Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

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morbo

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Jun 3, 2005
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Has anyone had experience in redeeming flights with virgin atlantic and/or their partnered airlines using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club?

I checked their website and it seems that their virgin atlantic flights from syd to hk/london are pretty competitive. Surprisingly, their partnered airline offers are pretty impressive too. With Amex offering a 1:1 transfer, I'm seriously thinking of dropping Qantas forever.
 
Hi Morbo

I have been a Flying Club member for about 5 years. Have redeemed flights with VS on the routing LHR-LAX/SFO-LHR. No worries with getting availability (about 3 months out) over Easter (this was in Upper Class). Also redeemed partner award (x2 on the same flight) from MEL-AKL on Air NZ (in economy). Again - no problems, came back confirmed within 24 hours.

The beauty of the VS programme is that you can redeem one-way flights, useful if you personally only have enough miles to purchase one way and have a partner/friend purchase the other way.

Worthwhile checking the terms and conditions - buried in the small print are things like 'no upper class reward travel on Fridays' - but I have redeemed an award on a Friday and I think these T&C's are just there 'in case' they have very heavy demand (in fact the VS call-centre said at the time they weren't aware of the restriction!).

VS has an office in SYD which makes payment for tickets very easy.

Regards

FlyFirst.
 
morbo said:
With Amex offering a 1:1 transfer, I'm seriously thinking of dropping Qantas forever.

You actually get a 20% bonus.

==================

Your Tier Points Claim Missing Miles


DateActivity descriptionMileageTier points21 Nov 2005Welcome to Flying Club. Your opening balance is:0021 Nov 2005Your Flying Club account is now registered online.0022 Aug 2006 American Express Bonus Miles.69,000 22 Aug 2006American Express, Asia Membership Miles Transfer 345,0000
Your Tier Points Claim Missing Miles
 
I am not a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club member as yet, but do have Amex to rolll points over from.....so considering joining.

I know you can buy additional miles up to a limit in blocks of 1,000.
Does anyone know how much it costs as I cant find it on their website

JASON
 
ozstamps said:
morbo said:
With Amex offering a 1:1 transfer, I'm seriously thinking of dropping Qantas forever.
You actually get a 20% bonus.
I thought the 20% bonus ended 30th September and then reverts back to 1:1 transfer.
 
JohnK said:
I thought the 20% bonus ended 30th September and then reverts back to 1:1 transfer.

My calendar only says September 15, so not sure what your point is?

Clearly you need to do it now using your existing MR bank to get the bennie.

1000 miles costs £30 to buy IIRC. My recent transfer bonus of 80,000 miles saved me £2400 = $A6,000 using that cost base!
 
I just transferred some spare points to Flying Club to give them a try. I rung to enquire about redeeming on partner airlines, and was told you have to ring and ask for a specific date, they then ask the partner airline, and advise you in 24 hours a yes or no.

These seems a really bad system. Can anyone who has has some experience redeeming partner airline awards advise is it as bad as that ? If Qantas was like that, it would take a year of trying to redeem anything.

Advise appreciated.
 
i would be interested in that too.

i cant even check the availability of reward flights online for virgin atlantic flights, even though i understand from v-flyer that you are meant to be able to do so. dont know whether it is some sort of bug in the system.
 
I have had a really positive experience booking on VS. I did not have enough points in my account, they took my booking, and reserved my seats and did not charge the taxes until the points that I transfered from AMEX came thorugh.

I have called a couple of times in the past to check availability and they have always been helpful, and very good availability. I must admit though, an online interface would be preferable. They told me that the web site does not have that functionality yet, and they did not know when it would be completed. I really did not mind calling a couple of times to get the itinerary right....:cool: ..... much better than having a web site to check for flights and no availability!!
 
morbo said:
Has anyone had experience in redeeming flights with virgin atlantic and/or their partnered airlines using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club?

I checked their website and it seems that their virgin atlantic flights from syd to hk/london are pretty competitive. Surprisingly, their partnered airline offers are pretty impressive too. With Amex offering a 1:1 transfer, I'm seriously thinking of dropping Qantas forever.

Dear Morbo and all:

I have just returned from a round-the-world trip flying Singapore Airlines in First Class (Mel-Sin-LAX then JFK-FRA-SIN-MEL) using Virgin Atlantic Points acquired by 1:1 transfer from AMEX. Unlike Qantas, there was seat availability (booked Sep 06, travel Jan 07!), and the points used for this trip totalled 315000 (vs 500000+ on QF - if you could get it). In addition, the staff at Virgin were very helpful in booking flights for me. A last interesting point is that the total "taxes and charges" on this ticket were $AU109.00. Imagine what Qantas would add on for a "free" award ticket to these destinations in this class!

In summary, while I will continue to use QFF domestically for award travel I think that the Virgin ATlantic Program is the best in the world for rewards given the low points required, the availability, and the great choice of airlines inc Air NZ, Singapore, Malaysian etc. It goes without saying that the Virgin program is free to join on-line.
 
Brightdoc,

I would love to know how you went about this, in a practical sense. I tried to book some flights on Singapore Air and ANZ, and found the request one date, wait 24 hours, then get told no, to be very difficult to create complex itineries.

Is there some advise you could provide ? I would love to switch to VA to use Sing First (as you did).

Your advise appreciated.
 
With AirNZ they did have to wait 24 hrs and I agree it was unsatisfactory but with Singapore they could tell me straight away while I waited on the phone> Singapore is closer to Virgin than Air NZ and I guess that may explain it. I will certianly do it again!
 
:confused: I have also found the advantages of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club using AMX points. But are there any other credit cards VISA/MC that divert points to Virgin Atlantic? In the end you cannot use AMX everywhere to maximise your points
 
I also have some interest in this, however seek some assistance with planning around the world itineraries. ie how do you do it efficiently :?:
 
Is VS status useful if one doesn't intend to or have the opportunity to fly VS though? I must admit that access to the VS CH in LHR does seem an attractive proposition.

VS Gold seems pretty simple = 8 x SQ SIN-KUL or KUL-SIN F segments.
 
Yep seems easy to get :) Not sure what other perks besides having access to the CH...

QF009 said:
Is VS status useful if one doesn't intend to or have the opportunity to fly VS though? I must admit that access to the VS CH in LHR does seem an attractive proposition.

VS Gold seems pretty simple = 8 x SQ SIN-KUL or KUL-SIN F segments.
 
Does Flying Club allow award flights to be assigned to family members, like what Qantas does?

Thanks
 
After another price rise from QF, I'm seriously thinking about making the change to Virgin Flying Club for all my AMEX points. I see that you can get an Upper Class (looks better than QF J) fare from SYD-LHR-SYD for 180,000 (J on QF is 250K, F is 384K).

I have a few questions to those that use this program or know a bit about it...
  1. What would a J RTW (using Singapore or the likes) booking cost using Flying Club points?
  2. Once V Australia is onboard, will you be able to use Flying Club points on them as well?
Thanks.
 
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After another price rise from QF, I'm seriously thinking about making the change to Virgin Flying Club for all my AMEX points. I see that you can get an Upper Class (looks better than QF J) fare from SYD-LHR-SYD for 180,000 (J on QF is 250K, F is 384K).


I would also be very interested in anyone who has recently redeemed points on VS. A few months ago I thought VS might be my salvation from QF (I have most of my points with Amex)... I rang the local Virgin Atlantic office to ask about the availability if "Upper Class" seats anytime over the next 12 months to get an idea of how hard this would be. The response was zero seats in J for the next 12 months... and I should keep trying a year ahead of my planned travel dates. Also rang Virgin Blue, who quoted a rate many times higher than booking directly with Virgin Atlantic... So i'm pretty reluctant to move to this program and have my DJ flights credited to VS if seats are even harder to obtain than with QF...
 
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