Virgin Flying Club Miles - query ?

deejaybee

Hi all,

I built up a stash of 99K VFC miles, which i decided to use towards a Hotel-only booking with Virgin Holidays ( i realise its not the best use of them )

I had problems logging in and applying the miles myself, so i went through Customer Support ( via a text message exchange )

Everything i have read before on Virgin sites has stated that 3000 miles = £18 off the cost of your holiday, so with 99000, i was expecting to get £594 off...

BUT the CS said that the exchange for 99K = £544.50 ( equal to 16.50 per 3K )   when i queried this i was told  " The exchange does change, the 3000 = £18 is a guide "

Anyway i gave OK to do the conversion, thought i would ask on here first if anyone was aware of this ?  Or whether there has been a recent devaluation ?

Before i kick off with CS .

Ta

Ngozi

I would say the price is a guide, never used miles for hotel stays before though.

The value of any point can fluctuate depending on what you redeem against, quick search showed that 3000 miles is worth £18 against package holidays.

pantone476c

Hey @deejaybee - I had the same issue. The place I'd read about 3000 miles = £18 was Head for Points, and I had the same none too enjoyable surprise! Got the same rate as you. I would imagine it's fixed rather than a guide - they just don't publish the rate (even on Virgin Holidays or Virgin Atlantic). I too went with it; equates to 0.55p a mile. Not great but I actually found it superb that I could just take money off the balance of a whole holiday rather than having to shop around for reward flights. BA you can't use Avios on holidays (I had Amex points which I converted), only on flights and hotels separately. So whilst not a great redemption rate it worked out well for me.
Note there's a charge if you call up Virgin Holidays of £25 which they didn't tell me about. As my holiday wasn't buyable off the shelf (we stayed in two hotels over the course of it) there wasn't a way round that.

Ngozi

pantone476c said:

Hey @deejaybee - I had the same issue. The place I'd read about 3000 miles = £18 was Head for Points, and I had the same none too enjoyable surprise! Got the same rate as you. I would imagine it's fixed rather than a guide - they just don't publish the rate (even on Virgin Holidays or Virgin Atlantic). I too went with it; equates to 0.55p a mile. Not great but I actually found it superb that I could just take money off the balance of a whole holiday rather than having to shop around for reward flights. BA you can't use Avios on holidays (I had Amex points which I converted), only on flights and hotels separately. So whilst not a great redemption rate it worked out well for me.
Note there's a charge if you call up Virgin Holidays of £25 which they didn't tell me about. As my holiday wasn't buyable off the shelf (we stayed in two hotels over the course of it) there wasn't a way round that.

The HFP article even lists the value of the points based on staying at certain hotels and stated the fluctuation, giving 0.55p as an average.

Can't comment on the charge but I believe to redeem points against hotels you have to always ring up, unless something has changed.

deejaybee

Thanks for feedback both, at least i know now i wasnt being skanked.

I didnt have to pay a £25 charge, i booked the hotel online via Virgin Holidays.