Loyalty Points with Credit Card

[mollymoo]

Hello it's that time of year again! I ONLY COME ON HERE WHEN BOOKING A HOLIDAY!

I have a credit card with a well known company who also owns a fleet of Planes, and I was wondering if anyone had booked a flight using the air miles they had acrued?

Am having a small problem as in I want to book flights for next November (I have correct amount of airmiles for two flights) and am not sure how far in advance they let you book the so called free flights!!! Need to book the same flight as my children or there Aunt and Uncle will be having kittens!!!

I know we will be able to purchase tickets but was not why I took this card out [msnsad]

Mollymoo

[Katys Grandad]

Lots of airlines issue credit cards through various providers. I'm guessing it's Virgin you're talking about but it might help us to give you a better answer if you make it just a bit clearer.

[freddiehollie]

I have just spoken to Virgin for flights next Oct using air miles (hotel already booked)
I was told to keep checking as they added new flight availability (for airmiles) on a regular basis
They said to expect flights for the days I'm looking at later this month[msnsmile2]

[wrpac00]

I have had 5 companion fares in the past 4 years with Virgin, worth every penny. Stall have almost 200000 airmiles to use.

[jillizzy]

Just check on line every couple of days. At the moment there are some miles redemption fares for early October next year, but nothing released yet for November.

Even if you're paying full price for tickets you can't book a a ticket to return after 15 Nov 08, it's just too early - unless it's through VH.

I have no doubt that there willl be seats released for then, it's just a matter of waiting - November is probably one of best months to get reward availability - I had 6 of them last month which I booked around 6 or 7 months before.

Jill

[ravtino]

We too are trying to book for next July / Aug but nothing as yet, we booked same dates this time last year so I check daily, as I have said before loads available for summer from London but not from Manchester

[mizzy]

sometimes it's worth giving flying club reservations a call, when i booked for march 07 my dates didn't show at the time we expected them to but they had seats when i called

[mollymoo]

Katys Grandad,
It is Virgin that I am talking about but didnt want to name them incase post got removed for some technicality or something!!

Just feels unnerving that my kids are booked already with VH in my brother-in-laws party and that we have to leave it what seems like ages before we can tie up our own tickets through Virgin Atlantic so that we are on same flight.

[Robert5988]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Katys Grandad,
It is Virgin that I am talking about but didnt want to name them incase post got removed for some technicality or something!!

Just feels unnerving that my kids are booked already with VH in my brother-in-laws party and that we have to leave it what seems like ages before we can tie up our own tickets through Virgin Atlantic so that we are on same flight.
[/quote]

All Airlines have a very complicated computer program that allocates seats into the various booking categories.

Those seats allocated for the mileage award categories obviously have a lower priority than fully paid tickets. The computer forcasts likely demand; for instance the weekend the schools break up at Easter will inevitably be heavy and people will pay for their tickets almost regardless of price.

Normally some award tickets are released early on and, depending on demand for paid tickets, more could be released later.

Normally November is not a problem - except perhaps the half term week.

[domster]

Sometimes it is worth shopping around or calling the airline direct.

We have had some good faires using the miles we had racked up on the airline credit card, other times the fare was only a few pounds cheaper and we would have used loads of miles.

I have a BMI one and does come in handy when I need short flights. I only pay the airport tax on some flights.