Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points - Half price sale!

Former_MSE_Natasha · 2 June 2009 at 11:22AM

Thursday 9 September 2010

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What's the deal?[/title]

If you collect Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club points, and have accumulated at least 25,000, now's the perfect time to cash in. Until 12 October, the airline Goliath has slashed the amount of points needed for eight popular destinations by half, when you fly from London Heathrow or Gatwick

If you have enough points, then you just pay the taxes and charges.

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Where can I go?[/title]

The following destinations are now available for 25,000 points (most were 50,000 before):

Barbados, Dubai, Las Vegas, LA, Nairobi, New York, Orlando and San Francisco.

You must book by 12 October but you can travel from now until 31 August 2011 (this date may be extended). The further in the future you are travelling, the better the availability - though on the whole there is an enormous amount of seats anyway

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How much will it cost?
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Here's a rundown of the kind of prices you can expect to pay for the taxes and charges. Obviously we just checked these at a specific time so the cost could vary massively depending on when & where you book

Air Passenger Duty is increasing from 1 November so we've quoted prices for flights after that date (they'll be £15-£30 cheaper before).

Barbados: £217

Dubai: £207

LA: £233

Las Vegas: £221

Nairobi: £222

New York: £207

Orlando: £195

San Francisco: £233

HAVE YOU SPOTTED A GOOD DEAL?
PLEASE CLICK REPLY AND LET OTHER MONEYSAVERS KNOW

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Don't exchange yet! Check what it'd cost elsewhere[/title]

As you've already got the 25,000 points, you may be happy to spend these on a flight. But Virgin won't necessarily be cheapest, so it's often worth a quick check to see the lowest price available

Use a cheap flight screenscraper such as Kayak*, Travelsupermarket* or Skyscanner* to search for flights for the dates you can make. See the Cheap Flights guide for more info.

Remember, for safety, pay on a credit card to get extra protection, though you may be charged a booking fee (between £5 and £10) for doing so. See the Section 75 guide for full info.

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Haven't quite got enough points?[/title]

Purchasing extra miles to top up your total is often a waste of cash, as the additional expenditure would likely equal, or surpass, the full cost of a standard flight.

However until 5 October Virgin's giving 15% bonus miles when extra are bought. For example, buy 1,000 for £30 and you'll get 1,150.

Depending on the destination it may be worth doing but carefully crunch the numbers before splashing out.

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Going to the US? Don't forget your ESTA![/title]

You must have Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) before going to America. It costs $14 (plus card charges) and lasts up to two years or until your pasport expires. See the ESTA guide for full information.

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More Travel MoneySaving[/title]

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* Using these links helps the site stay ad-free and free to use, as they’re ‘affiliated links’ which invisibly take you via price comparison services like Moneysupermarket or affiliate sites, this then means if you end up getting a product this site gets revenue

You shouldn’t notice any difference, the links don’t impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things we write) is NEVER impacted by the revenue. If it isn’t possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, its still listed in the same way. The following links Kayak, Travelsupermarket, Skyscanner, Virgin Atlantic are identical unaffiliated links provided for the sake of transparency. Click on the following link for more details on how this site's financed.

thelawnet · 29 September 2010 at 12:22AM

If you collect Flying Club points, you're probably better off with BMI's Diamond Club.

That said, if you are stuck with VS miles, these deals aren't great - Upper Class is always going to be better value.

The 15% bonus isn't going to make much odds at all; if you're close to the redemption level, then the 15% is insignificant, and if you're not, then 25,000 miles will cost £345 with bonus, on top of which you've got taxes/fees - so the 15% shouldn't make this a good/bad deal.

BTW, the fees quoted above are always the same. The break down is as follows for example

LAX:

YQ (fuel surcharge) £137

UK APD £60
Heathrow PSC £22.97

US fees £12.80

Total = £232.77

JFK:

YQ £111

UK APD £60
Heathrow PSC £22.97

US fees £12.80

Total = £206.77

MCO:

YQ £111
Gatwick PSC £11.21
UK APD £60

US fees £12.80

Total = £195

Obivously the greatest part of the charge is actually the scam YQ, but suffice to say you're going to pay somewhere around £200 in taxes and fees.

Good luck getting several seats on one flight btw.....

dinesh17 · 29 September 2010 at 3:56PM

I am guessing there are some experienced flyers on here who know how to get best use of the points given that these prices are only really saving around £100 - £150 given the high amount of taxes and fees.

Would it be better to buy a more expensive (flexible) ticket and then upgrade to upper class or use Virgin points on another airline's scheme with better redemption options.

Help appreciated.

WellTravelled · 30 September 2010 at 11:19AM

thelawnet is spot on. It is rarely worthwhile spending points on buying free Economy flights because up to 70% of the cost of the ticket is fees that you have to pay anyway (as in their excellent breakdown example). However, with a 1/2 price sale and points burning a whole in our pocket then this offer may be attractive.

In answer to the other post, by far the best use for miles is to upgrade to Upper Class. You can only upgrade the more expensive tickets in Economy and Premium, but consider an Upper Class ticket can cost upwards of £6,000 this means you get a lot of money for your miles.

Typically I aim to get a minimum 1.5% return for each mile (or 1.5p \ mile), which is a similar return to some of the Cash Back cards and other rewards you get on credit cards. Example:

Cost of Economy Flight to New York after 11th Nov 2010 = £438.87
Take off the Taxes (£206.77) = £232.10
This is what your miles are getting you so divide by 25,000 = 0.928p \ mile.

This is a really bad return, and even worse without the sale as your miles would be worth less then 1/2p each!

The golden rule is to use miles on Virgin's 'profit' part of their cost. The profit on an Upper Class seat for Virgin is in the 1000's of pounds.

One final point about the reward sale. If you have their credit card and have earn't the free Premimum Economy upgrade, you should be able to upgrade this offer. I did it last year and the return on my 25,000 miles was in the region of 4p \ mile! Example:

Cost of Premium Economy Flight to New York after 11th Nov 2010 = £943.87
Take off the Taxes (£309.87) = £634
Divide by 25,000 (+Free Premium upgrade voucher) = 2.536p \ mile. (=2.5% cash back)

Hopefully this illustrates the benefit of using miles to upgrade.

_Andy_ · 30 September 2010 at 12:32PM

Agreed with the above - I would never ever use them for an economy reward. Much better off buying an 'L' fare and using miles to up to G/Upper.

malkie76 · 30 September 2010 at 2:03PM

I agree with all of the above - the taxation really limits the value of miles for economy flights.

However, if you need a flight at very short notice, where only flexible ticket buckets are available you may be able to book a ticket with miles hence vastly increasing the value of miles.

eg (using the above data) you save £232.10 on a regular economy fare, however if you had to purpose fully-flex days before a flight it may cost ~£1200 meaning you'd actually save closer to £1000.

Of course, that totally depends on the availablity of miles-seats

welshtony · 30 September 2010 at 3:27PM

I think I need to go and lie down somewhere.....

I have 40000 miles, and a credit card that I've had since Feb (but haven't yet spent £10,000 on it to get the free companion fare).

Now I don't really care where I go, all of the sale destinations have their attractions (wish they had Cuba, would have a slight preference for LA or SF), but need to take a companion with me, and will have to travel either next Easter or next Summer.

If anyone could suggest the best options for me to look at doing, I'd be very grateful!

_Andy_ · 30 September 2010 at 3:47PM

welshtony wrote: »

I think I need to go and lie down somewhere.....

I have 40000 miles, and a credit card that I've had since Feb (but haven't yet spent £10,000 on it to get the free companion fare).

Now I don't really care where I go, all of the sale destinations have their attractions (wish they had Cuba, would have a slight preference for LA or SF), but need to take a companion with me, and will have to travel either next Easter or next Summer.

If anyone could suggest the best options for me to look at doing, I'd be very grateful!

Personally I would buy a 'L' fare (this gives you the companion fare for partner, they just pay taxes/fees), then use your 40k miles to upgrade yourself to Upper going out, Premium back

Your partner may not be so keen on this though!

dinesh17 · 30 September 2010 at 5:21PM

Thanks for all the experienced Virgin (pun unintentional!) points users, how does one get the Free Upgrade and Free Companion vouchers. If you spend £10k in a year do you just get the choice of the two?

Cheers again guys, really appreciate you sharing your wisdom!

_Andy_ · 30 September 2010 at 5:32PM

dinesh17 wrote: »

Thanks for all the experienced Virgin (pun unintentional!) points users, how does one get the Free Upgrade and Free Companion vouchers. If you spend £10k in a year do you just get the choice of the two?

Cheers again guys, really appreciate you sharing your wisdom!

No probs

Free upgrade and the companion are two different awards (you can't use them together by the way)

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/creditcard/blackcard/index.jsp

£5k spend in a year gives you the upgrade - that's if you're 'buying' an economy award ticket with just miles - you'd get upgraded to PE with this.

£7.5k gives you the companion 'voucher' (you need to at least be buying an 'L' economy fare for this)

(above assumes using the Black Card i.e. the one with the annual fee)

Note that with both of these, availability needs to be available (this can be checked by doing a 'dummy' miles/reward booking once you're logged in on the Virgin website).

dinesh17 · 30 September 2010 at 6:36PM

ok, im topping up my 40k points with 20k points from the Amex gold signup bonus - that's 60k points and i can fly Upper Class - shame the cost of a 'qualifying' ticket is so d@mn expensive - think it's an extra £200 :mad:

Virgin's points scheme is so full of hoops and hurdles - stick to Airmiles it's so transparent and includes all taxes and fees. if anyone needs a referral to get 2 free flights through the Lloyds TSB card scheme feel free to drop me a line. As a caveat you do need to buy 1 night's hotel accommodation but their rates are about the same as other internet sites.:money:

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points - Half price sale!

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