New to Virgin Atlantic, Would appreciate some advice please

Hi all,
We're considering Virgin Atlantic for our flights in April 2014, and these should be on sale late May. I've discovered that I can turn my Tesco Clubcard points into Virgin Miles, and I've just registered with Virgin Flying Club and spent ages looking around the site, but I have a couple of questions and thought you guys may have the answers (because the Flying Club FAQs certainly don't!)

Firstly, I did a quick search to see how much money can be saved by looking for Miles plus Money fares. I picked a random fortnight in August and found there were no seats available, but if I just looked for fares without trying to use miles then all 7 seats I was searching for were available (at £1001/adult Economy). So, is this usual? If I was to buy miles would I discover I probably can't actually use them on a popular flight? We are completely tied to school holidays so there won't be any flexibility in our dates when I am booking. If I'm booking literally on the day that the flights are released will I have more chance of being able to use miles?

I've read a few threads on the forum where people are discussing Miles plus Money, and they always mention 2000 miles. Is this the only quantity of miles can be used per person? I assume miles can't be use against the £100 fare for an infant?

Finally, I couldn't work out if I needed to have already flown with Virgin Atlantic before I could turn Tesco Clubcard points into miles. It was quite clear that I couldn't buy miles with real money until I have accrued miles from a flight, but I couldn't work out if I could buy miles from Tesco Clubcard before I have flown with them.

I'd be grateful for you thoughts and knowledge on this.

Thanks

I've never managed to get Miles plus money in any holidays or near to holidays - so dont convert those clubcard points as you will probably be stuck with the miles and they run out after a couple of years.

We have used Virgin miles for discount flights to Orlando. We got about £30 per person discount by using 2000 miles for each ticket. If you use a miles plus money ticket, you do not earn any miles on the journey.

Dave,
they have very limited availability in the holiday season, you will need to get on the site more or less as they are released to have any chance,
We use Tesco points and get up to £100 to £120 off the normal price but we are not tied to dates like you are of course.
Good luck, by the way we fly out a week today for 17 nights
Eric

With reference to availability Dave, when I used to use the old Airmiles I often found that dates that weren't available were available on BA's website, and was told only a limited number of seats were allocated to Airmiles.

I have to admit that I know almost nothing about the Virgin programme but my experience of those of other airlines is that you have to really work at finding availability and even more so during school holiday time.

I'm a big fan of these loyalty programmes and have done very well out of them but you have to do your homework and be prepared to pull the booking trigger at short notice. If you see them for your dates grab them immediately because you can be sure they won't be there the next day.

we have just flown premium economy with Virgin -not school holidays, and we got our tickets in a sale last year. They were offering PE flights for the same miles as economy. We paid just over £400 each for taxes etc (£435 I think) and 35,000 miles each.
They don't always release all the 'award' seats on the first day so just keep looking every few days and be ready to book as soon as you see a deal you like.

Sue

We use M&M for every flight. You don't necessarily have to book on the release date but usually within 6 weeks or so of the release date. Also, just because no flights are available for that flight at the moment doesn't mean they won't release some more M&M flights in the near future. We have never failed to get the flights, although do sometimes have to alter our travel dates by the odd day (not due to availability but due to price).

You can only ever use 2000 miles per person when flying Economy and 7500 per person for PE. If the infant is having their own seat then you can use M&M but not if they are on your lap and your discount is off the flight not the taxes.

We have converted lots of Clubcard points to miles and as far as i know, you don't have to have flown already to do this, just as long as you are a flying club member then you just put your account number in when converting (look out for double rewards and bonus schemes).

If you get a Virgin Atlantic Credit Card they will give you bonus miles the first time you use it too, even if you don't bother after that. I got 3000 miles for using the card for the first time.

If you are struggling with finding anything you want from the website then call the flying club customer services on 0844 412 2414 and speak to them. They are really good and sometimes come up with a different price and availability than shown online. Try and call through the day as you will get a UK contact rather than one from the back of beyond if you call late at night. They don't mind you throwing different dates and scenarios at them.

One thing though, if you find the flights and are happy with them.....book them straight away as it's constantly changing.

We have booked M&M flights for October this year. I booked them just before Christmas and got 6 adults and 4 children for £4700 partly over school holidays.

Try putting in the date for newly released flights and you will see what comes up and get an idea of the price changes day by day.

Hope the above helps, let me know if you need anything else as i am flying club crazy! Just wish i accumulated enough for full reward flights rather than spending the miles on M&M each year!!

Just had another thought, we have sometimes used M+M for a flight to Miami (4 hr drive from Orlando) when flights to Orlando have not been available and sometimes have flown to Orlando and back from Miami for the same reason. If you phone VA they will be able to look at all the alternatives for you. We have stayed in Miami for a night or two on a few occasions, so you could look at that as a bonus to your holiday.
To answer your other question, M+M in economy is always 2000 miles but for a full miles ie. taxes only flight, it varies on the length of the flight and some times they have special offers. There is nothing in between M+M and full miles.

Sue

The problem going into Miami is that it's only avaiable from London so anybody based away from SE England has to make a connection on both outbound and inbound legs. Add a 200 mile each way drive in Florida and the whole concept of a 'direct' flight seems to be a little far fetched.

Against that option I'd take a connection in the US anytime.

Wow, I knew this was the place to ask!

Eric, have a great time, it should be lovely in May. Wish I wasn't looking at a 12 month wait to go back.

Garry, what great advice. I've been playing on the Virgin Flights booking thingy and as you suggested I've been pretending to book a Saturday to Saturday fortnight that has only been released in the last few days, and M+M flights are available. The 2000 points seems to be worth £46. This equates to around 5.75x the face value of the Tesco vouchers, which is better than the usual exchange rate. I'm seriously considering gambling £50 of Tesco vouchers in the hope of getting a couple of hundred £s off the total. If I could get the family to decide who is and isn't actually coming with us it would help with my calculations!

Christine, When you have previously failed to get M+M seats for school holiday dates, would you have been looking on the day of the flights coming on sale, or some time nearer to the departure date?

Sue, that's very interesting that sometimes M+M seats aren't available on the first day the flights go on sale. That could play havoc with my blood pressure!

All, many thanks for the words of wisdom.

I'll keep you all posted. It's four weeks until our required flights are released.