Best use of Virgin Flying Club Miles?

Hi - i was hoping that some of you on here might be able to suggest how i can make best use of some flying club miles for a family trip to Orlando next year.

Basically we (myself, wife and son) were given miles due to a 24 hour delay last summer – we plan to use those for a return trip next summer and I'm not really sure of the best way to use them. For info purposes I have 47k miles (which include those for my son) and my wife has 31.5k miles.

As far as I can make out we cannot merge the miles into one account, and therefore do not have enough individually to obtain one ‘free’ flight. My options are therefore:

1) Use the miles plus money
OR
2) Get a free companion ticket with at least one fully paid up fare. However that companion deal only seems to be relevant from Premium economy (and not economy)?

I suppose at the end of the day if we were going to go anyway and we can get all three of us there and back in Premium for what we were going to pay for economy then that is ok, but just not sure if I am making best use of the opportunities.

Any advice / ideas gratefully received – thanks in advance

Either deal would be good but you will have to decide whether the upgrade is worth it, or the miles + money will benefit you financially.

Enjoy your trip anyway.

Sandra

You cannot merge the miles but you can take 50% from one account and 50% from another, in essence booking two one-way reward flights. It is also possible to buy more miles to make up for an extra ticket.

I think my answer would depend on whether you have 47K in one account or whether that is split too.

Obviously it's too early to book for summer next year as flights are only bookable through VA until the end of April 09.

HTH
Jill

Have you checked the Flying Club website at all as they sometimes have offers on.
I looked at going to Boston and then to Orlando in the summer and could have done the trip for 80,000 miles instead of 100,000. The miles are valid for 3 years so why not pay the normal economy fare for next year (depending on when you want to go) and then you and your wife will have enough miles for a free trip after that.

It depends when you want to go what is the best way of using them, if you are tied to school hols (I am assuming your son must be under 12 if you got his miles.) then to use the companion flight s quite expensive as you have get a fully paid fare in Economy (which may be why it looks like a Premium economy price, I think the ticket class has to be something lik Y,B,L possibly M.

The did have an option to "gift miles" so you could have top your wifes up with yours if you could get the flights for 40K miles but that wasnt available last time I checked a few days ago, it still shows on the website so hopefully they will reintroduce it.

A miles plus money fare may well be cheaper than pricing a companion flight. With the companion flight, you pay the full standard fare.

We have often used Miles Plus Money when we have booked our flights. Normally we are able to save around £150 per ticket this way.

Virgin gave us some miles which we have used for our holiday in August which gave us a great saving but I can't remember exactly how much. I think we could only use 2000 each for a miles and money fare though (total 10,000). Somebody can probably confirm that one way or the other. When we were looking at fares how much you save does depend on when you go. The miles stay on the account for 3 years but remain if you use the account. My husband has just joined some website and you do surveys for them (by email)and get points which you can convert into virgin miles.

I have got well over a quarter of a million miles but I can never get a free flight - if you need to fly in school holidays you may get one in economy, but no matter if you ALWAYS travel on the same dates every year in first, you have no chance of PE or 1st :(

WE managed to get 2 first class tickets to LA this easter for our airmiles, so I guess it can be done sometimes.

Whenever I have priced it up (for the dates we have travelled) the companion fare has always been cheaper than the M+M for PE.

we were given 25000 each because of a 12 hour flight delay last year.
No matter how or when we look, non school holidays, on the web site we can only use 2000 miles plus money. There does not seem to be an option to use all of them plus money or any over 2000.
This does not seem right as if we fly to Orlando twice a year it would take 6 years to use up.
Of course any miles + money does not gather more miles.
Any other options known?

Ian
If you travel in N class rconomy seats both ways then you will get around 4,300 miles, if you go for Q class (they usually seem to be around £50 dearer) then you get around 8,600 miles so would only nedd to do 3 trips and will then have enough for a free trip (50k) miles or 40k if they are on sale.
We have used free trip sin school summer holidays to go to LA and Boston/Orlando and not had trouble getting seats (for 3 of us) so far. We have enough for a free trip at the moment but are waiting till we go in peak time to use them as it makes more economic sense. We tend to use them when we aren't going to the villa because then we only have accommodation to pay for on that trip.

all

many many thanks for your ideas etc - i think that I'll just have to spend a bit of time with Virgin on the phone as and/when the summer 09 flights are announced

Forrest

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
Ian
If you travel in N class rconomy seats both ways then you will get around 4,300 miles, if you go for Q class (they usually seem to be around £50 dearer) then you get around 8,600 miles so would only nedd to do 3 trips and will then have enough for a free trip (50k) miles or 40k if they are on sale.
We have used free trip sin school summer holidays to go to LA and Boston/Orlando and not had trouble getting seats (for 3 of us) so far. We have enough for a free trip at the moment but are waiting till we go in peak time to use them as it makes more economic sense. We tend to use them when we aren't going to the villa because then we only have accommodation to pay for on that trip.
[/quote]
thanks for that steph, but my point is that if you have the miles you don't seem to be able to use them in their entirety just bit by bit; or is it that I should talk to Virgin on the phone rather than try and do it on the web?
The various classes of course have the miles but its the offers that exclude the miles. Miles I have so I dont need to get more.
I'm not explaining this well[msnembarrased]

Ian
The miles plus money offers are based on a set amount of miles for each it's 2000 miles +money for Economy class then xxx amount for premium economy and xxxx for upper class . I'm not sure on the number required for each but can check 8,000 for premium economy seems to ring a bell but not sure on Upper. If you are close to the number required for a free flight you can buy miles to top it up, but as you say you can't say I've got 25,000 miles so what do I need to to make it up to 50k.
You say you were given these 25k miles for a 24 hour delay so obviously were booked onto a Virgin flight, have you added the miles for the flight itself? If you were not members at the time then you can have backdated flight miles up to 6 months which will bring the number up.
2,000 Flying Club miles for an Economy fare

7,500 Flying Club miles for a Premium Economy fare

15,000 Flying Club miles for an Upper Class fare

Ian
I don,t know if this helps but i recently queried whether we could use the miles from mine and my husband,s accounts to purchase a rewards flight for our daughter when she goes on a volunteer trip to South Africa mext year.This is the email from Virgin:

When booking a return reward, miles can be taken from a maximum of 2 Flying Club accounts, though only providing equal amounts of miles are being redeemed from each. For example, a reward requiring 40,000 miles can be obtained (subject to reward seat availability) by redeeming 20,000 miles from each account.

If booking a one way reward, all mileage required must be taken from 1 Flying Club account.

It isn't possible to transfer miles between Flying Club accounts, or from another frequent flyer programme to Flying Club.

If you require further assistance please speak with your Flying Club helpline.




also this from another email

With regards to your query, to make a third party booking for your daughter it will be necessary for you to contact your Flying Club helpline. The miles can be taken from two accounts and can be used to make a booking for third person.

Hope this helps

The main problem with getting Upper Class reward flights to Orlando is because there are so few to start with, only 14 on each flight. Having said that I have done it a couple of times, usually either when the flights are first released or within 7 days of travel when they can release any unsold seats for reward bookings and upgrades.

If like Susan J you are lucky enough to have that many miles, it's very easy to get UC (no first on Virgin) to Miami and add on a limo from there(just a few extra miles) which will take you to any address in the state of Florida. We like to do that once a year and we can then both relax and have a drink without driving when we arrive, also nice if you want to do a side trip to the keys or the coast.

Jill

thanks Steph et al,
Seems I will have to stick with the 2000+ bit then.
We had a miles + money flight last year that was delayed , so did not get the miles on that flight.
We are still using up miles that HAVE accumulated from flights we booked 'normally' and got miles with them.

Whilst we have the miles it does not seem any point in booking a 'normal flight'
as this just increases the number from which we can only use 2000.
We never have flown PE as cannot justify the expense

I still haven't got my head round Virgin miles plus money. I was checking out the cost of an extra seat this summer (might bring father in law. Miles plus money costs £2500 plus 15000 miles; without using the airmiles it costs £2300 amd you get 17,000 miles given to you.

Doesn't make any sense to me.

Is this flying Upper Class?

I would hope so at that price!:)

Yes, it is Upper Class, but that shouldn't make any difference to the principle, which just doesn't make any sense at all.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Tonish
Yes, it is Upper Class, but that shouldn't make any difference to the principle, which just doesn't make any sense at all.
[/quote]

Could it be that the miles/money fare books into a higher fare code and has additional benefits such as being fully changeable and refundable?

If the fare class and benefits are the same, as you rightly say, it makes no sense whatsoever.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Tonish
Yes, it is Upper Class, but that shouldn't make any difference to the principle, which just doesn't make any sense at all.
[/quote]

Actually it does. Only certain classes of seats can be used for reward flights whether it be M+M or a Companion fare. Most times I have been lucky and paid the price shown i.e £2300 in your case. Once I had to pay a higher fare i.e. £2500 to be able to use my companion fare.

Also using M+M (or any reward) does not qualify you to gain airmiles on that trip but if you don't use M+M (or any reward) it does qualify you for airmiles.

Hope that makes sense cos I am lost now[msnscared]

I have just done a quick quote on the Virgin website and it states at the bottom that you don't earn miles for this.

TOTAL FARE (in GBP) 943.40, including taxes, fees & surcharges + Total Miles 4,000
Passengers Fare Taxes, fees, & Surcharges Fare Including Taxes, Fees & surcharges Sub-total
2 Adults GBP 260.00
+
2,000 miles each GBP 211.70 each GBP 471.70
+
2,000 miles each GBP 943.40
+
4,000 miles
Includes the September 11th Security Fee of $2.50 per segment, and carrier imposed fuel and insurance surcharges

Total For All Passengers GBP 943.40 + 4,000 miles
Currently we are unable to accept Solo or Electron cards online. A credit card fee may apply depending upon your chosen method of payment.

Please note this fare does not qualify to earn flying club miles.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:blott Posted - 27 May 2008 : 22:35:23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by wrpac00
Also using M+M (or any reward) does not qualify you to gain airmiles on that trip but if you don't use M+M (or any reward) it does qualify you for airmiles.

Hope that makes sense cos I am lost now[/quote]

I spent 15 mins trying various different combinations on the website and that was the best I came up with, so gave up in disgust at that point and didn't read any of the small print. Katy's Grandad may have a valid point as well. I was in a hurry and rattled off my response to the posts without having completely checked it out.

I'll have another go when I've got some more time to look at it properly - but I get the impression that they don't make it easy for you. I have a load of miles to spend and not enough time to use them. Would be a great help come our Christmas trip this year but I'm not sure my patience is up to it!

Lynne is correct and there are no miles given for M+M fares.

M+M are sometimes better value, sometimes not, especially when there is a sale fare. This argument stands pretty firm in EC and PE. However, when looking at UC this almost always isn't good value unless you have to book inside 21 days of travel. As long as you're outside 21 days of departure and a 'Z' fare is available, that will always be cheaper than a M+M fare in UC. Inside 21 days and you are comparing a M+M fare of around 2K to a flexible fare of around 4K.

M+M fares come into their own when (A) you want to book well in advance and are a big party, (B) when it's school holidays and (C) when there is no sale fares available. Their other advantage is that the dates can be changed for a £50 fee whereas the lowest priced flights cannot.

Airlines price strategies are complicated but once you know the rules they do make sense.

Jill

Worth going somewhere else as they have dcefinately gone down hill over the last few years. We have miles to use up but once they're used we will try another airline.

It is definitely the correct information, I would never knowlingly post something that wasn't, it is also supported by VA's T&Cs on their website.

The T&Cs haven't changed for many years and you have been lucky to receive miles for your flights and for the reasons I gave I can't see the rules changing whether they read these postings or not.

Jill

we have the VA Amex card & this suits us down to the ground, the air miles just keep on coming.
we have used them for a few years now , and this is the first time we have used the points.

we just got one free flight in feb next year & 4 discounted flights using miles + money.
all in for £1500 for 5 of us. a saving of about £1000 possible more now the tax has just increased.

but why should Virgin give you miles on a flight thay you are getting for free , or much cheaper?
to me the system works. And we will continue to use it.

by the way have you noiticed that it takes a lot less airmiles to travel to New York for free than Orlando.
might pay you to do this then get a cheap internal flight to MCO.