Virgin Australia offers premium economy upgrade plus lounge access from $35

In what is easily Australia's best value upgrade deal, Virgin Australia is offering passengers an upgrade to premium economy plus one-off airport lounge access for prices starting at $35 – or for trading in 3,900 Velocity points.

It's part of a Premium Economy Taste Test promotion which the airline hopes will encourage travellers to sample life a little closer to the pointy end of its domestic flights.

There are a few catches.

• You have to be booked on a 'corporate plus' fare or one of Virgin Australia's recently-introduced flexible fares (which in itself isn't a bad way to highlight the value these fares offer).
• Your flight has to be on a weekday, after 9am and before 11pm. No weekends, no morning peak-hours and no red-eyes
• You have to be travelling by August 31, because that's when this limited-time deal expires
• And you can only book your upgrade from 3 hours to 45 minutes before the flight, as long as there's availability in the Premium Economy cabin and provided you haven't checked in yet. As soon as you check in for your flight you're stuck in economy. This will see a lot of travellers hitting their phones at the airport or en route in order to snare their upgrade.

An upgrade on flights running under 90 minutes will cost $35 or 3,900 Velocity points. For 90–180 minutes it's $50 or 5,400 points; and for flights longer than three hours you're looking at $75 or 8,100 points.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.