Flying BNE-MSP (Minneapolis) in Y+, cannot be booked?

[bigbadbyrnes]

Greetings flyers,

Just how deep is the rabbit hole into which Virgin have sunk? At the moment a colleauge of mine is attempting to book a flight from Brisbane to Minneapolis in Premium Economy in late July, connecting through LAX (of course).

After two hours on the phone and talking to two different people, he has been told that it is impossible to book a Y+ ticket to MSP because the connecting carrier, Delta, do not have a Y+ service. This is well known of course, the same issue is faced when flying to Europe via AUH and being stuck in Y with Etihad.


But he cannot book the ticket all the way to MSP period. He's looking into organising a separate itinerary for the LAX-MPS, but this will come at a higher cost that it would if it was being added onto an international. To me, this stinks of a fare mapping issue - like the poor untrained sod trying to work out the routing doesn't know which ticket class to match to the international so the computer is saying 'no'.

Anyone else struck this and know a work around? Or anyone technically informed enough to know what DL (and VX's for that matter) correctly fare mapped ticket codes are for Y+??

Safe flying,

CB

 

[trooper]

I just threw BNE-MSP into XP.com.au It priced the return (for random dates in October) at $4058... with Y+ on the long hauls and Y on the Delta domestics...

If that sounds "right" it might be the easiest way to book it..... For the same dates BTW BNE-LAX (Y+) was $400 less than that..... but as I don't know what a decent LAX-MSP fare is I can't comment!

 

[ozmille]

Just had a look on some random dates and it should definitely be possible, IE the below for about 4700

1 VA 007 O 15JUL 1 BNELAX HK1 I 1115 0730 77W E 0 BD
2 VA6615 K 15JUL 1 LAXMSP HK1 5 1055 1629 757 E 0
3 VA6631 K 26JUL 5 MSPLAX HK1 1 1925 2124 757 E 0
4 VA 008 O 26JUL 5 LAXBNE HK1 3 2355 0700+2 77W E 0 BD

if VA can't help directly maybe contact a Travel Agent, or book online. I can see Delta codeshares available for about 3900 with VA prem Y on the long hauls and Delta economy on the shorter flights

 

[notzac]

Anyone else struck this and know a work around? Or anyone technically informed enough to know what DL (and VX's for that matter) correctly fare mapped ticket codes are for Y+??

I honestly think that this is a staff training issue - VA have fares filed that allow BNE-MSP in whY+ (which is why Expedia etc. can find and price them), however VA's monumentally useless website can't find it because there isn't a whY+ cabin for the entire journey.

Willing to bet that the call centre staff are just using the VA website themselves to set up reservations.. they may not even have access or know how to use Sabre directly.

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

I honestly think that this is a staff training issue

FWIW that is precisely my suspicion too. This would explain the lack of consistent responses to queries and their inability to handle things like this which should be straight forward and routine.

 

[Fruitcake]

however VA's monumentally useless website can't find it because there isn't a whY+ cabin for the entire journey.

Except that VA's website does show Y+ fares BNE-MSP for late July and early August. However, only full fares, not premium savers.

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

Tried the old fashioned approach of hanging up and ringing back a few hours later to see if a different staff member could be reached who would provide a different response.


Success.

The actual transaction that was arranged was:

The purchase of a fully flexible Y ticket BNE-MPS via LAX.
The upgrade of that ticket for BNE-LAX to Y+ for no extra charge at all, no change fee, no additional cost.
Upgrade of the returning LAX-BNE to J for 45,000 points (skipped the upgrade on the way over, although that could have also been had).

Excellent outcome, but it did take several hours and multiple attempts. Once all staff at the GCC are as well versed in VA's own systems as the last bloke my colleague spoke too, we will be back on the rails.