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virgin frequent flyer trick

thought i'd got a good price for my hol flight to vegas. that was until i saw my family this weekend.

they have all been buying 2000 points from the virgin site. (£60) then getting heavily subsidied flights in the points + cash section!

very clever. i thought. so i looked into it and yes. it seems you do save a bit.

this got me looking into the virgin black amex card. £95 per year, but 6000 pints and 2 points for every pound spent. plus all sorts of free upgrades and compainion flights.

http://uk.virginmoney.com/vaa-amex/cardb/more-info.html

does anyone use this regularly? and if so. is there a catch, is it worth the hasle of using it all year round?

Comments

  • richardw
    richardw Posts: 19,458 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    So how much could I save going to LAS at the end of April 2007?
    Posts are not advice and must not be relied upon.
  • depends on what discount flight they have got here

    http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/mpm/index.jsp

    have a compare!
  • full fare to LAS = £485.60

    mile + money to LAS = 2000 miles are £45 + £296 fare = £341

    so you save
    £140. not bad for 5 minutes work huh!!!!!
  • _Andy_
    _Andy_ Posts: 11,150 Forumite
    Problem with MPM fares is that you don't earn tier points or FC miles on them, so general consensus is they're not that great at all. You'd be better off getting an 'N' class economy fare.

    The black amex is well worth it IMO. At the moment (not sure if this is for new apps or just for people who had the old FC mastercard) it's double points until next year, that's 6 per £1 when booking direct with VS/VH, 4 elsewhere.

    The only problem is that of course it's Amex so not so many places accept it.

    You might find https://www.v-flyer.com a great source of information :)
  • richardw
    richardw Posts: 19,458 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    full fare to LAS = £485.60

    mile + money to LAS = 2000 miles are £45 + £296 fare = £341

    so you save
    £140. not bad for 5 minutes work huh!!!!!

    I thought 2000 miles were £60. Is £341 including Taxes, fees and charges?

    Does this work with Premier Economy fares?
    Posts are not advice and must not be relied upon.
  • yeah. i was wrong 2k miles are 45.

    premium and first class fares too. taxes? umm not sure. most prob - else would be a more expensive fare!
  • I just booked (economy) flights on virgin miles to/from India and the taxes were £110 per person.
  • cundall
    cundall Posts: 859 Forumite
    I just booked (economy) flights on virgin miles to/from India and the taxes were £110 per person.


    How many miles did you need for this? Was it an offer price anyway?
  • I'm not sure what you mean by "was it an offer price anyway?"

    Return Economy flights to India are 50,000 miles. The whole spend table can be found on http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/spendmiles/vaaflightsspend2.jsp

    I did look at booking economy flights with cash and upgrading with miles to premium economy with miles but there's a little trick to this... You cannot buy the cheapest possible economy fare. You have to book the flexible economy fare which is slightly more expensive. So I ended up opting for 100% miles for the fare and just had to pay the taxes. :)

    HTH! :wave:
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