Is there a word travelers love more than upgrade? Don’t think so. Upgrade means all smiles, more comfort and perhaps something cool to toast the moment. When it comes to securing these coveted travel trophies, I tend to do better than most, and I’d say that’s hardly an accident. I have a strategy, I deploy it and I find a way. If it works for me, it should work for you, so here’s the low down…
International upgrades from economy to premium economy rarely make sense using miles because of UK government imposed surcharges on flights to or from the UK. Basically, you’d pay a lot of miles and a lot of money, and it may be cheaper to just book premium with cash.
Often, I think you should.
That’s because upgrades from premium economy to Upper Class make the greatest difference and also bring the best value, if you know how to use your miles strategically to land them.
With premium economy fares lower than ever, sometimes seen in the high 400’s, like the current Virgin Atlantic sale, it’s incredible value to pay premium and fly business class, just from cashing in some miles.
My strategy is relatively simple.
Find flights with availability using miles in Upper Class, and then book those flights in premium economy, and call to instantly upgrade to Upper Class. Yep, if there is a seat available with miles, it’s available for upgrade. In case you ever need to help specify to an agent, it’s called “G Class” availability.
I’ve used this strategy recently to upgrade flights to Los Angeles, New York and more, and with just a day or two of date flexibility, I’ve generally been able to get it done.
Side note: miles boost is a great way to earn lots of extra miles.
The amount of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles you’ll need to upgrade will depend on two things: the season and the route. Each part of the world requires a different number of points, and each city will have peak and off peak dates. Obviously, peak will be more expensive in miles than off-peak.
Virgin Atlantic Off Peak Dates Are:
- 6 January 2020 – 2 April 2020
- 22 April 2020 – 19 June 2020
- 7 September 2020 – 11 December 2020
- 6 January 2021 – 31 March 2021
Hopefully you’re clever enough to figure out that if your dates don’t fall in this range, they’re “peak”.
Now that that’s out of the way, that leaves you with how many miles you’ll need for a given upgrade. There’s a chart for that, which shows the round trip upgrade prices required for each city, but I tend to focus on one way upgrades from London, since most flights tend to be longer in that direction.
Here are a few one way Virgin Atlantic Premium to Upper Class upgrade prices for both off peak and peak, like…
- Tel Aviv, Israel: 14,000 miles off peak, 16,500 miles peak.
- India (Delhi, Mumbai): 18,700 miles off peak, 33,700 miles peak.
- East Coast USA: 23,700 miles off peak, 28,700 miles peak.
- West Coast USA: 33,700 miles off peak, 38,700 miles peak.
- South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg): 28,700 miles off peak 33,700 miles peak.
With The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles In Place
Congrats, it’s the final countdown. You’ve got your miles in place and it’s time to put all the magic together. The best place to start is on VirginAtlantic.com, where you can search for a flight in Upper Class using miles, by selecting “advanced search” and pressing “price in Miles” and selecting Upper Class as the chosen cabin.
The choice is yours at this point: call to book over the phone and process it all in one go, or book online and then call. There’s a key benefit to calling, which is that it can all happen in one transaction, quickly.
Virgin recently made sweeping changes to its loyalty program, and even “K” class Premium Economy fares are eligible for upgrade again. Read up on the latest changes, which even allow you to use a voucher earned from a Virgin credit card to upgrade or bring a companion.
The same person should be able to pull the miles from your account and get you upgraded into the happiness of Upper Class. Expect to pay a premium of about £125/$150 in addition to the miles.
And don’t forget, since you paid cash for the tickets to start with, you’ll be able to earn miles when you fly, even in some cases as much as you spend on your upgrade to Upper Class! That’s a win-win.
Not a bad strategy, eh?
pretty cool hack!!!
can you use skymiles or only virgin miles?
Only virgin miles, but you can transfer amex, Citi or chase points into virgin.
O/W London to East coast USA is 50k points for biz class on virgin right? Why pay PE fare and 38k (peak) points for the upgrade and the additional fees. Seems better value if upper is available to just find the 50k fares and but that direct.
Well, you’ll pay over $650 in fees one way, which might be more than a premium economy round trip, for which you’d also earn miles back.
It’d be 100k miles and circa $1000 all in your way, or circa 20-70k miles and $700 all in my way, depending on which dates, etc.
Hey Gilbert, great hack! However wrong link on the article that goes to the “Premium to Upper Class upgrade prices” , it instead goes to an article on Mexico!
Have been looking at this a while to go to San Fran and return via LAX.
Can you upgrade a premium econ indirect that involves a stop over with Delta (for example) into Upper Class on the Virgin leg. is that still same amount of points 33,700?
I want to fly in the A350 ideally but flights in December 2020 seem to be best going indirect to LAX on the 350 and then changing to a Delta flight onwards to San Fran.
Thanks Luke, will figure out what went wrong hah!
I’ll have to check the specifics on the indirect, but the Virgin segment should absolutely be upgradeable.
How long before Virgin (and BA) devalue their points and air miles? Given the crunch in their finances, due to the outbreak. My money is on a sudden and severe devaluation, to save money during this odd time.
I would say the opposite. Need to give people reason to engage in times like these. I’d expect mileage reductions for a limited time on select routes.
Would have liked to see some total price examples for the whole process..