Buy Virgin Atlantic Points with up to 70% bonus (and how to use them)

[AFF Editor]

Buy & Redeem Virgin Atlantic Points for SkyTeam Flights is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

How (And Why) to Buy Virgin Atlantic Points for SkyTeam Flights

Buying points from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and redeeming them for award travel across Virgin Atlantic's partner airline network, including the SkyTeam alliance, can be great value! Plus, right now you can get up to 70% bonus points on purchases.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[jase05]

I’ve only got a very small stash of VS points but I can see them being very handy so might buy a few with this sale.
I’m also going to credit all my VA flights to them once I’ve re-qualified for Plat with VA which usually takes about 2 months so I should easily reach VS Gold which is very handy for both SkyTeam and their other partners

 

[Mattg]

I’ve only got a very small stash of VS points but I can see them being very handy so might buy a few with this sale.
I’m also going to credit all my VA flights to them once I’ve re-qualified for Plat with VA which usually takes about 2 months so I should easily reach VS Gold which is very handy for both SkyTeam and their other partners

Just beware that Virgin Australia Economy flights under 2,000 miles in distance (i.e. most domestic flights excluding routes like SYD-PER, BNE-PER or CNS-PER) do not earn any Tier Points with Flying Club.

All VA J flights do earn, though.

Virgin Australia | Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic

Find out how you could earn and spend Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles with Virgin Australia.

flywith.virginatlantic.com

 

[jase05]

Just beware that Virgin Australia Economy flights under 2,000 miles in distance (i.e. most domestic flights excluding routes like SYD-PER, BNE-PER or CNS-PER) do not earn any Tier Points with Flying Club.

All VA J flights do earn, though.

Virgin Australia | Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic

Find out how you could earn and spend Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles with Virgin Australia.

flywith.virginatlantic.com

We only fly domestic J unless it’s a route where only small aircraft operate and we have no option so all of our VA flights would be J.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Note some airlines cannot be booked online and you need to call - at present when trying to book on Garuda (GA) the phone agent tells me they are not 'ready' or 'able' to book these yet - "try in a week or 2" - I'll keep trying as SYD<->DPS is a real sweet spot - other routes (an any partner / SkyTeam airline) not so much do - but at least I can use my long orphaned points.

 

[levelnine]

Shame the ANA sweet spot has been significantly devalued, though the Aus-Japan route still offers good value in J as the article notes.

 

[SYD]

Here’s the redemption rate from e-Rewards (similar to VFF) for anyone with access to a stash and looking to get started.


A limit of one transaction every 30 days.

 

[Mattg]

Here’s the redemption rate from e-Rewards (similar to VFF) for anyone with access to a stash and looking to get started.
View attachment 319702

A limit of one transaction every 30 days.

How easy is it to get 1200 Opinion Points?

 

[SYD]

How easy is it to get 1200 Opinion Points?

Not hard, just takes time. The surveys tend to average 20 - 30 mins for 300 to 500 points each (if you qualify).

You could get 1200 in one morning if you were bored.

I must have accrued 10s of thousands of points over 10 yrs. I toss across to VA and UA mainly. Sitting on 20k+ and might put some in BA to kick start Avios.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Great news - for those with "orphan" points in Virgin Atlantic you can how book GA - sweet spot is SYD<->DPS for 40,000 in J - just booked 2 seats DPS - SYD in late September.

 

[jase05]

Great news - for those with "orphan" points in Virgin Atlantic you can how book GA - sweet spot is SYD<->DPS for 40,000 in J - just booked 2 seats DPS - SYD in late September.

I’m just about to pull the trigger on a couple of these myself. What were the fees and charges for GA?

 

[luxury-lizard]

For 2 persons it was GBP 204 - but really was very happy to use up those orphan points.

 

[jase05]

For 2 persons it was GBP 204 - but really was very happy to use up those orphan points.

That’s not bad at all.
I thought they were going to go online soon but I guess you still had to call up and book

 

[luxury-lizard]

Yes - you need to call. I got through with no wait time about 8am local time in the UK. Agent was super helpful and friendly - I also had to buy an additional 7000 points while on the phone - easy as !!!

 

[jase05]

Yes - you need to call. I got through with no wait time about 8am local time in the UK. Agent was super helpful and friendly - I also had to buy an additional 7000 points while on the phone - easy as !!!

Did you use the Delta website to check for availability?
Have seen plenty of availability for SkyTeam partners on it and was wondering if VS sees the same availability

 

[luxury-lizard]

Did you use the Delta website to check for availability?
Have seen plenty of availability for SkyTeam partners on it and was wondering if VS sees the same availability

Yes - used Delta to check - there were 5 J seats available - down to 3 left after my redemption. I asked teh VS agent for the GA PNR and was able to select seats. (Note this PRN did not show on the VS e-ticket and confirmation e-mail.) Same seats on DL site were 70,000 pp (40,000 on VS)

 

[jase05]

So after all that I decided to book some reward seats with my VS points and I’ll sum up how it went.
Was after GA DPS-SYD seats and DL website showed 5 available. Called the VS call centre and first agent straight out admitted that she had t been trained on SkyTeam awards and couldn’t help me, HUCA and got a great agent named Sally who was absolutely wonderful and extremely knowledgeable on the system. She sent off the request to GA whilst I was waiting and it was rejected as no availability. She agreed with me that VS inventory should be the same as what DL sees but after a quick consultation with the team leader it was established that some partners aren’t passing on the same availability unfortunately but they are hopeful this will be rectified soon. I then asked her to check CGK-MEL as I could make that work and that was accepted almost immediately. Cost 120k plus $340 in charges so reasonably happy.
The agent then said that they are having plenty of IT issues and setbacks with the alliance and that they did have KA go “live” recently but system crashed and kept showing phantom availability so the pulled them again. She said their information is that this will be a long drawn out process and could take up to 2 years before all SkyTeam partners are bookable online.
Call was answered promptly and GA PNR was given at time of booking so a pretty good experience with a few glitches

 

[Gold Member]

So after all that I decided to book some reward seats with my VS points and I’ll sum up how it went.
Was after GA DPS-SYD seats and DL website showed 5 available. Called the VS call centre and first agent straight out admitted that she had t been trained on SkyTeam awards and couldn’t help me, HUCA and got a great agent named Sally who was absolutely wonderful and extremely knowledgeable on the system. She sent off the request to GA whilst I was waiting and it was rejected as no availability. She agreed with me that VS inventory should be the same as what DL sees but after a quick consultation with the team leader it was established that some partners aren’t passing on the same availability unfortunately but they are hopeful this will be rectified soon. I then asked her to check CGK-MEL as I could make that work and that was accepted almost immediately. Cost 120k plus $340 in charges so reasonably happy.
The agent then said that they are having plenty of IT issues and setbacks with the alliance and that they did have KA go “live” recently but system crashed and kept showing phantom availability so the pulled them again. She said their information is that this will be a long drawn out process and could take up to 2 years before all SkyTeam partners are bookable online.
Call was answered promptly and GA PNR was given at time of booking so a pretty good experience with a few glitches

That’s a real shame that VS don’t see the same awards that DL see. I was also planning on loading up on some VS miles for some GA DPS business awards. But if their systems are this bad with inconsistent availability (let alone having to call and find agents aren’t trained etc) it becomes a gamble and not worth investing in VS miles for the time being.

 

[jase05]

That’s a real shame that VS don’t see the same awards that DL see. I was also planning on loading up on some VS miles for some GA DPS business awards. But if their systems are this bad with inconsistent availability (let alone having to call and find agents aren’t trained etc) it becomes a gamble and not worth investing in VS miles for the time being.

Further data point, 8x daily’s DPS-CGK all showing between 3 and 5 seats available on DL website but VS was showing zero availability for one day and I did eventually find 2x J seats for the day before but the time didn’t suit so we will just get revenue tickets.

 

[iamsuperandrew]

Does anyone know of any 'sweet spots' for x2 using VS points? or any first class redemption apart from the widely publicised ANA deal that is never available

Based out of MEL