Chances of an upgrade???

[MK1974]

Hi All,

Happy new year! I am flying LAX- DFW on the 26th in Premium on VA and V america. I cant seem to work out whether i can use points to upgrade to Business on an international trip, Is it possible? I am V Plat 2500 SC and 100k in points.

Also has anyone ever got an upgrade at the airport. Is it worth an ask???

 

[jneufeld]

If you have booked Flexi Y or Premium Y you can upgrade with points
Source: Terms & Conditions | Velocity Frequent Flyer

18.3 Virgin Australia International Long Haul
18.3.1 Platinum and Gold Members are entitled to redeem Points for Flight Upgrades to Premium Economy or Business on Virgin Australia International Long Haul flights by redeeming Velocity Points at the rates set out in the table below.
Effective for Requests prior to 13 January 2013
[TABLE="width: 100%, align: center"]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TH="width: 33%, bgcolor: #E9E9E9"]

Fare (From)​

[/TH]
[TH="width: 33%, bgcolor: #E9E9E9"]

Cabin (To)​

[/TH]
[TH="width: 33%, bgcolor: #E9E9E9"]

Points needed to redeem upgrade​

[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] V Saver (L, K or H)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] Premium Economy (P)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] 45,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] V Flexi (Y or B)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] Business (Z)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] 45,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] Premium Deal (O or R)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] Business (Z)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] 45,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] Premium Flexi (W)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] Business (Z)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"] 25,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Effective for Requests from 13 January 2013
[TABLE="width: 100%, align: center"]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TH="width: 33%, bgcolor: #E9E9E9"]

Fare (From)​

[/TH]
[TH="width: 33%, bgcolor: #E9E9E9"]

Cabin (To)​

[/TH]
[TH="width: 33%, bgcolor: #E9E9E9"]

Points needed to redeem upgrade​

[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Flexi (L, K or H)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Premium Economy (P)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]45,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Flexi (Y or B)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Business (Z)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]45,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Premium Saver (O or R)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Business (Z)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]45,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Premium (W)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Business (Z)[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]25,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


18.3.2 Flight Upgrades may be requested only on international long haul flights marketed and operated by Virgin Australia, with a Virgin Australia flight number (VA).
18.3.3 If a Flight Upgrade is requested on two or more individual Flight Sectors shown on an Itinerary, the Points required will be quoted separately for each Flight Sector.
18.3.4 The following conditions apply to the use of Virgin Australia International Long Haul Flight Upgrades:(a) Flight Upgrades will only apply to Virgin Australia International Long Haul fares booked:
(i) prior to 13 January 2013 in V Saver, V Flexi, Premium Deal and Premium Flexi; or
(ii) from 13 January 2013 in Flexi , Premium Saver and Premium;
(b) Flight Upgrades may only be used to obtain an upgrade as follows:
(i) from a V Saver fare (prior to 13 January 2013) or Flexi fare (from 13 January 2013) (when booked in L, K or H class) to the Premium Economy cabin;
(ii) from a V Flexi fare (prior to 13 January 2013) or Flexi fare (from 13 January 2013) (when booked in Y or B class) to the Business cabin; and
(iii) from a Premium Deal fare, Premium Flexi fare (prior to 13 January 2013) or a Premium Saver fare or Premium fare (from 13 January 2013) to the Business cabin.
18.3.5 For requests made prior to 13 January 2013, Upgrade Using Points can be redeemed by calling the Velocity Frequent Flyer Membership Contact Centre between 7 days and 24 hours prior to the desired time of departure.
18.3.6 For requests made from 13 January 2013, Upgrade Using Points can be redeemed by calling the Velocity Frequent Flyer Membership Contact Centre no later than 24 hours prior to the desired time of departure.

 

[bullerdude]

Yep, as you in Premium Economy you can upgrade if there is availability. Just make sure you call up more than 24 hours before the flight.

 

[Mak404matt]

Hi All,

Happy new year! I am flying LAX- DFW on the 26th in Premium on VA and V america. I cant seem to work out whether i can use points to upgrade to Business on an international trip, Is it possible? I am V Plat 2500 SC and 100k in points.

Also has anyone ever got an upgrade at the airport. Is it worth an ask???

Lax - Dfw is operated by VX, so you cannot upgrade

 

[MandM]

This is so much more attractive now that most of the risk is taken out- ie no longer have to wait until 7 days prior.

 

[Fruitcake]

Lax - Dfw is operated by VX, so you cannot upgrade

...but six hours before the flight, you can grab a ludicrously cheap cash upgrade to F via online checkin.

 

[MH_fan]

If you are ticketed all the way to DFW, you should be booked in MCS (premium economy) on VX, which means you can cash upgrade to F 24 hours before departure (via online check-in). If the LAX-DFW segment has been purchased separately, and you are in Y, you can cash upgrade to MCS 24 hours before departure OR cash upgrade to F 6 hours before departure (via online check-in). There is also the option of doing the cash upgrade to MCS first at T-24 and then calling them up to upgrade further to F at T-6 but those seats may have already gone from passengers who were originally booked in MCS and upgraded to F at T-24.

 

[Temporiser]

I cannot find a thread of Virgin Domestic upgrades to Business class. If anyone knows of one, can you please give me the link. If not, the question is "Does Virgin upgrade its Platinum members? I have undertaken a few domestic trips lately (using saver fares) and noticed that its Business class has had many empty seats.

 

[grubbidok]

Interesting VA doesn't really do upgrades, even for platinum.

That being said when I was Silver (w 2-3 return long hauls pa and rest domestic plus the odd Indo or NZ trip, but only ever in Y due to university policy) and hadn't tasted Gold QF were quite liberal with upgrades (mainly Y+, but 4-5 J) even on discount economy tickets, but as I got higher they fizzled out. I still get them from QF occassionally, but am yet to see anything from VA.

I never could work out how they were allocated. Luckily one of the upgrades was a double QF reward BNE-SYD-EZE-SYD-BNE Mrs Grubbidok and I took for our honeymoon. Both ways

I've not seen much in the threads about being automatically upgraded. I'm with the OP, is that something VA even do? Is that something any airline still does?

 

[mella2007]

VA rarely give upgrades at the airport or lounge even for the most well travelled people. You will often see empty seats or check the availability before hand and see room but asking doesn't help. Using points via flexi or booking business is the best way unfortunately

 

[Deleted member 29185]

When domestic J was first released they promised to upgrade Plats and Golds to try the product. I was not offered any J trial but I did get an impromtu upgrade from zoo to J (seating) for 4 of my family before the J product was rolled out. Nothing since and recently I hinted to a very apologetic lounge angel (after a small VA meltdown) that J might be nice and she seemed to suggest they were not permitted to do that (mind you, it was a very hazy suggestion, more just talk).

Did many of us get the trial upgrades a year ago? Or any since?

 

[day-heg]

When domestic J was first released they promised to upgrade Plats and Golds to try the product.

Did many of us get the trial upgrades a year ago? Or any since?

I flew about 85 domestic sectors with VA in 2012 and got two op-ups only. No free trials or anything.

 

[Jama]

I have been Platinum almost from the beginning and have never had an op-up. The Platinum experience on-board is really no different from any other level except for row 3 access, but that is hit and miss with so many status members. I did like the paid taster. Especially since SC's applied at the upgraded class level. My employer sometimes allows flexi tickets so I would pay for my own upgrade when I could (the cost was reasonable enough to allow this).

 

[Boris spatsky]

Same as Jama, WP since the start and never op-uped.

 

[777]

I've had about half a dozen op ups out of about 60-80 odd fights. Always (AFAIK) for genuine operational reasons -- flights oversold in Y, or in one case an earlier flight was cancelled and so they needed to put a lot of extra passengers on our flight.