virgin flying club points - using

[Blown2CV]

having had a virgin atlantic credit card for a while now, we've built up something like 550k points, however i'm a bit underwhelmed by the options i have to actually use the points. Back when I signed up I did so on the basis of it being the most 'valuable' points card in terms of points/money, without really looking enough at the options to cash the points in. Daft I know but I am older and wiser now...

anyway, is anyone else in this scheme and can recommend what to do or what has worked for them?

i know I can use the points against virgin red too, and I have done a lot of these things in the past, but I really want to be using for flights/holidays and not endless virgin experiences or costa coffee cards.

thanks

[TownIdiot]

The key is to be flexible with dates and where to go.
It's really very difficult to be fulfill a specific requirement

Edited to add a caveat that it's been ages since I used anything like this precisely because they are such a PITA to use

[craig1912]

We use ours every year together with a companion flight.

I always book by phoning them on the day the flights are released. They are always very helpful.

Saying that they have just changed the criteria and you can now book any flight with points.

[AB]

We have a place in Orlando so they are mega useful. But as said you need to be flexible on dates, I've not actually booked since they changed the reward flight system. You can spend them using Virgin Red website too on experiences.

[Guyr]

I collect BA and Virgin points and have always focussed on BA since they serve 201 as compared to 34 locations globally.

As said above the key to redemptions is planning your travel based on availability of flights, although I think the new Virgin system may remove this need as all seats are available, but they vary in points with demand.

I use SeatSpy to search for availability of reward seats on BA.

[omniflow]

It's really not difficult.

We're currently in Moab having flown out to Las Vegas using virgin points. We flew out upper class, which makes the 10/11 hour flight quite pleasant. The only hard bit is working out the right combination of points and companion vouchers, but the flying club helpline are absolutely brilliant and will bend over backwards to find the best value combination for your circumstances.

Back when I used to travel quite a lot for work, I and a couple of colleagues actually flew to Tampa via Miami, so that the bulk of the flight was with Virgin. There was a direct BA flight to Tampa, but we preferred to stick with Virgin.

Get some long haul holidays planned. Virgin fly to enough places in the US that you can do pretty much any type of US holiday. I thoroughly recommend the Southwest National Parks - they are awesome.

[anonymous-user]

omniflow said:

It's really not difficult.

We're currently in Moab having flown out to Las Vegas using virgin points. We flew out upper class, which makes the 10/11 hour flight quite pleasant. The only hard bit is working out the right combination of points and companion vouchers, but the flying club helpline are absolutely brilliant and will bend over backwards to find the best value combination for your circumstances.

Back when I used to travel quite a lot for work, I and a couple of colleagues actually flew to Tampa via Miami, so that the bulk of the flight was with Virgin. There was a direct BA flight to Tampa, but we preferred to stick with Virgin.

Get some long haul holidays planned. Virgin fly to enough places in the US that you can do pretty much any type of US holiday. I thoroughly recommend the Southwest National Parks - they are awesome.

This is the key point from this thread. Pick an evening when you have a bit of time spare and give them a call. Always super helpful and will spend much more time than you would expect hunting out the best deal for you. I don't think I have booked a Virgin flight online in the last 14 years.

[DeuceDeuce]

omniflow said:

It's really not difficult.

We're currently in Moab having flown out to Las Vegas using virgin points. We flew out upper class, which makes the 10/11 hour flight quite pleasant. The only hard bit is working out the right combination of points and companion vouchers, but the flying club helpline are absolutely brilliant and will bend over backwards to find the best value combination for your circumstances.

Back when I used to travel quite a lot for work, I and a couple of colleagues actually flew to Tampa via Miami, so that the bulk of the flight was with Virgin. There was a direct BA flight to Tampa, but we preferred to stick with Virgin.

Get some long haul holidays planned. Virgin fly to enough places in the US that you can do pretty much any type of US holiday. I thoroughly recommend the Southwest National Parks - they are awesome.

Did you book this before they introduced dynamic pricing?

[Blown2CV]

i should qualify here, i view VA as a pain in the arse on these fronts:

1. Usability/stability of website - it can be REALLY hard to establish the basics such as flight routes, dates etc. then the whole thing crashes and boots you out and you have to start again
2. The places that VA fly from and to is a fairly st list. I have to pretty much get myself to heathrow (I live about 25 mins drive from manchester airport) and the list of destinations reads like a list of the world's least likely holiday destinations, save for a handful of places such as NYC and florida etc.
3. Of the possible destinations, the points cost of flights seems to have gone through the roof. I was incredibly frustrated to find that I would pretty much be using all of my points balance for 4 economy flights to somewhere relatively st that I would need to drive to heathrow to get to... not cool

I think the people who have replied saying they make good use of VA seem to have a reason to make regular use of particular destinations that VA serve.

[AB]

You don't have to use VA though, they have a number of partners.

[omniflow]

Blown2CV said:

i should qualify here, i view VA as a pain in the arse on these fronts:

1. Usability/stability of website - it can be REALLY hard to establish the basics such as flight routes, dates etc. then the whole thing crashes and boots you out and you have to start again
2. The places that VA fly from and to is a fairly st list. I have to pretty much get myself to heathrow (I live about 25 mins drive from manchester airport) and the list of destinations reads like a list of the world's least likely holiday destinations, save for a handful of places such as NYC and florida etc.
3. Of the possible destinations, the points cost of flights seems to have gone through the roof. I was incredibly frustrated to find that I would pretty much be using all of my points balance for 4 economy flights to somewhere relatively st that I would need to drive to heathrow to get to... not cool

I think the people who have replied saying they make good use of VA seem to have a reason to make regular use of particular destinations that VA serve.

Based on point 2 alone - why on earth did you sign up for a Virgin card in the first place? This is information that's easily available (I don't really acknowledge point 1, finding out flight routes for Virgin is an absolute doddle), yet you ignored it and now you're unhappy about it.

[craig1912]

Used them for New York, Barbados, Antigua & St Lucia.

As others have said, it isn’t difficult, just phone them up.

And as has been said already, you can use points on a partner airline

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-cl...

I have never had an issue (going Upper there and back to St Lucia in a couple of weeks using points and a companion seat) but haven’t yet booked now they have changed their system.

And as to where they fly, there is a map on the link below

https://www.virginatlantic.com/where-we-fly

Oh and they fly to various destinations from Manchester

https://flights.virginatlantic.com/en-gb/flights-f...

I know their website isn’t great but neither is BAs so just phone them.

Edited by craig1912 on Thursday 20th February 16:22

[NormalWisdom]

Usually pay cash for an economy return and then use points (involves getting on the phone to them) to upgrade to Upper Class.

[Ascayman]

Long time Virgin Gold member, first time booking under the new system yesterday. Pretty simple as it turns out.

Rang the number, said where i wanted to go on what date (1st april) said for how long, said i was relatively flexible and that i wanted to use my companion voucher,

Long and short - out and back on the dates i wanted, upper, two of us all in inc taxes £2900. both journeys on the new planes.

cant argue with that.

[AB]

That's a decent price, assume if you'd added some points you'd have got that down even further.

Having said that, taxes aren't far off £1,000 for Upper from memory.

[mikef]

I used to fly a lot for business on Virgin and had great rewards flights with the points. I’m happy with their destinations, that isn’t an issue

However in recent years it’s become almost impossible to redeem the points for Virgin flights unless you want to go somewhere obscure and book many months in advance

To the point that I have given up on Virgin because the rewards suck (ditto BA, I have no idea what they are playing at with their loyalty scheme - I don’t give a fig about Avios, I just want to fly and earn points and be able to use them for free flights)

[InitialDave]

Virgin's move to dynamic pricing has rather scuppered the value of their scheme, as they are often now very expensive in terms of points, while also requiring an obscene cash component.

But there is the opportunity for the dynamic pricing to be inyour favour and be cheaper than the od pricing, if you're very flexible.

In terms of how to use the points, the absolute killer value for VA points is redeeming them for first or business class to Japan on ANA, but good luck finding availability. It's borderline impossible now.

They are starting a London to Toronto route soon, if you want to go to Canada.

Or you can redeem your points at Greggs for a couple of thousand sausage rolls.

[barryrs]

I tend to use mine for basic economy flights as I can accumulate enough over a year for 2.

Recently booked London to Miami and Tampa back to London for 20000 miles plus £285 per person taxes.

[mikef]

By the way, for anyone who has accumulated Virgin miles and no useful way of using them. Book a rewards Upper Class flight anywhere, then cancel it. When I did this late last year, i got cash back, not refunded points (not sure why)

[PBCD]

craig1912 said:

Oh and they fly to various destinations from Manchester

https://flights.virginatlantic.com/en-gb/flights-f...

That page is just a list of popular fares from Manchester, the vast majority
of which require a change en route.

As far as I am aware, only the first five destinations listed are actual direct,
non-stop flights from MAN.