Premium Economy for MEL-LAX - SC and points earn rates

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theevilmuppet

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Jan 11, 2015
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Hi all,

I'm currently planning my next opportunity to bugger off to the US, and I'm trying to balance status retention with financial sensibility.

I'm in Melbourne and will obviously need to get to Sydney or Brisbane to get to LAX on Virgin. In terms of Status Credit earn SYD-LAX and BNE-LAX are equivalent which leaves the domestic leg for consideration.

With all that said:

  • Do Premium Economy fares from MEL to LAX get the benefit of PE SC and points earn rates on the domestic legs?
  • As a Platinum member, can complimentary upgrades be used for the domestic legs?
  • Are there any tips anyone can offer (or pre-existing guides that anyone can point to) regarding securing points-based upgrades to Business Class for the long haul leg?

As always, thanks to all who reply.
 
I'm in the same position as you re the first two points, with a domestic leg to BNE and then the W sector booked to LAX, so I'm interested. I've booked a "Premium Saver" fare so I'm not sure what the domestic hop will count as. If no-one knows until after August I can tell you then!

Re: point number 3, it's fairly easy -- look on the VA site for flights booked in J with "Points + Pay" selected, and then look to see if there are any "Business Reward" seats available for the flights you're after. Upgrade stock (Z) is the same as Business Reward, so if one is available the other is too.

I will typically confirm that with the call centre and ask them to process the upgrade as soon as I've booked the flight to secure it. As you're Gold, you'll be eligible to upgrade. Points requirement is 45k for "Premium Saver" fares, or 25k for (the much more expensive) "Premium" fares.

Also note that flexi economy is usually *much* more economical than Premium economy, and has the same points requirement for upgrading, so if you don't need the extra 40SCs, the premium might not be worth it. (I both need the SCs this year, and bought my W fare during a pretty decent happy hour so the difference wasn't too much)

Hope this helps - I'd also be interested on an answer for the Points / SC earn for the domestic sectors of a PE fare!!
 
Hi mate
i can't tell you for sure as it is slightly different (in my case I'm flying delta in the U.S.) but I think the reply will be the same. The aircraft does not have PE seating domestically so I would expect it to earn Flexi rates for sc eg 30 sc's for the domestic leg to bris. I emailed Virgin to ask about this as I was initially ticketed on PE on the delta legs in my initial itinerary but then it was changed to economy. I am not sure on the complimentary upgrade personally.

To search for business upgrades simply select points and pay and search for business reward availability for your flight on the vff website. If there is a business reward seat available you can upgrade with points :)
 
As an extra data point: the "Fare Basis" for all my original flights was OZR4027; though "Class" is definitely listed as Economy.
Manage my booking can no longer retrieve the fare rules for my flights now they've been upgraded.

"O" is not listed as a valid Fare Class by Velocity, for Virgin Australia flights other than Virgin Australia International, so that doesn't give me any real comfort they'd earn at a W rate domestically.


As an aside for yourself - if you have the option I'd much rather do VA1 rather than transit in BNE, as the Etihad Lounge in SYD is much, much better than the pretty ordinary Koru Club in BNE.
I had no availability for VA1/2 upgrades so chose ~14 hours in business rather than ~1 hr in a nicer lounge in Sydney, but YMMV!
 
I did MEL-BNE-LAX on a PE ticket in November. The MEL-BNE leg earned flexi SC's and points, so 30 SCs and 874 points each way (without status bonus). BNE-LAX leg will earn regular PE SCs/points.

Although having to change flights is a little annoying, you do earn an additional 60 extra SCs compared to the old MEL-LAX PE return, so not all bad.
 
Domestic sectors connected to a long haul whY+ ticket earn as flexible whY - as aaronm mentioned, you're looking at 30 SCs per domestic sector if you transit via BNE.
 
Yes, you can use the Platinum complimentary upgrades for the domestic sectors - I used my two remaining upgrades for one of the domestic flights for our recent US trip (PER-SYD-LAX return). Was able to upgrade the rest of the sectors with points - did this at the time of booking (about 8 months before the trip) for the other domestic leg and LAX-SYD. There was no upgrade availability for the SYD-LAX sector at that time, so as per the usual excellent advice from other AFFers, I kept checking for business reward availability and was able to snaffle upgrades for that sector when two reward seats popped up about 4 months out.
 
I just did PE saver MEL-BNE-LAX-SYD-MEL. Earn rate was

MEL-BNE = 30 SC / 874 points
BNE-LAX = 120 SC / 8,963 points
LAX-SYD = 120 SC / 9,369 points
SYD-MEL = 20 SC / 456 points

I upgraded LAX-SYD for 45000 and SYD-MEL for only 4900 as PE domestic fares are considered flexi for upgrade. I actually thought the PE VA product was very good except for the food which was the exact same as Y.
 
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Another datapoint here - as above, domestic sectors for me have always been in full Y (even though the PE was promo sale fare). There was no availability to upgrade for the domestic legs when I rang in, but they did it for me on the day in the lounge anyway.

The DL sectors credited as flexy as well which was nice. I used the 50% Eco+ deal for those sectors, although now in theory you'll get that for free - YMMV though given the late stage VA gets confirmed into those seats. Good luck!

The ratio of SC/$ is pretty good on these fares, although the product is a long way behind QF PE.
 
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Thanks to all who have replied - it's greatly appreciated.

The follow up question is with regard to PE on Virgin in general. If I end up traveling before the 777s are refurbished, I have two questions:

1. Is PE worth the premium over standard economy?
2. Given the choice, would you opt for PE on Virgin or Comfort+ on Delta?
 
I would say Virgin every time to q2. Although I have not travelled in delta comfort, my experiences in delta economy on the couple of occasions I have travelled with them bne-lax are a tired plane , with tired and grumpy crew. I always check to make sure my long haul is VA operated not delta.
 
Thanks to all who have replied - it's greatly appreciated.

The follow up question is with regard to PE on Virgin in general. If I end up traveling before the 777s are refurbished, I have two questions:

1. Is PE worth the premium over standard economy?
2. Given the choice, would you opt for PE on Virgin or Comfort+ on Delta?

It depends on what the premium is. Normally I'd say no (often Y transpac can be ~$1,000 - $1,200 vs W which is >$3,000). The product is not worth >2x economy price by any means. Currently you can a sale NZ J fare to LAX for ~$4,200 which is comparatively great value.

I'm lucky enough to have been pretty much purely J flying for the last couple of years so I'm not sure what I'll do the next time I'm facing the Y vs. W question.

DL's Economy Comfort product isn't really PE- it's a Y seat with a little more recline and more (3-4") legroom. Same 3-3-3 layout on the 777. It's also a lot cheaper than a W seat (more like the cost of an exit row seat most airlines charge).
I think you might also get some extra 'service' (e.g. drinks) than you do in Y but I haven't flown it so don't have first hand data. There is no separate cabin, it's just the first few rows of the Y cabin.

Given the choice I would probably fly VA metal every time, but really it'd come down to cost.
 
The wide seats and recline in PE is welcome extra comfort you need on long flights like that. Stay away from 14A/C/H/K as these all have limited recline. I reckon the PE seats are probably more comfortable than J ones, until they make it into a bed.
 
1. Is PE worth the premium over standard economy?
Depends how much it is, how heavy the load is down back, and if you're paying :)
If I was paying, no probably not, I'd hope for a WP shadow (not that VA know what they are) and spend the fare difference on dinners and hotel and probably allow a soft day 1 to recover. If work is paying and I need to work immediately on arrival then I do think it's good value WHEN it's on sale. It's especially good value if you can upgrade into J.

2. Given the choice, would you opt for PE on Virgin or Comfort+ on Delta?

VA everytime, different products. I try to avoid the DL long haul flights, but if I couldn't then I would pay for C+
 
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