Cheap or free virgin lounge membership.

[Triplezoe]

Hi all. How can we get cheap or free virgin lounge membership? As the price outright is quite high for you get. We will be travelling solely on VA flights Apr 2 BDB-BNE-SYD Apr6 SYD-MEL-HBA
April 13 HBA-MEL April 17 MEL-BNE-BDB

A would like access to lounge but without the hefty price tag.

 

[jase05]

Hi all. How can we get cheap or free virgin lounge membership? As the price outright is quite high for you get. We will be travelling solely on VA flights Apr 2 BDB-BNE-SYD Apr6 SYD-MEL-HBA
April 13 HBA-MEL April 17 MEL-BNE-BDB

A would like access to lounge but without the hefty price tag.

I take it you don’t have any status?
As a Silver member it’s quite good value at $300 for a yearly membership. Without any status yeah its probably not worth it, you can buy individual passes at the lounge for $65 but that only gets you 2hrs so not really worth it IMO.
Bear in mind also that there are no VA lounges in BDB or HBA either

 

[Triplezoe]

I take it you don’t have any status?
As a Silver member it’s quite good value at $300 for a yearly membership. Without any status yeah its probably not worth it, you can buy individual passes at the lounge for $65 but that only gets you 2hrs so not really worth it IMO.
Bear in mind also that there are no VA lounges in BDB or HBA either

Yeh I only have red and 30 status credits as haven’t done any flights with VA for quite a while. Will turn to silver on the return trip only. And yes buying passes is not worth it as there’s 3 of us. Before when I had gold we could all go to any lounge together.

 

[Mattg]

There are a few credit cards that give you a couple of Virgin lounge passes. E.g. ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures comes with 2 passes and a free return domestic flight each year; annual card fee is $225.

Otherwise, have you had a look at using points or placing a minimum upgrade bid to upgrade to business class? You get lounge access included with a business class ticket. I've sometimes found that instead of paying $65 for lounge access, I could upgrade for ~$95 and fly in business class as well.

 

[Triplezoe]

There are a few credit cards that give you a couple of Virgin lounge passes. E.g. ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures comes with 2 passes and a free return domestic flight each year; annual card fee is $225.

Otherwise, have you had a look at using points or placing a minimum upgrade bid to upgrade to business class? You get lounge access included with a business class ticket. I've sometimes found that instead of paying $65 for lounge access, I could upgrade for ~$95 and fly in business class as well.

If you apply to upgrade is the cost per passenger? As it’s myself, my wife and our daughter travelling

 

[jase05]

If you apply to upgrade is the cost per passenger? As it’s myself, my wife and our daughter travelling

Yes the upgrade price is per person

 

[odysseus]

It's also per flight so with all those sectors would be a lot of upgrade cost. You could use the lounge associated with that sector though if you didn't need to visit the lounge every stop.

 

[albatross710]

Yes the upgrade price is per person

does VA allow one upgrade and they could guest the other person?

unfortunately though I think the concept of "free" or "cheap" for a few lounge visits is not going to make it worthwhile. obviously everyone would be doing it and then it would not have the rarity that the OP desires.

one risk with paying upfront for "lounge" on a trip like this is if connections end up being sprints from gate-to-gate

my suggestion is putting aside $200 for nice meals at an airside restaurant and opt out of the airport lounge game.

 

[Triplezoe]

Thanks mate. I guess what I’m more looking at is, is there a way to avoid paying full cost of the lounge membership now without having to wait until I’m silver which will waive the joining fee or getting gold and getting access anyway. Like for Qantas if you join certain groups or clubs the joining fee is discounted by $200 for qantas club. When I get silver I will be joining the lounge club as we will be doing more travel throughout this year domestic and international. I just would have liked to join before this upcoming trip so we can all enjoy the lounge.

 

[ja1]

To try to answer the original question:

The cheapest way for one off access is to look at Gumtree and negotiate to buy single entry passes.

The sticker price is $65 so if you are buying a set of 2 or 4, you can usually negotiate down from there (hint, $50 per pass is not uncommon which is a 25% discount..). You can get a bigger discount usually if the pass is short dated (due to expire in the next few weeks or months).

I buy these as gifts for family and friends who don't travel very often as it's an 'experience gift' and when you've spent as much time in lounges as a FF it's nice but you take it for granted after a while :-/ Fun to see people get excited about lounge access (and some disbelief at the apparently unlimited beers.. )

If you wanted 'free' access then you need to find one or two lounge members who could take you in as guests.

Everything else is a longer term discussion and as indicated, the lounge is a built in 'perk' of being a frequent flyer. Your way to get 'cheap' or 'free' access is simply to do what the system is designed to deliver for you - fly more often with VA!

Other people have pointed out that some credit cards may also get you access (worth looking at)

 

[daft009]

Depending on how much you intend to travel after making it to Silver.. Have a look at the Amex platinum charge personal..
Free Virgin lounge access for you+1/card holder.

And lots of other perks too... Depending on your circumstances it might make sense?