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Many miles collectors have no reason to doubt that one of the better uses of miles is to upgrade a paid ticket to Business Class. Upgrading Using Avios – usually from Premium Economy to Club World – is certainly attractive with Avios / British Airways Executive Club.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, on the other hand, allows its members to upgrade both Economy and Premium Economy paid fares to Upper Class. At first glance, this seems like a potential lottery winner – pay for a cheap Economy fare and fly in Upper Class! But is it really worth it? Let’s look at what is involved in upgrading to Upper Class using Flying Club miles.

The Base Requirements

In order to upgrade a Virgin Atlantic flight using miles, you must do the following:

• Buy a paid ticket in an eligible fare class
• Find reward availability in Upper Class on the flight you booked (it is easiest to call Flying Club and book your paid ticket during the upgrade process to avoid any mix-up)
• Hand over a set number of miles according to a reward chart
• Pay the difference in taxes and surcharges between your original cabin and Upper Class.

Unfortunately, not all fares are eligible for upgrade. In fact, these are the same fare classes that are not eligible for companion rewards, as I discussed in this recent post. The cheapest fares (generally) which are eligible for upgrades are:

• X class in Economy (N, O, V are not upgrade-able)
• H class in Premium Economy (K is not upgrade-able)

Most people use ITA Matrix for complex fare class searches, but the much-maligned Virgin Atlantic website actually also allows you to search for specific fare classes.

The number of miles required for an upgrade can be found in this chart. (although in peak season you will require an extra 10,000 miles for a one-cabin upgrade and 15,000 miles for a two-cabin upgrade)

Finally, to determine the difference in taxes and surcharges, the simplest thing is to attempt a dummy reward booking in your paid cabin, and compare that to a dummy reward booking in Upper Class. The difference (in taxes and surcharges between the two dummy bookings) is what you would have to pay to Flying Club in order to upgrade.

Calculating the Value of Upgrading vs. a Standard Upper Class reward

First of all, I’m not going to play the usual blogger trick of comparing a reward seat with the retail price of an Upper Class ticket – since few of us would ever pay for Upper Class straight up. Instead I’m going to assume that you have enough miles to book an Upper Class reward (return) but are wondering whether an Upgrade is a better way to use/conserve those miles.

Economy to Upper Class Upgrades

So, let’s look at a simple London to New York return itinerary, a route chosen because I don’t want to waste hours trying to find a return reward in Upper Class to somewhere else with many fewer daily flights! I will also stick with standard off-peak season, although the principle is going to be the same during peak season.

An Upper Class return reward from London to New York is going to cost 95,000 miles.

An Upgrade from Economy to Upper Class from London to New York is going to cost 71,200 miles. However, a paid return ticket in X-class Economy from London to New York is going to earn you 3,500 miles back, more if you enjoy elite status with Virgin Atlantic.

So, the net cost in miles to book a standard reward instead of an upgrade is 27,300 miles.

On the cash side, you will need to pay £522.47 in taxes and surcharges for an Upper Class return reward.

The cheapest X-class economy return fare for London to New York appears to be £731.07.

And, finally, in order to upgrade you would need to pay the difference between those £522.47 for an UC reward and the taxes and surcharges on a return reward in Economy (£260.47). The extra you must pay Flying Club for the upgrade is therefore £262.

The result isn’t looking very good. You can either pay £522.47 for a full reward or you can pay £993.07 for an upgraded paid ticket. The difference is £470.60. I certainly wouldn’t pay £470 to save 27,300 miles. I would try to acquire enough miles for a straight reward in Upper Class if I didn’t already have them…

Perhaps other routes have a lower X-class fare, but the fact that an upgrade from Economy to Upper Class costs 75% of the miles of a straightforward UC reward (+ higher APD and surcharge) probably offers a simple sign that the value of upgrading just might not be there for a travel hacker.

Premium Economy to Upper Class Upgrades

When I wrote about companion rewards, I found that the H-class fares (the cheapest eligible for upgrade or companion rewards) can be quite a bit more expensive than the lowest Premium Economy K-class fares. Nonetheless, let’s repeat the methodology for PE and see what we come up with.

An Upper Class return reward from London to New York is still going to cost 95,000 miles.

An Upgrade from Premium Economy to Upper Class from London to New York is going to cost 47,400 miles. However, a paid return ticket in H-class Premium Economy from London to New York is going to earn you 6,900 miles back, more if you enjoy elite status with Virgin Atlantic.

So, the net cost in miles to book a standard reward instead of an upgrade is 54,500 miles.

On the cash side, you will need to pay £522.47 in taxes and surcharges for an Upper Class return reward.

The cheapest H-class premium economy return fare for London to New York is £1,174.07.

Finally, in order to upgrade you would need to pay the difference between those £522.47 for an UC reward and the taxes and surcharges on a return reward in Premium Economy (£436.47). The difference – and the amount you would need to pay Flying Club for the upgrade – is therefore £86.

Again, the result isn’t looking very good. You can either pay £522.47 for a full reward or you can pay £1,260.07 for an upgraded paid ticket. The difference is £737.60. I certainly wouldn’t pay £740 to save 54,500 miles. I would try to acquire enough miles for a straightforward reward in Upper Class if I didn’t already have enough…

Other Things to Consider

Of course, boiling the transaction down to a simple “cost to save miles” doesn’t necessarily tell the full story. There can be both positives and negatives to rewards versus upgrades.

The main advantage I see of a full reward is the refundable nature of a reward ticket. If you should need to cancel a reward booking, you can do so by paying a modest cancellation fee. With an upgrade, you certainly will receive a refund of your miles and any extra cash paid (minus cancellation fee), but your underlying ticket will still suffer its original fare rules. So the majority of that money will be lost should your plans change.

Booking a straightforward reward is also less of a hassle (despite the best efforts of the new website to make it so). Upgrading requires some research into the cheapest upgrade-able fares as well as finding the reward space in Upper Class, then a phone call to Flying Club.

The upgrade side also has some advantages that are worthy of considering.

• You might have elite status with Flying Club and therefore interested in earning additional Tier Points for your trip as part of your re-qualification efforts; elite members also earn bonus miles from the underlying paid ticket.
• You might not be paying for the underlying ticket. If your employer has you flying at the back of the bus, you might be perfectly willing to pay for an upgrade using your miles.
• You might not have enough miles for simple rewards in Upper Class, particularly if you are flying with a partner and/or family. Paying for H-class Premium Economy might be a whole lot simpler than trying to buy (or convert credit card or hotel points) enough miles for the full Upper Class rewards. You could also use those H-class paid tickets to fly your old-enough children on their own in Premium Economy using Companion Rewards, whilst you upgrade yourself and your partner to Upper Class.

Nonetheless, the difference between Flying Club upgrades and Avios Upgrades is the eligibility of the cheapest Premium Economy fares. Since Flying Club has a more restrictive policy, it can be harder to find value from upgrading your paid tickets using Virgin Atlantic miles. But that shouldn’t stop you from doing some math the next time you are contemplating whether to book an Upper Class reward or whether to buy a ticket and upgrade it.