Upgrade

[Wagamama]

My family and I are flying from Boston to Heathrow in late June with Virgin Atlantic. How would we go about getting upgraded to PE or even better, Upper Class?

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

The easiest way, and most likely to succeed, is to pay when you check in at Logan airport. This will depend on (a) there being space in PE or UC cabins, and (b) paying a large sum of money.

Free upgrades for a group of four or more are incredibly rare, especially from the economy cabin. Increasingly airlines only offer upgrades when they have to make seats available for an overbooked cabin. For example, 32 seats in Premium Economy and 33 tickets sold on the basis that you will normally get at least one no-show. However, if all 33 people turn up one will have to be upgraded or offered incentives to move to a later flight. It follows that the smaller your group (ideally, just one person) will give you the best chance of being upgraded.

Airlines have generally stopped offering free upgrades just because there are seats available in business or first. There are some exceptions to this. Virgin, for example, offer free upgrades to honeymooners (if you tell them in advance?) and some people who are classed as CIPs (commercially important passengers) because they work for a company which has a huge travel bill (I worked for a company like this and was upgraded a few times).

Sorry not to be more hopeful, but I think the chances of an entire family getting upgraded free of charge from Economy is slim.

Regards

Rob

 

[Boo Boo Too]

I believe that you can ask the costs of upgrading your flight at the ticket counter (especially if you have a flying club - Virgin's frequent flyer club - card). I believe that Virgin still offer upgrades from Economy to PE for £199 per person one way and from Economy to UC for £799 per person one way. All of this is subject to availability, of course (and UC, in particular tends to be fuller from the US to London - some companies will only justify business class for a night flight...).

Complimentary upgrades are rare. Most of them go to Virgin's elite fliers (flying club gold or silver members) and most upgardes to UC are from PE (rather than economy).

Operational upgrades are possible: a very kind check-in agent upgraded my husband and me to UC from economy from LHR to LAX once. We were VERY late checking in (car parking problems :-( ) and those were the last two seats left on the plane (so we almost missed it!). Still checking in late is very risky...

As Rob says, the smaller the party the better for upgrades. If you have kids, then you are less likely to be upgraded.

Looking smarter (smart casual - i.e. slacks and nice, casual shirt) should give you a better chance, but you probably don't have much of a chance unless you pay for the upgrades or are an elite flying club member. Sort of makes sense - if it was easy to upgrade, nobody would actually pay for PE or UC...

Boo