The Virgin Australia upgrade me premium bid service is great way to fly in business class for cheap. It allows Virgin Australia to recoup some money from unsold business class seats.And conversely allows passengers to experience business for only a small charge above the economy fare.
According to the Virgin Australia site all levels of velocity membership (even non-members) are able to use this service. However, I never saw this on my flights until I became a gold member. So perhaps there is some pecking order for who receives offers to put in a bid.
My upgrade bidding experience
I got an email about 10 days out from a recent flight from Brisbane to Townsville return offering me to put in a bid for an upgrade. The upgrade system is run by Plusgrade, I assume they run upgrade systems for other airlines as well. Piquing my interest, I had a look to see what the prices would be. On the Brisbane to Townsville leg the minimum bid was around $150 per person and went up to what would pretty much be purchasing a business class ticket. Since I had already purchased a full fare economy ticket an extra $150 didn’t seem worth on.
On the return leg though, the minimum bid was $70 per person. This was a little more reasonable. The upgrade system also gives you a strength rating of your offer. The strength seems to use the bid amount, loyalty status level and amount of bids as factors. So I gave it a try at the minimum bid and waited eagerly for a response.
About 9 days later and 3 days prior to the flight I got the fateful email – ✈ Congratulations, You Have Been Upgraded! Yippee! Vigrin Australia automatically charge you using the card details you enter when making the bid. Check in went through as normal and my partner got a nice surprise when we boarded the plane. You can check out a full review of the Virgin Australia Boeing 737 business class here.
Some caveats
- you will still earn points and status credits at the fare level that you purchased not at the upgraded class level.
Hopefully this Virgin Australia upgrade me premium bid rundown was helpful. Also if you haven’t seen the latest deal for Velocity points, check out our post here for the rundown. If you have any questions just leave a comment below and I will endeavor to assist. Thanks again.