Complimentary business upgrade from Flex ticket for Plat member

[the8guy]

Hi everyone, just trying to understand some experience from fellow members who have had success on getting complimentary business class upgrade from Flex economy fare for Platinum member. I can see there are business class seats available for purchase for my flight and was told by CS that it's not available for my upgrade. The only available upgrade for me is a flight 12 hours later. Am I not doing something right here or is this just the way the complimentary business upgrade benefits work? If so, this is a very poor benefit for Plat member as the system will allocate their availability based on their own algorithm instead of what's really available for sale?

 

[markis10]

Upgrade me upgrades require availability of a seat in the appropriate fare bucket, it doesn’t mean any available seat. For instance J seats may show as available but there maybe deadheading crew expected on the flight.

 

[Bagpuss]

You need to see a "Business Reward" seat available as the upgrade uses the availability of rewards seats when searching for points based bookings on the Virgin Australia booking website.

 

[Steven of Mysore]

It's just another example of a benefit which sounds fab but isn't.

 

[the8guy]

Thanks for the clarification. Indeed it sounds fab but hardly usable. Guess it’s time to find other alternative frequent flyer program

 

[muppet]

It's just another example of a benefit which sounds fab but isn't.

Yep. Not to mention half the time Flex Y can be close to or more expensive than Discount J. Good for corporate pax who cannot book J I guess.

Not sure if it was a mistake, but last time I redeemed it to CNS I was able to upgrade both legs despite Business Rewards seats only showing one-way.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for the clarification. Indeed it sounds fab but hardly usable. Guess it’s time to find other alternative frequent flyer program

The less competition for these rare upgrades (that I have had the benefit of), the better

 

[ben95]

Does VA allow you to wait list for these upgrades at the airport for short-haul international?

Looking to utilize these for a trip to Fiji but could only find 1 J rewards on those flights. If I lock in one upgrade for the CEO and another one doesn’t get released would I still be able to request an upgrade at the airport to grab whatever’s unsold like with domestic?

 

[PERLHR]

Does VA allow you to wait list for these upgrades at the airport for short-haul international?

Looking to utilize these for a trip to Fiji but could only find 1 J rewards on those flights. If I lock in one upgrade for the CEO and another one doesn’t get released would I still be able to request an upgrade at the airport to grab whatever’s unsold like with domestic?

How much is a full flex fare to Fiji? I think this. "Perk" is anything but. Better taking the chance of buying a cheapo down the back and then bid for upgrade. Certainly so far for me..95 percent success rate.

 

[ben95]

How much is a full flex fare to Fiji?

It’s only ~80 more than choice now they’ve turned on the “optimization”

 

[PERLHR]

It’s only ~80 more than choice now they’ve turned on the “optimization”

View attachment 414121

Yes that is good.

 

[Tasman]

Hi all, as a new Platinum member I launched into trying to use the complementary upgrades provided for a trip I knew I needed to book.

The website says that you can “Request an upgrade any time after you have booked your flight”. I checked that reward seats were available, booked a flex fare, and rang to use the complementary upgrades. I was told that I can’t request this early (one month out) and need to wait until about a week before the flight to request. The point being that they wouldn’t be deciding upgrades until then.

I have been thinking that a request can be made at any point, and that they were confirmed immediately if any reward seats were available at the time of that request? Have I got that all wrong? Very interested to know what you think.

 

[PERLHR]

Hi all, as a new Platinum member I launched into trying to use the complementary upgrades provided for a trip I knew I needed to book.

The website says that you can “Request an upgrade any time after you have booked your flight”. I checked that reward seats were available, booked a flex fare, and rang to use the complementary upgrades. I was told that I can’t request this early (one month out) and need to wait until about a week before the flight to request. The point being that they wouldn’t be deciding upgrades until then.

I have been thinking that a request can be made at any point, and that they were confirmed immediately if any reward seats were available at the time of that request? Have I got that all wrong? Very interested to know what you think.

Yep been told the same. The whole Platinum upgrade thing is a joke with VA. Not sure if it will get better or, most likely, worse under the new changes coming for Velocity FF.

 

[henrus]

I was told that I can’t request this early (one month out) and need to wait until about a week before the flight to request. The point being that they wouldn’t be deciding upgrades until then.

Concerning and disappointing change if true.

 

[Gold Member]

I made several Flex transcontinental Flex bookings earlier this week (timed for the 11% cashback offer at ShopBack) and applied my 4x complimentary Platinum upgrades minutes after ticketing. The phone agent checked for underlying reward space and confirmed all four upgrades a couple of minutes later. The process was seamless and just like any other time I’ve applied them in the past 10 years.

Two very recent data points with the same commentary here on AFF could simply be a temporary glitch. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if Virgin have recognised that the new optimised Flex pricing is too generous for the Platinum upgrades and are now imposing measures to restrict usage. If this measure is indeed deliberate, it’s possible they deem the current 9,900 point upgrade from Flex to Business as too generous as well and close that loophole ahead of the published change due November 18th.