Upgrading on Virgin Atlantic to Johannesburg?
 

I'm planning a trip to South Africa at the end of June or July and was hoping to use my American Express Membership points to upgrade on Virgin Atlantic. The customer service rep I spoke to tells me that there are no Upper Class seats available in either June or July that can be booked with upgrades.

Does this make sense? I know that it is really hard to get tickets using ONLY miles, but I thought that using miles to get upgrades was relatively easy.

Also, the reservation agent told me that they have the same policy on companion tickets. PLUS, even though there are upper class roundtrip tickets available on the flights I want for about $8000, the reservation agent told me that I'd have to pay $20,000 PLUS 65,000 miles for one paid and one "reward" upper class ticket, and but that there are no such "reward" tickets available anyway. She suggested that if I wanted to get that "deal," I'd have to call 11 months ahead of time. She said this completely without irony, even though she had earlier quoted me the $8000 price for an upper class ticket. I then asked her, "Let me get this straight: If I give you $20,000 plus 65,000 miles, you can't get me two upper class tickets?" She said no. I then said, "Well, how much would I have to pay to get two upper class tickets without giving you any miles," and, after a couple of minutes, she said, "$16,000." She said this without any recognition of the contradiction in what she had just said. GRRRRRR!!!!

So, here's my question: Are upgrades that can be purchased with miles likely to become available closer to flight time? What's the priority order? I have no "status" with Virgin Atlantic, and there are three of us traveling. I have enough "points" to upgrade the three of us from economy to upper class.

An "upgradable-class" economy ticket (i.e., full fare) and the website price for "premium economy" are identical -- about $3000. "Full fare" premium economy are $5800. Website price for "upper class" is a bit less than $8000.

What's the best way of maximizing my chance of being able to use points to upgrade at the airport? Does it help if one member of the party has a upper class ticket? If I buy one upper class and two premium economy tickets at the website prices, is there a chance that I could use points to upgrade the premium economy tickets shortly before the flight even though they are the wrong "booking class"?

It seems ludicrous to go out of my way to buy "full-fare" premium economy tickets in the hopes of upgrading.

I have zillions of miles and "elite" status on United, but they don't fly to South Africa.

Any suggestions?

Several of UA's partners fly to South Africa. If you have that many miles, just use UA miles for business class tickets outright, not upgrades.

Some of the best deals in FF mileage plans (IMO) are business class awards between Europe and Africa. With both the United and American Airlines programs, it's only 75,000 miles for a round-trip business class award, or 100,000 for a first class award, and depending on the program you can do open-jaws or stopovers at one or both ends, so reasonably flexible.

You might look at an all-award itinerary using your United miles, or a paid itinerary to Europe and an award trip from there, or some combination. Using United miles you could travel to JNB using South African, Lufthansa, or Swiss International.

I had this same problem, and found out that United miles are only upgradeable with Lufthansa - I wanted to fly the SAA flight IAD - JNB but no way. Ended up paying full discounted (an I fare) biz for the family and I upgraded with miles on Delta ATL - JNB. A 767, not lie flat seats, but better than cattle class.

Seems to me that buying something in the 'hope' of getting another thing is not a good idea. I would like to be sure that it worked before committing money to it. ((*))