Some help on Virgin Complimentary fare upgrades

[VPS]

Last year I was very kindly comped Virgin Platinum by @Matt_01 but haven't had much opportunity to use it. (A virgin Virgin really)

I'm about to book a flight from Brisbane to Adelaide and wondered is there a better day or time when you're likely to get lucky with using the Complimentary fare upgrades. I've worked out which fare I need to purchase to make sure I can use the upgrade. What are most people's percentage of getting them?

TIA

 

[oz_mark]

Your best chance is to find a flight that has Business Reward availability. If you book a flight with a Reward seat available, they will generally confirm straight away.

Aside from that, all laps of the gods thing as far as I can tell!

 

[VPS]

Your best chance is to find a flight that has Business Reward availability. If you book a flight with a Reward seat available, they will generally confirm straight away.

Aside from that, all laps of the gods thing as far as I can tell!

Thanks for the suggestion - not sure if I have enough points to book a reward but I'm sure someone on here has and will be able to tell me.

 

[oz_mark]

Thanks for the suggestion - not sure if I have enough points to book a reward but I'm sure someone on here has and will be able to tell me.

You should be able to see whether Business Rewards seats are available without logging in. Just search on the Virgin site, and select Points+Pay.
Here's an example from a randomly selected June 4

Book the Freedom fare on that, and you should be able to get the upgrade.

 

[VPS]

You should be able to see whether Business Rewards seats are available without logging in. Just search on the Virgin site, and select Points+Pay.
Here's an example from a randomly selected June 4

Book the Freedom fare on that, and you should be able to get the upgrade.

View attachment 248574

Excellent - thank you

 

[Matt_01]

Thanks for the suggestion - not sure if I have enough points to book a reward but I'm sure someone on here has and will be able to tell me.

As @oz_mark suggests this is a good start, IME it is not just the 'business rewards' seats to look for also search for revenue 'business saver' as these can be used to process WP upgrades. As an example I was looking to travel PER-ADL, at the time of booking there were no 'business rewards' however there were x3 'business saver' fares available and after a call to VA all 3 seats were upgraded using the WP upgrade certificates.

The other thing that I do when looking to use the upgrades is call VA to confirm availability. While they are doing this I will be in the process of making the booking online and normally by the time the agent confirms the upgrade is available I will be at the confirm payment screen. Once they have confirmed the upgrade is available I just ask them to wait while I finalise the booking, once I have the PNR the agent will process the upgrade on the spot and process seating requests.

 

[ozstamps]

The other thing that I do when looking to use the upgrades is call VA to confirm availability.

My last 4 phone calls to Virgin have seen about 2 hour waits for 2 of them and a timed out "our call centre is now closed" message for the other 2, at 7pm or 8pm etc, despite being on hold over an hour to that point.

Have asked why upgrades cannot simply be acted on by an email to Velocity Platinum, when inventory clearly exists, and they advise that is impossible

 

[Bagpuss]

The other thing that I do when looking to use the upgrades is call VA to confirm availability.

My last 4 phone calls to Virgin have seen about 2 hour waits for 2 of them and a timed out "our call centre is now closed" message for the other 2, at 7pm or 8pm etc, despite being on hold over an hour to that point.

Have asked why upgrades cannot simply be acted on by an email to Velocity Platinum, when inventory clearly exists, and they advise that is impossible

I've called them 3 times today.

First call was answered in 3 minutes, then second in 5 minutes and the third after 23 minutes.

Probably find people are taking advantage of the SC promption, booking freedom fares and calling to upgrade as well as the usual volumes.

It's annoying you have to call them to cancel a booking it you have an Economy X selection, also for the platnium upgrades which really should be done online.

Though if there are "Business Reward" seats available as mentioned above on the website, the upgrades are available as it uses this inventory.

 

[Dee#]

Business Class Platinum upgrades are all very well but where are the business seats? (and premium economy on the A320 come to that!)

I fly Perth -Darwin. Its now an A320 (used to be 787). -No business class. Complimentary economy X is half way down the plane and the exit rows one of which the seat backs don't move.. Not good for the WA G2G or NT quarantine system queues. Long wait unless first off the plane as they let the old and people with kids jump the queue in Darwin.

Just tried Perth to Alice . Yo have to go via Adelaide 787 both legs and the 2 rows business seats are gone for 3 rows of Economy X. So no chance of using my platinum up-grades except for flights say Per-Syd, and no one is going to Syd at the moment.

Thank goodness I did the Qantas Gold thing, but Q is a lot more expensive.