Exchanging Virgin Australia reward seats

[lissthree]

Coming up the pointy end of my nearly 3 year planning and flights will open up for purchase in the next couple of weeks. My family of 5 are prepared to break up and go on different flights but as I am expecting not to get all of us into business class straight away (if ever) , am I allowed to book Virgin Australia seats in e.g. premium economy and then IF one becomes available in business class , exchange them? Do I have to have the 94000 puts required to purchase the business one BEFORE I get the 72,000 ones returned to my account i.e. can it be a simply exchange or must it be a purchase And a refund which therefore requires more points in my account??

As we have 3 teenage kids, I don't want to have to split into 3 flights as that would leave one of them with no parent on board.

Thanks in advance

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Coming up the pointy end of my nearly 3 year planning and flights will open up for purchase in the next couple of weeks. My family of 5 are prepared to break up and go on different flights but as I am expecting not to get all of us into business class straight away (if ever) , am I allowed to book Virgin Australia seats in e.g. premium economy and then IF one becomes available in business class , exchange them? Do I have to have the 94000 puts required to purchase the business one BEFORE I get the 72,000 ones returned to my account i.e. can it be a simply exchange or must it be a purchase And a refund which therefore requires more points in my account??

As we have 3 teenage kids, I don't want to have to split into 3 flights as that would leave one of them with no parent on board.

Thanks in advance

You can definitely make changes to a reward booking. In fact, they're much more flexible than commercial bookings.

No need to cancel and wait for points to re-deposit. They should be able to make the change over the phone.

Here's the policy: http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/e...ewardseat/#international-and-partner-airlines

Change/cancellation fee is 7,500 points or $60.

Also, remember to not let them charge you a Guest Contact Centre/assisted booking fee since it's not possible to make the change online.

 

[Deewhy]

Confirm what mrsmart says. I did this on the phone and $60 per person is the charge.

 

[lissthree]

Thanks so much.I had read those rules in my investigations but didnt know if exchanging from premium economy to business was considered an upgrade using points? or is the fact that Im exchanging for an actual business reward seat( vs upgrading to business when no business award seat is available,the difference?

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Thanks so much.I had read those rules in my investigations but didnt know if exchanging from premium economy to business was considered an upgrade using points? or is the fact that Im exchanging for an actual business reward seat( vs upgrading to business when no business award seat is available,the difference?

That's right – there's no 'upgrade' happening with reward seats, simply a booking change (same as if you changed the time, routing, dates etc).

 

[lissthree]

thanks everyone, this has been really helpful in reducing the stress levels.