Virgin Atlantic - 20,000 points or £300 e-vouchers?

dkwywbicgia

Following a horrible experience with Virgin Atlantic I have been offered either 20,000 or £300 e-vouchers as compensation. I am not a frequent flyer and don't really understand which of these is likely to be better. Will be flying again within the next 12 months so keen to know which one is likely to offer me the best value towards a future flight. Any advice much appreciated.

DullGreyGuy

Where are you flying to? What class do you fly? 

20,000 would get you a return trip to LAX from LHR in economy for example but you still have to pay the taxes and on economy seats thats a large proportion of the bill. On the plus side miles tickets are at least semi-flexible so can be changed much easier/cheaper than the normal no change tickets people buy.

VS have changed their scheme since I used them last, I'm not interested in most the places they fly these days so dont use them much at all any more. There will always be the recommendation of looking on the HeadForPoints website that has lots of tips on maximising value on airmiles with different airlines

dkwywbicgia

DullGreyGuy said:

Where are you flying to? What class do you fly? 

20,000 would get you a return trip to LAX from LHR in economy for example but you still have to pay the taxes and on economy seats thats a large proportion of the bill. On the plus side miles tickets are at least semi-flexible so can be changed much easier/cheaper than the normal no change tickets people buy.

VS have changed their scheme since I used them last, I'm not interested in most the places they fly these days so dont use them much at all any more. There will always be the recommendation of looking on the HeadForPoints website that has lots of tips on maximising value on airmiles with different airlines

Thanks for the info. Most likely to USA, probably just economy. 

DullGreyGuy

dkwywbicgia said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Where are you flying to? What class do you fly? 

20,000 would get you a return trip to LAX from LHR in economy for example but you still have to pay the taxes and on economy seats thats a large proportion of the bill. On the plus side miles tickets are at least semi-flexible so can be changed much easier/cheaper than the normal no change tickets people buy.

VS have changed their scheme since I used them last, I'm not interested in most the places they fly these days so dont use them much at all any more. There will always be the recommendation of looking on the HeadForPoints website that has lots of tips on maximising value on airmiles with different airlines

Thanks for the info. Most likely to USA, probably just economy. 

With VS I think you can do a miles booking without having sufficient miles to actually finalise the booking so you can see what the fees will be were you to take the 20k of points -v- the cash booking price less the £300 credit. 

At a guess, credit will be worth more if you do the booking now, if you're going to be doing the booking fairly close to the date of travel then the miles may be better. Obv that doesn't consider the value of the ticket being flexible. 

heatherw_01

Just some info on the miles part, even though the points can get you a flight, the taxes will be hundreds of pounds.
So its not really a free flight.

You can do a dummy booking and select paying miles and money, to see how much it would cost.

Westin

Take the e-voucher option.