Ep.85- A Serendipitous Way of Saving 60% on Seat Upgrades from Virgin Australia
📸 IG handle: DollarSenseLA
Read Time: 3 Minutes
This is a story about how an inconvenient problem led to an unexpected outcome that saved us $500 on seat upgrades with Virgin Australia.
THE SEAT SITUATION
My wife and I purchased 2 round-trip economy-class seats from Los Angeles to Sydney with Virgin Australia. All is good, except that when we tried to select our seats after the purchase, there were no two seats next to each available anymore. Since these were long flights, I was not happy to sit away from my wife for 30 hours both ways. So I did the only rational thing in this situation. I called Virgin Australia.
THE ONLY SOLUTION: ECONOMY X
I called Virgin Australia. Unfortunately, the representative told me that he could not find two adjacent seats for me, because all regular economy seats were sold out except for one. I felt discouraged so I was about to thank him and hang up.
Before I hung up, he proposed an alternative solution, upgrade to something called Economy X. I immediately said no, because my instinct told me they were going to cost me an arm and a leg, especially because these were long haul international flights with 15 hours each way.
Then something serendipitous and amazing happened. He said his colleague can help me save 50%- 60% from the upgrade, and asked if I’d like to be transferred. I thought about it. I wonder why was I so lucky with a slight sense of suspicion But in the end, I said, “sure, why not?"
He started transferring me. But the transfer took too long, so I hung up. I know…. The story does not end here.
A PERSISTENT OFFER
A couple of minutes later, my phone rang. I picked up and it turned out to be a different person from Virgin Australia calling me about the offer to upgrade me to Economy X with a 60% discount. I was suspicious because I didn’t know if this person was really from Virgin Australia. So I asked some questions, and the person seemed to know the details of the call I had minutes before, and she has all of my existing reservation information. It made me feel better.
THE 60% DISCOUNT DETAIL
The representative offered me $72.5 for a one-way upgrade to Economy X for each person. While on the call, I wanted to understand how good this deal was. So I looked up Economy X on Virgin Australia’s website. Fortunately, they listed a specific example of $199 from Los Angeles to Australia. Based on this face value, I am saving 64%. That’s not bad at all!
While being on the call, I skimmed this Youtube review video on what flying Economy X gets you. Apparently I get 7 things (listed below). What got me quite excited was not only the extra legroom, but also the fact that Economy X on long haul international flights was in its own section behind Premium Economy. On top of that, Economy X passengers share the toilets with Premium Economy.
After doing the math of upgrades, flying round trips for two people with $72.5 each would cost me $290. It’s $506 cheaper than a normal upgrade with $199 each. So I went with it.
AN EERIE FEELING UNTIL THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL
I was still skeptical about the offer during my payment because it seemed too good to be true, and I still could not 100% confirm the representative was a true Virgin Australia employee. Well… she knew our names and existing reservations. So I took a leap of faith and gave her the credit information for payment.
I patiently and nervously waited for the next few minutes, just in case she hung up on me and yelled “Psych”.
Well… the upgrade went through perfectly. For about $5 per hour in the air, my wife and I got to sit next to each other, had more leg rooms and enjoyed some additional amenities. What a pleasant surprise!
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
As the title suggests, it’s a very serendipitous way for me to save 60% on seat upgrades in this particular case. If there’s a personal finance lesson from it at all, it would be this:
Just because an amazing deal has not been written about on the Internet, it does not mean it can’t exist. Sometimes, you may be the first one to discover such a deal to share with the rest of the world. :)