecting it to give a massive saving but any little bit will be of benefit.

See more...

Just to clarify the vouchers are for a round trip upgrade, or you can use two vouchers for 4 single flight upgrades.

[BrightlyBob]

Originally Posted by tinkerella123

Just to clarify the vouchers are for a round trip upgrade, or you can use two vouchers for 4 single flight upgrades.

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Your second comment is really interesting - because it's possible to use the 2 upgrade vouchers for 4 singles then if you apply for your card strategically in Mid Sept creating your anniversary date (when the upgrade vouchers drop into your account) for say 10th Sept each year then you could use your 2016 UG for 4 1-way singles on departing say 5th August 2018 on release date booking them on 5th Sept 2017 then have the 2017 vouchers drop in your account on 10th Sept 2017 and use those for your 4 1-way UGs on the return leg, say 19th August 2018, again booked on release date 19 Sept 2017.

There's one for the Uber-Planners out there

[Frankie & gang]

Originally Posted by BrightlyBob

LHR-BOS is usually one of the easier redemption routes to get. You need to search for PE availability. If you find it for dates you want then you call VS and they book the tickets charging the Economy miles and the PE fees.

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Sorry another question. Do I need PE MILES availability or just PE fare? I suspect miles which would I guess be harder but we'll have some flexibility with dates thankfully.

[BrightlyBob]

Originally Posted by alkel2730

We've just booked using them to Orlando from Manchester in September. We booked two economy seats on miles and used the upgrade voucher to fly PE for me and hubby. For my DDs PE seat we paid fully in miles. It was £1300 and 90k miles for the three PE return seats and an infant (he was 10% of adult fare).

ETA. I believe Aug is slightly harder but just wanted to say your thinking is correct if you can find the flights.

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My post was in reply to OP wanting to redeem in August (one of the peak school holiday times) to high-demand tourist destinations (MCO, MIA, LAS, LAX). If you want to fly out of peak times, or to non tourist destinations, it's a lot easier. I've just done a quick search for MCO today for March, yup, redemptions, April (Easter) none, May (half term) none, June, none, July, none, Aug, none, September 1st - bang, redeem at will! Literally 1st September there's outbound redemption availability! But that's no good to someone bound by school holiday dates, unless of course they're going to Orlando for the weekend!

September isn't slightly easier than August - it's a doddle! To get August you need to be reserving a year in advance, preferably release date. To get September with a little flexibility on your dates, just like searching for a cheap fare, and you're there! Huge August demand means full planes and few redemption seats. That's the problem OP has - August is School holidays.

[Mary A]

Originally Posted by Frankie & gang

Sorry another question. Do I need PE MILES availability or just PE fare? I suspect miles which would I guess be harder but we'll have some flexibility with dates thankfully.

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You need miles availability which are released at random or maybe not at all