Able to bid for upgrade despite sold out cabin

[Author of the Seas]

I’m due to take a Virgin Atlantic flight in about two months and my booking is eligible for a bid upgrade to Upper Class, even though the Upper Class cabin is fully booked—searching the same flight shows that Upper Class is sold out and the seat map also shows all 16 Upper Class seats are unavailable. Is it normal for bid upgrades to be offered in such instances?

I have gone ahead and placed the bid. The aircraft is the leisure (or booth) version of the A350-1000, hence the 16 aforementioned Upper Class seats. Could it be that Virgin Atlantic anticipates cancelled bookings or a change of aircraft to one with a larger Upper Class cabin?

[SamG]

The technology isn’t very sophisticated, they’re just gathering up bids and then they’ll decide nearer the time if they’re going to accept any. At this rate they’ll just decline them all but there could be cancellations or a configuration change in the meantime that opens up more availability

[Author of the Seas]

The same thoughts I had. It must indeed all come down to the capabilities of their technology. Thanks for your reply.

[davefl]

Have you flown that aircraft before? I wouldn’t pay for an upgrade on it.

I flew LAS to MAN on Sunday and would never again on that config in UC if I could help it. Everything the reviews say is true about the seat. Unconfortable, no leg room in bed mode if you’re over 5 foot 8. The ‘door’ only goes about 40% across so is useless at stopping the view/glare from TV screens across the aisle. The table is impossible to use in anything other than seat upright mode, and then when you’re in bed mode you need to be a gymnast to get out to go to the loo. Zero storage space.

[AL]

The bidding system knows when a flight is truly sold out – and will tell you. It may well be that they’ve still got reward inventory but will flip it for sale if they get close, haven’t sold and have bids waiting.

[Author of the Seas]

Thanks for your reply @davefl. I have flown Upper Class in the loft version of the A350-1000 before. I quite enjoyed it. Perhaps because I haven’t experienced First Class or Business Class on other airlines, I have nothing to compare my previous Upper Class experience to.

I agree re. the door. It would’ve made more sense if it’d been designed to close completely.

To be fair, I wanted to experience the cabin without sleeping, so I never had my seat all the way flat, and therefore I can’t comment on what it’s like when it’s in bed mode.

I deem the minimum bid (£380) to be reasonable (my current seat being in Premium Economy).

[Author of the Seas]

Thanks for your reply @AL. I’m finding there are various factors when it comes to upgrades. It’s quite fascinating.

[davefl]

Author of the Seas wrote:

Thanks for your reply @davefl
I agree re. the door. It would’ve made more sense if it’d been designed to close completely.

To be fair, I wanted to experience the cabin without sleeping, so I never had my seat all the way flat, and therefore I can’t comment on what it’s like when it’s in bed mode.

I deem the minimum bid (£380) to be reasonable (my current seat being in Premium Economy).

Everyone has their own criteria of course. 🙂

Daytime flight yes I could see that being ok, trying to sleep on it, no.

I did have the worst VS crew I’ve ever experienced which coloured my view. Was completely ignored until meal choice was requested. The whole cabin got offfered a 1st round of drinks and I was missed. No recognition of gold status or by name at all through the flight. Complete contrast to my outbound journey back in May where the crew couldnt’ do enough for me and mentioned gold so many times it was embarassing.

Ended up with 10k points compensation for a broken drink shelf on the outbound and another 10k for something on the return…. no idea why, maybe because I refused the food as the menu was appalling. Neither compo was requested by me, just got an email the following day.

[Author of the Seas]

Everyone has their own criteria of course. 🙂

Daytime flight yes I could see that being ok, trying to sleep on it, no.

I did have the worst VS crew I’ve ever experienced which coloured my view. Was completely ignored until meal choice was requested. The whole cabin got offfered a 1st round of drinks and I was missed. No recognition of gold status or by name at all through the flight. Complete contrast to my outbound journey back in May where the crew couldnt’ do enough for me and mentioned gold so many times it was embarassing.

Ended up with 10k points compensation for a broken drink shelf on the outbound and another 10k for something on the return…. no idea why, maybe because I refused the food as the menu was appalling. Neither compo was requested by me, just got an email the following day.

That’s unfortunate re. the service you received on that flight. Not a good look for an airline which is often hailed for it’s customer service.

I did chuckle at your being embarrassed by the crew mentioning your gold status so often on the other flight. It’s interesting how experiences on the same airline can vary depending on the crew on duty.

Receiving 20,000 points sounds nice, especially when half is for unknown reasons, though you suspect it was due to the menu. I wonder what was on the menu.

How I wish to achieve gold status one day. It seems a great deal is required to reach and maintain gold status.

[davefl]

These were the only main meal choices for the UC cabin for nearly a 10 hour flight.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast
Summer Vegetable Tart
Asparagus Soup
Lamb Koftas

They couldn’t even be bothered to show pictures for 2 of the choices on the pre-order website. I didn’t even get offered a 2nd bread roll (so one roll was all I had). Looking at the Vflyer posts LHR typically gets double the choice on pre-order.

Gold was due to the status match promotion from valentines day.