Lack of Velocity rewards from Premium Economy to Business - has anyone else noticed the lack of upgrades on long haul international flights from premium to business.

Lack of Velocity rewards from Premium Economy to Business - has anyone else noticed the lack of upgrades on long haul international flights from premium to business.

I've had two bookings in the past 6 months and one I have in April shows no upgrades available, when I "dummy" book, no seats in business are taken.

It's been that way since they announced the fit out of the 77W fleet with the new Business class layout. 

It's largely viewed as an attempt by them to test the market to see how well the new product sells first before deciding on the final amount of reward seats they will allocate per flight in the new layout. 

Like any business, they will always try sell as many revenue seats as possible before handing out reward seats. 

Yes what Gian said is very true! I've had no trouble with securing upgrades to business on long haul in the past. I actually just called in and upgraded last week for a flight just this past Thursday from Flexi to Business for 45k points. I think I am also just really lucky as I wait until quite close to departure to upgrade or not basing my decision on how full the economy or premium cabin will be and whether I should just stay in the ticketed cabin and push through.

And now with the upcoming retrofit in 2016, its been nearly impossible to secure an upgrade. I spoke to a velocity supervisor and she informed me to just keep checking and seats will be released closer to departure and once the new product has been up and running for an unspecified amount of tme. We shall see just how many seats will be allocated for reward purposes! I hope its not a dramatic change in availability as the ease of securing upgrades up until this point has been one key reason of keeping my loyalty with virgin, especialy given that only platinums and golds can upgrade using points.