Want a shot an an upgrade to business class on your next Virgin Australia flight? Be prepared to put

Want a shot an an upgrade celine dion las vegas show tickets to business class on your next Virgin Australia flight? Be prepared to put your money down under the airline's new UpgradeMe Premium celine dion las vegas show tickets Bid auction system, launched today for all Virgin Australia domestic and international flights.
Similar to the upgrade auction systems are already offered by Etihad and Air New Zealand both of which are Virgin Australia partners and financial stakeholders UpgradeMe Premium Bid asks travellers to make a cash bid for any available seats in Virgin's 'premium' cabins, which includes premium economy celine dion las vegas show tickets on international celine dion las vegas show tickets flights to Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi as well as the more popular celine dion las vegas show tickets business class.
In the case of the Brisbane-Sydney flight shown below, the traveller is bidding in the mid-range of $255, with the option to go as low as $150 and up to $350 at which point you may realise that buying a business class fare to begin with could well have been cheaper.
And not all empty business class seats will be up for grabs. Virgin Australia spokesman Nathan Scholz confirmed to Australian celine dion las vegas show tickets Business Traveller that "only a percentage of seats in the premium cabin will be available for UpgradeMe Premium Bids."
"We will have some restrictions (on the number of seats available)" Scholz explains, so that travellers can still use other upgrade channels such as Velocity points or the Complimentary Fare Upgrades issued Platinum members.
"The upgrade options already available to Velocity Frequent Flyers were important considerations celine dion las vegas show tickets in designing UpgradeMe Premium Bid, so we have looked at that" Scholz says, citing in-lounge upgrades as an example where Virgin's most frequent travellers would not be disadvantaged by bids.
(Virgin is also rebranding its current upgrade options under the UpgradeMe banner, with Velocity points-based upgrades celine dion las vegas show tickets now called UpgradeMe celine dion las vegas show tickets Points and the Complimentary Fare Upgrades available to Platinum members dubbed UpgradeMe Platinum Member Offer.)
However, only bookings made directly with Virgin celine dion las vegas show tickets Australia are eligible for an upgrade bid. That won't please the majority of business celine dion las vegas show tickets travellers whose bookings are done through a travel agency, and often in economy, but would welcome the chance to pay out of their own pocket for a business class upgrade.
"Part of the reason is that an upgrade changes the booking and we believe it's important for the customers of our travel partners to have their booking remain with that agency" he says, "so at this stage we have not included external bookings."
Eligible travellers will receive an email inviting them to bid for an upgrade "up to one week prior to departure" Scholz explains, "although within that period guests can also enter their booking celine dion las vegas show tickets details at the Virgin Australia website and check if they're eligible."
International economy bookings can be upgraded only to premium economy, not business class: only premium economy passengers can bid for business class on international flights, and even if they're successful they won't get access to any business lounges
Honestly, this is an underwhelming program in comparison to other airlines having a similar "upgrade auction" program. For example, Air NZ OneUp allows bids with cash or FF points, and if you're successful you get all the benefits of the class that you've won an upgrade for. So no thanks, Virgin.
Agree with mr_pb. Sounds like this is a nice little way for virgin to supplement its revenues rather than offer real value to customers with the full service offering. If you dont get the higher miles, unless you get a great deal is the upgrade really worth it?
I think it's deliberately a half-a*sed program designed to dangle premium travel in front of those willing to part with some extra cash, while protecting the existing fully-paid and ultra-frequent-flyer customer base.
I agree, Virgin Australia is being wise in making sure it offers an upside to economy travellers without undermining celine dion las vegas show tickets its premium segment. I, for one, wouldn't want Business full of pax who paid less than me!
Discounted economy fares on Virgin are where Economy pax get real value jetsetter86 - this scheme just offers price scaling for premium seats that otherwise would be unsold, while protecting the existing premium market.
celine dion las vegas show tickets I think this could be great on long haul flights (domestic coast to coast on A330 and international destinations) where there is often an abundance of premium seats and where in some case you cannot upgrade on forehand. Especially on the coast to coast routes celine dion las vegas show tickets i have noticed that often there are 15+ seats open, so presumably if you bid in the lower range you would be able to secure an upgrade at significantly lower cost than buying the ticket outright. Obviously the lack of perks is disappointing, but if you are a Gold FF or above you get the lounge access and extra luggage in any case.
This worries me. They say it wont affect the availabilty of upgrade seats for Platinum FF's but how do we know this is the case? One of the key benefits of Virgin is upgrading either at time of booking (with points or platinum upgrade) or lounge upgrades. Surely if they are encouraging cash upgrades it will limit seats for loyal frequent flyers.
Nice to see a product offing that s adding more choice for consumers and providing celine dion las vegas show tickets them with a better experience when they fly. It s good that travelers without Velocity points or status now have access to an upgrade. I don t think this will harm the frequent flyers either if there s still space available and they have first preference. I m looking forward to flying Virgin to try this.
For goodness sakes who cares about these hair-brained schemes some pony tailed marketing graduate dreams up to justify his job for another week? Why can't the airlines just do their core job, i.e. get me onto the aircraft with minimum fuss as smoothly as possible, don't lose my luggage, leave on time and provide a meals drinks service. Aircraft are nothing more than buses and trains that fly, that's all they are. Try the KISS principle
For goodness sakes who cares about these hair-brained schemes some pony tailed marketing graduate dreams up to justify his job for another week? Why can't the airlines celine dion las vegas show tickets just do their core job, i.e. get me onto the aircraft with minimum fuss as smoothly as possible, don't lose my luggage, leave on time and provide a meals drinks service. Aircraft are nothing more than buses and trains that fly, that's all they are. Try the KISS principle
Actually, since financial consideration is being made for the upgrade my expectation is that VA would reward points/status celine dion las vegas show tickets on the basis of the class not just being flown but as it happens actually purchased. That the buyer paid significantly less for the next tier ticket as a consequence of playing the UpgradeMe game ought not to matter.
Of course I understand perfectly why they wouldn't do that, yet if the idea is to "gamify" the upgrade then why not go all the way? It's not that hard to write algorithms that put the customers they want in the next cabin and thereby incentivise them to pay a full fare next time.