Best value for Virgin Miles?

[IanW]

I was searching for a flight to Orlando from Manchester for 2 adults and 2 children for next August. I found the cash saving you get from using your Virgin Air Miles varies greatly.
50,000 miles saves £700 for one free flight in Economy
8,000 miles saves £1015 between 4 passengers in economy
but to use an extra 22,000 miles to book 4 passengers into Premium Economy only saves an extra £175 between us.
I appreciate they don't always let you upgrade to Premium Economy when you've already bought a Miles plus money ticket, but if you do get the chance it seems better to pay for an upgrade with cash rather than miles.
These were the prices I got off the internet.
Miles + Money economy £1862
Cash only Economy £2877
Miles + Money Premium £3167
Cash only Premium £4357

Ian

[mizzy]

i found myself to be in a simialar situation to yourself Ian the only difference being i had fewer miles to spend so as a compromise we decided to go out prem econ and come home economy it saved us approx £1,100? (can't remember exact figure) between the 4 fares purchased (3 adults and one child)

have you checked this option or do you not fancy that?

Mizzy

[brizzle]

I've looked at all the options every we time we look at booking and the 2,000 for a discount always seems the best value per point used.

However using my points to get a free flight and then the wifes to get the rest on miles+money we could do next August for about £1300 (2 adults 2 children) which is quite a saving for peak school holiday dates...

Never really thought about the upgrade option as I think the economy is pretty much OK on Virgin/BA.

It does vary depending on dates on what is the best option as well.

[andrewmckay5]

I've always found it better to speak on the phone to Virgin rather than rely on the web site. Seem to be more dates available plus they have made some suggestions to use the points more efficiently.
andrew

[Robert5988]

Could you elaborate on those savings please.

If cash only economy is £2877:

How does 8,000 miles save £1305? Would that not make Miles + Money £1572 and not £1862

Also how does 50,000 miles save £2770? That means 4 people flying for £107? for all taxes and surcharges?

[athurstance]

I am pretty happy with Virgin miles at the moment. I rang this morning and managed to get 2 free companion tickets for next October half-term. Saved me £897 in tickets for the 4 of us. I had one free companion ticket from my credit card last year and used 20,000 miles for the second one.

I must admit to being a bit of a cynic and was convinced I'd never get to use my companion ticket during school holiday but I am delighted to have been proved wrong.

[IanW]

Well spotted Robert!. That'll teach me to try maths at midnight.
The saving for the family was £1015 using 8000 miles and £700 using 50000 miles. Even greater value for using 8000 mile offer over 50000 mile offer.
I have read that some people have been offered an upgrade to Premium Economy at the desk and used their miles. Is this as well as cash or can you just use the miles?
Ian

[jillizzy]

Ian if you have just used miles to buy the economy fare you can then just use more miles to upgrade to PE if available anytime before travel.

Other ways become far more complicated, it depends what fare class your economy ticket is in. Whether you have paid in full, done a M+M fare or have a restricted ticket.

However, some rules can be disregarded at the airport depending on how full the aircraft is and if passengers need to be moved, i.e. up or downgraded.

I have upgraded from PE to UC for 20K miles at the airport on a couple of occasions (at Gatwick and Orlando)with no money, when strictly I should have paid money too. You'll find that the staff at Gatwick are very knowledgeable and will impose the rules pretty strictly if the flight is not full, Orlando is a different matter[msnwink]

Jill

[wrpac00]

I have never used m+m so that's why I am probably a bit lost.

If you are talking about using in the region of 50000 miles aren't you better off getting a companion fare? To get a FREE (taxes only) companion fare in PE you need 30000 miles for economy its only 20000 miles. I saved myself over £1200 for next summer.

Angela, I have used companion fares for the past 3 summer holidays plus 2007.

[athurstance]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:[i]
Angela, I have used companion fares for the past 3 summer holidays plus 2007.
[/quote]

That's really good to know. We can only travel in school holidays.

I wasn't sure whether to stick with the Virgin credit card now they've changed to Amex but I think I will. I had 2 free flights using miles this last October but my parents used them as I could only get the Friday and flying back Sunday whereas we needed Sat to Sat but I did book those later and half-term availability had gone.

Now I've got these 2 I think it really does make sense to have the credit card so I will be changing over.