Upgrade waitlist success?

[Ausbt]

Clipped, my firm funded PE Saver and I upgraded that. No difference in points compared to upgrading Y Flexi, but you do get more points and SCs. Speaking of points, I should qualify for the 3x promo VA ran a while back, so that would almost actually pay for upgrades outbound and inbound!

 

[clipped_wings]

You don't need to apologise for asking questions - I've asked PLENTY since I joined AFF, everyone here has been very patient in answering them all and I have learned SO much in the process .

I can't help with the paying with points question unfortunately, I've only ever paid cash for fares (including our PE seats to/from LAX) and then upgraded with points.

Thanks, I really do feel out of my depth here sometimes, but I still love browsing all the comments! We too, have always paid in cash. Most of the time it was 6 of us in economy, but lately, just husband and I in Premium. He is now SG and will be WP by the time we finish our latest trip in August. But those Reward seats remain ever-elusive, so our status and points balance climbs but we seem powerless to utilise them. I guess the smart thing is to book your flight ONLY when there is Reward Seats on the screen.
Regardless of whether we get to J, the new PE cabin should be a wonderful experience and I can hardly wait to post our trip report.

 

[clipped_wings]

Clipped, my firm funded PE Saver and I upgraded that. No difference in points compared to upgrading Y Flexi, but you do get more points and SCs. Speaking of points, I should qualify for the 3x promo VA ran a while back, so that would almost actually pay for upgrades outbound and inbound!

Good on you! Gives me hope that we can upgrade closer to the date, I was almost going to cancel our LAX-SYD and rebook again LAX-BNE with an upgrade, but husband does not want the connection. So, we'll bide our time and keep checking each day. If anyone here sees Reward Seat availability pop up for VA1 SYD-LAX on August 11 - PLEASE contact me!!!!

And the promo has already paid us an extra 10,000 points on recent flights, so that's a nice surprise.......hope you get yours Ausbt

 

[midian454]

Should Reward Seat availability be displayed for both legs before you can pay with points? For example, I have found that if there is a Reward Seat icon and points redemption value showing on an outbound flight, but not the return leg, then I get a small prompt saying "reward fares cannot be combined with other fare types yada yada......" and I am unable to proceed with paying by points.
And did you pay for the PE seat, or redeem points, as this also confuses me. Sorry for being ignorant and asking so many questions

I booked both legs of this trip separately. Inbound was reward J available, outbound wasn't. Snapped up the freebie for the hometime trip and had to wait on the upgrade for the partytime flight

 

[clipped_wings]

Just noticed this morning that there are now J Reward Seats available for LAX-SYD for this week. Last week there were none showing for the same date, so maybe the previous suggestion that opportunities can arise closer to departure are true.

 

[Jurahn]

Just noticed this morning that there are now J Reward Seats available for LAX-SYD for this week. Last week there were none showing for the same date, so maybe the previous suggestion that opportunities can arise closer to departure are true.

Yes, it can definitely happen - so it's a matter of obsessively checking every day for Rewards seats for the dates you want, in case availability pops up!

 

[Klassen24]

Hi guys this is my first time posting. I have booked BNE-LAX in PE saver. Currently on the waitlist for J class however there are 4 pax in my booking so I'm a little worried that it will be quite hard to achieve. Please excuse my ignorance because I'm quite new to this, you talk about being able to check reward seat availability, how do you do that?

 

[clipped_wings]

Hi guys this is my first time posting. I have booked BNE-LAX in PE saver. Currently on the waitlist for J class however there are 4 pax in my booking so I'm a little worried that it will be quite hard to achieve. Please excuse my ignorance because I'm quite new to this, you talk about being able to check reward seat availability, how do you do that?

Hi Klassen and welcome to a very informative and friendly forum. I am a newbie as well, but the knowledge and insight offered by everyone has made planning our trips a lot of fun. I don't know any other way, except to log in to the Virgin website each day, check the search for our identical flights, and select the "points" tab instead of currency. If you get 4-5 columns dropping down, then there are Reward Seats available, sometime PE and sometimes Business - sometimes both! The further ahead you plan, the greater chance of them popping up. We booked our PE seats in January, the following week those flights had reward seats, but husband was only Silver Status, so we couldn't upgrade long haul.
Another way is to go into "my bookings", select your flight, then click on the "upgrade" options - if there is reward seat availability, you can upgrade online, or go on the waitlist. Remember, you are looking at around 180,000 points to upgrade one way. (45,00 per pax per sector).
Hope it works out for you. Glad to hear others are having success, maybe it will happen for us too

 

[Klassen24]

Hi Klassen and welcome to a very informative and friendly forum. I am a newbie as well, but the knowledge and insight offered by everyone has made planning our trips a lot of fun. I don't know any other way, except to log in to the Virgin website each day, check the search for our identical flights, and select the "points" tab instead of currency. If you get 4-5 columns dropping down, then there are Reward Seats available, sometime PE and sometimes Business - sometimes both! The further ahead you plan, the greater chance of them popping up. We booked our PE seats in January, the following week those flights had reward seats, but husband was only Silver Status, so we couldn't upgrade long haul.
Another way is to go into "my bookings", select your flight, then click on the "upgrade" options - if there is reward seat availability, you can upgrade online, or go on the waitlist. Remember, you are looking at around 180,000 points to upgrade one way. (45,00 per pax per sector).
Hope it works out for you. Glad to hear others are having success, maybe it will happen for us too

Thank you for the insight! That's the current way I check also I just wasn't sure if I was doing it the hard way or if there was an alternate option! Fingers crossed though for the upgrade. I have done a faux booking for my flight in buisness so I can view the seating map for an idea of the number of seats remaining. I know it's probably not a true indication but there is about 70% unoccupied. Here's hoping!