Virgin Atlantic Flying club- Tesco- 50% more miles- ends 05/03/13

Katiehound

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club:
Exchange your Clubcard vouchers between 2 Jan and 5 March 2013 and receive 50% more Flying Club miles. Plus if you ‘auto opt in’ between 2 Jan and 5 March 2013 you will receive 1,000 bonus miles.
Details here:
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=2179

socks_uk

I'm trying to suss out if the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a good option for exchanging our family's Tesco Clubcard Vouchers.

We were previously exchanging the vouchers for Airmiles and had enough for one ticket to Australia but then all changed when Avios happened! No trip to OZ just yet but what do people here think about going down the Virgin Atlantic route?
Thanks in advance!

stoneman

socks_uk wrote: »

I'm trying to suss out if the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a good option for exchanging our family's Tesco Clubcard Vouchers.

We were previously exchanging the vouchers for Airmiles and had enough for one ticket to Australia but then all changed when Avios happened! No trip to OZ just yet but what do people here think about going down the Virgin Atlantic route?
Thanks in advance!

Not sure how VS work but Avios are really only useful on BA if flying in a premium cabin or short-haul routes. To buy an economy restricted fare ticket for cash would be cheaper than using Avios for long-haul flights. The reason for this is that "redemption" bookings have the same rules as fully flexible tickets, so can be changed around or even canceled free of charge(I think there might be a small admin fee), so the fees and taxes alone would cost more than a restricted ticket
You would also have the bare in mind that BA are a much bigger outfit with a huge destination portfolio, so there are more opportunities to use your Avios as well. There will be a special redemption deal for Avios from Tesco, there always is, and there are really easy ways to get at least 20K Avios within a month or so by signing up to certain credit cards. Here is a good resource for finding out lots of thins to do with loyalty clubs.

socks_uk

We have 83,500 Avios miles and the only thing I can think of doing is using them on a couple of trips to Prague with hotel rooms.

I'm done with collecting Avios.

blindman

socks_uk wrote: »

I'm trying to suss out if the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a good option for exchanging our family's Tesco Clubcard Vouchers.

We were previously exchanging the vouchers for Airmiles and had enough for one ticket to Australia but then all changed when Avios happened! No trip to OZ just yet but what do people here think about going down the Virgin Atlantic route?
Thanks in advance!

V-flyer is a good source of info for anything Virgin

The big problem with VS awards is that they hit you with a HUGE "fuel" tax so your "free" ticket is only "good" value if you fly UC Then it costs an extra £500 :mad:

Also-no surprise:cool:-awards tickets to Australia in a premium class are very hard to find.

If you can get miles by getting their Credit card and\or the Amex Plat card then adding some more mile using Tesco Club card vouchers may be a way to go.


If you're just starting out though with a nil balance there may be better ways to use the vouchers.

Mrs B has 60K miles (credit cards mainly) so using her £80 vouchers will get her almost to 100K which is UC to most destinations, so we may go for it as I have about 80K which will be topped up by more CC's


AVIOS
Useful for short European flights and upgrades from premium cabins to business\First

Look at Headforpoints or flyertalk for the (complex) way to do this.

We're flying to Seoul in Sept.
Premium cabin [WT+] cost £800 each then + 30K Avios and £80 (extra taxes) upgrade to Business class [C cabin] each way.

Bargain:cool:

socks_uk

I really can't believe that our flights to Los Angeles to visit my sister in 2009 will be the last long haul flights we got out of Airmiles/Avios!

I need to do some more research on this!

blindman

socks_uk wrote: »

I need to do some more research on this!

If you have the time\credit worthiness\household income and tenacity then you can get "free" flights in a comfortable cabin to long haul destinations.

Here's my first example-though now that all the taxes have been added it's not so cheap

If you are not a FF then I'd stick to one scheme (avios) abd research on how best to utilise them. :cool:

socks_uk

blindman wrote: »

The big problem with VS awards is that they hit you with a HUGE "fuel" tax so your "free" ticket is only "good" value if you fly UC Then it costs an extra £500 :mad:

Also-no surprise:cool:-awards tickets to Australia in a premium class are very hard to find.

No different to Avios then! We can't afford the cash to book initial flights and then use miles to upgrade. Looks like OZ is a no-go then!

blindman

socks_uk wrote: »

No different to Avios then! We can't afford the cash to book initial flights and then use miles to upgrade. Looks like OZ is a no-go then!

If it was simple then everyone would be doing it :cool:

There are ways to avoid the extra taxes and get lower fares :cool:

But (from UK) there are no "free " flights;)