VH Flight Upgrades

Wetpanda · 7 Mar 21, 01:08 AM

Hi all, wondered if anyone has any experience of flight upgrades with Virgin Holidays?

Decided after more than 10 years it was time to head back to Orlando! So after a bit of searching ended up booking with VH for November 2021.

Now this year is also our 20th anniversary and my wife has always wanted to fly Upper Class, so seemed the perfect opportunity to treat her. Checking the VH website when booking it would only let me select Premium seats (with VA). But the blurb on the website said you can upgrade to UC through Manage My Booking. So I bit the bullet and booked.

Now from Manage My Booking there is no option to upgrade only a phone number to ring that is out of service

Previously when booked with VA direct the app keeps offering upgrades etc. But although the booking is there, there are no options to upgrade.

So after all that ramble:
1. Is it possible to upgrade the flight with VH, at least the outbound one?
2. Can I do it via VA or does it have to be VH?
3. Are there any other options I�m not aware of?

Thanks fo you help

lizzie145 · 7 Mar 21, 02:11 AM

It may be that it is too early for an upgrade if they think they can sell the seats. Or they could be sold out.

It will also depend on what ticket you have and whether it is upgradeable

uktigg · 7 Mar 21, 02:14 AM

Unless you are upgrading with miles, then you have to do it through VH.
(Reward seats are through Flying Club).

I initially booked PE with VH who allocate you K class seats(Non upgradeable),Had to pay VH to convert them to H Class seats (which ARE upgradeable) and then we used flying club miles to get upper class reward seats.
There weren't any rewards seats available for out return, but Flying club offered us a very good cash price so we took it - now I've got to do it all again as my holiday is about to be cancelled (again).

So you have to convert you non upgradeable PE seat to an upgradeable one first, then you can go to upper from there.

ChrisS · 7 Mar 21, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by Wetpanda

Hi all, wondered if anyone has any experience of flight upgrades with Virgin Holidays?

Decided after more than 10 years it was time to head back to Orlando! So after a bit of searching ended up booking with VH for November 2021.

Now this year is also our 20th anniversary and my wife has always wanted to fly Upper Class, so seemed the perfect opportunity to treat her. Checking the VH website when booking it would only let me select Premium seats (with VA). But the blurb on the website said you can upgrade to UC through Manage My Booking. So I bit the bullet and booked.

Now from Manage My Booking there is no option to upgrade only a phone number to ring that is out of service

Previously when booked with VA direct the app keeps offering upgrades etc. But although the booking is there, there are no options to upgrade.

So after all that ramble:
1. Is it possible to upgrade the flight with VH, at least the outbound one?
2. Can I do it via VA or does it have to be VH?
3. Are there any other options I�m not aware of?

Thanks for you help

I'm guessing an upgrade would need to be via VH but others will know. Another option is to upgrade at the airport, as we once did, our ticket code was irrelevant, be aware you may find the upgrade in excess of �1k each.

keith1973 · 7 Mar 21, 04:21 AM

If it only showed Premium seat when you booked that would normally point to there are not Upper seats left so it would be unlikely you�ll be able to upgrade. Have your tried a dummy booking for upper to see if the app is showing any availability? Unfortunately since the road out of lockdown was announced flights and holidays for 1/4 4 have been going up and up in price.

aprilshack · 7 Mar 21, 09:08 AM

There is also bid for an upgrade. Did it last night for premium. Bid was accepted but don't know if you "win" or not until shortly before your flight. Stinger is the �96 tax you have to pay for an upgrade on top of your bid! I'm not going until December. If I don't "win" then it's money towards the next Disney trip.

ChrisS · 7 Mar 21, 11:25 PM

Originally Posted by aprilshack

There is also bid for an upgrade. Did it last night for premium. Bid was accepted but don't know if you "win" or not until shortly before your flight. Stinger is the �96 tax you have to pay for an upgrade on top of your bid! I'm not going until December. If I don't "win" then it's money towards the next Disney trip.

Hi April - is the bid tool available if booked via VH? I thought one can only bid for an available upgrade if booked direct via VS.

Aye, the premium seat tax our Gov charge is high, we paid �638pp T&Fs for our UC reward seats - VS know how to bump up the fees. Business class miles seats with many US carriers used to be between $100 to $200.

aprilshack · 8 Mar 21, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by ChrisS

Hi April - is the bid tool available if booked via VH? I thought one can only bid for an available upgrade if booked direct via VS.

Aye, the premium seat tax our Gov charge is high, we paid �638pp T&Fs for our UC reward seats - VS know how to bump up the fees. Business class miles seats with many US carriers used to be between $100 to $200.

I have booked my trip via a TA but when i logged into my booking on the Virgin atlantic site rather than the holidays site via my laptop (doesn't work via the app) the option was there to bid on an upgrade. Maybe they are desperate for business and have opened it up to whomever? If we get it, great if not it's no big deal. We will still be in our economy delight seats.

Wetpanda · 9 Mar 21, 02:09 AM

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Thought it might be the case that I have to go through VH. When I was looking at dates, I'm very flexible there, none gave me the option of booking upper class so assumed it had to be done post booking. Now picking a random date next May I have the option to select those seats, but at an �8k premium, so ouch!

Checking the same dates on VA it appears no-one has booked UC as all the seats are available to book.

I don't have anywhere near enough points to upgrade that way, but I did manage to get through to someone at VH today and they quoted �3061 to upgrade both ways from PE.

That's more than I wanted to spend, but does it sound reasonable, works out to �500 each each way. Do I bite their arm off or hold out for a better price?

Thanks again.