Booking Complimentary Fare Upgrades for Platinum Velocity members

[tuapekastar]

I have asked Virgin to look into this and let us know, obviously that may take a little while as I am sure they are somewhat busy rescuing folks this week.

Well it seems they have, and below is the result (my bolding). T&Cs now different from those quoted in the OP and pretty clear on this (and it is not the outcome most or all of us would have liked):

Complimentary Fare Upgrades

13.14 In each Total Benefit Period, Platinum Members are entitled to redeem a Complimentary Fare Upgrade from a Flexi Fare to a Premium Economy Class or Business Class fare on four Virgin Australia domestic Sectors (Complimentary Fare Upgrade).

13.15 Complimentary Fare Upgrades can be redeemed by calling the Velocity Frequent Flyer Membership Contact Centre, either at the time of booking or to upgrade an existing booking. Complimentary Fare Upgrade requests may be made anytime up to 24 hours prior to the departure of the nominated flight.

13.16 Complimentary Fare Upgrades will expire if not redeemed (by making a booking in accordance with clause 13.15) before your next Review Date. The travel dates for Complimentary Fare Upgrade flights are not required to be within the current Total Benefit Period.

13.17 Platinum Members may choose to redeem a Complimentary Fare Upgrades for a guest who is travelling with them.

13.18 Complimentary Fare Upgrades are subject to the availability of seats assigned for upgrades by Virgin Australia. Some flights may have no upgrades available.

13.19 Platinum Members will earn Status Credits and Points for Complimentary Fare Upgrade flights based on the original fare class booked.

I take it from previous posts that W is the applicable fare bucket to upgrade to business?

 

[TonyHancock]

13.18 Complimentary Fare Upgrades are subject to the availability of seats assigned for upgrades by Virgin Australia. Some flights may have no upgrades available.

Disappointing but, I guess, inevitable.

There is a danger that folk will just book flexis and upgrade, either with complimentary upgrades, or with points I suppose. My experiences with DJ have been in relatively empty J cabins.

 

[lovestotravel]

So this is the first "enhancement" ?

Sometimes I get to a point and wonder why I bother chasing higher memberships levels for rewards as the T&C's change without notice and basically this devalues Platinum by quite a bit.

 

[lovestotravel]

Tbere is a danger that folk will just book flexis and upgrade, either with complimentary upgrades, or with points I suppose. My experiences with DJ have been in relatively empty J cabins.

Danger = No
The point of Platinum is to rewards those that give the airline lots of $$ and not just the once a year flyer who books the cheapest fare

Of course folk will book flexi and upgrade, that's the whole point of this, and big deal, it's 4 flights in a year. Considering you can only request this 24 hours before the flight, given the short time period left before the flight chance are the J cabin will go out not full

All this does is devalue Platinum and give VA the chance to have ZERO seats on flights during peak times, all the time ? Who knows what the criteria is

Once again VA not thinking about their strategy and the implications correctly again, like the IFE, like the J launch but not having J on all aircraft. Someone thought, hey let's ENHANCE this, and we'll be able to add $ xx_,xx_ to the bottom line....

There needs to be a waitlist for these upgrades..

As the current policy stands, basically you book a flexi, 24 hour before, call up and request and upgrade and be told "sorry no seats".

You will likely keep the same flight as the cancel/change fees are too high to cancel (which is strange) given it's a "flexi" fare.....

So instead you'll be in Y, while seats in J go out empty and your upgrades become useless. Instead you should be put on a waitlist, and if J is not fully sold, those with these upgrades are then moved into J, so the upgrade is used, the liability to VA is reduced...

I would also go a step further and say that, pending how these new T&C's work, people will just book the cheapest fare instead of a flexi in the hope of scoring an upgrade......



FAIL again VA

 

[markis10]

So this is the first "enhancement" ?

Sometimes I get to a point and wonder why I bother chasing higher memberships levels for rewards as the T&C's change without notice and basically this devalues Platinum by quite a bit.

No it's not the first enhancement, to think that all changes are going to be of benefit to us is the thoughts of someone not living in a viable business world IMHO. We can expect more benefits and at times a loss of some benefits that proved to be generous in the past, in this case for those new to Velocity, lounge passes & taster fares are two enhancements that are already sorely missed by some if not all, however the overall value is still very much up from where it has been in the past.

I would have liked to have seen the upgrades applicable if there is a discount J fare bucket available versus an award bucket, at the end of the day it would lessen fare erosion while putting more people on seats.

 

[lovestotravel]

Given these 4 upgrades are my main reason for going towards Platinum as I may as well sit at Gold....

The value of these upgrades are anywhere from $311 to $910 each when comparing MEL-PER and MEL-OOL Flexi/J fares.

So that could be a devaluation of $3600+ which is slightly more than losing a few lounge passes.....

I would love to hear who gets to use these upgrades on the MEL/SYD-PER route..........

 

[pshepvic]

Just to clarify - the upgrades are available MORE than 24 hours out, not in the last 24 hours before the flight - that's when they stop, when OLCI starts.

You can request the upgrade as soon as you book the Flexi - just have to ring the Velocity call centre. If you wait until less than 24 hours before, then you'll miss out! This is how it always worked.

Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

 

[lovestotravel]

Ah I read it quickly as in request it AT 24 hours or less.

So I really do wonder how this will work....

1 x seat at 350 days out ?

Will be interested to see moving forward

 

[Jama]

Also if 'J' has space at the time of the flight but you havn't been able to use your upgrades then thats where the Op Ups come in. Not that I have ever got one. But in that case you get to keep your upgrade for another day as well which is a bonus. I know, its a maybe but its still there.

 

[ozmille]

I have booked one for next week peak hour MEL-SYD, was all handled very quickly on the phone and 2 mins later my updated itinerary was emailed to me.

 

[medhead]

I fail to see what the problem is with 13.18. Some flights wont have upgrade seats. Meh! That's just a covering statement, basically the same as QFF T&C saying awards are hard to get. It saves them from attacks by some dufus who thinks they can still upgrade when the J cabin is full.


Sent from the Throne (80% chance) using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[markis10]

Ah I read it quickly as in request it AT 24 hours or less.

So I really do wonder how this will work....

1 x seat at 350 days out ?

Will be interested to see moving forward

Just check award availability online and you should get an idea!

 

[Jama]

And it makes no business sense to fill the J cabin with upgrades when there are paying customers available.

 

[lovestotravel]

And it makes no business sense to fill the J cabin with upgrades when there are paying customers available.

Who said it was ? :shock:

Just check award availability online and you should get an idea!

Thanks :mrgreen:

 

[Jama]

Who said it was ? :shock:

I know that wasn't stated specifically. But, it was inferred that there should be upgrades available whenever there is a seat regardless of whether all the others are already full of upgrades. I know it wasn't you and I am not pointing the finger at anyone.

 

[markis10]

Who said it was ? :shock:

I know that wasn't stated specifically. But, it was inferred that there should be upgrades available whenever there is a seat regardless of whether all the others are already full of upgrades. I know it wasn't you and I am not pointing the finger at anyone.

It was in the T and Cs that it was applicable of a business seat was available.

 

[firefox]

its also extremely important for Virgin to ensure that J class isnt completely full of upgrades. The reason why is business class fares are flexible. And i use J class fares weekly. I often change plans, if they allowed upgrades to fill the front of the aircraft then this ability goes away.. i.e me getting on a 5pm instead of 6. If the plan is full of full paying passengers, i don't have a problem with it, but if it's full of upgrades, i have a major problem with it, as it's convinced me and stripped me of my benefit i paid alot more for.

On the other side, i have 5 flights planned next week in J class with VA on the eastern seaboard, but have not booked any seat yet. And won't do probably until monday for tuesday departure. If they filled it up, with non-paying i can't buy my seats. I believe they allocate 2 seats allowable for upgrades on plans. They do allow seat allocation, but personally i think full paying passengers should always get priority.

I think the current format they have works.

 

[arraitch]

As the OP, thanks for the bump and ensuing discussion folks ... I'd been thinking that it was about time to resurrect this one.

I note from a quick and dirty search on FlightStats inventory for DJ in J, C, D and I buckets for Business, but (apparently) no U. Which rather leaves my original question still begging. Would anybody happen to know whether (and if so, how) it is possible to determine upgradeable inventory at time of booking?

 

[lovestotravel]

Would anybody happen to know whether (and if so, how) it is possible to determine upgradeable inventory at time of booking?

Was suggested:

Just check award availability online and you should get an idea!

 

[pshepvic]

I'm on DJ347 in a couple of weeks, using 2 complimentary upgrades. In EF I can see the below availability:



Business fare buckets listed as being available are J6 / I7 / D7 / C7, so some of those numbers actually exceed the number of J seats available (as I have 2 out of the 8 seats booked, so theoretically there should only be 6 seats max left, as J indicates). I'm not convinced that DJ use these as Business fare buckets though (Even though that's what EF say they are) - there are some other flights I've looked where J availability is 0, but C/D/I still have 4-7 seats available. Additionally, when I look for Fares on DJ, on a random selection of dates, only two fares for J ever show up, and none for I, D or C, even though those fare buckets are available on the flight. Just wondering if any of these buckets are potentially used for the Award seats and/or complimentary upgrades? Or maybe I'm reading into it too much...



Interestingly, it also shows P7 (First) in the availability - assuming this might be for codeshares with airlines that have F (Delta, Etihad, Singapore etc)?