Using virgin airmiles - for summer 2011 miles/money help advice?

[MrsJobba1]

Hi

My hubby and I have been working hard saving our virgin airmiles.
We r hoping to use some of them to offset the price of a couple of premium economy seats for summer 2011. We have never done this before.
Any help advice would be really appreciated.

For example - is there only certain flights you can offset? Can you do this at the 11month window ? We would appreciate any comments.

Thankyou

 

[Disneymad]

One way to think of it is that Flying Club have their own distinct allocation of seats that can be used for discounted/free airmile tickets. They are also ruled by the same pyschology that normal discounted seats have which is to say that some may be available as soon as the 11 month window pops but equally, some may not become available until some time has passed and the airline feels that it makes more sense to offer more seats to boost take up on the flight.

So the answer to your questions are Sometimes and Maybe.

My advice would be to check at the earliest opportunity the your booking window opens, however if there is no Flying Club seats showing (you can check on the normal Virgin Atlantic website booking engine as long as you're logged in to your Frequent Virgin account) then don't assume that there won't be any made available at a later date.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether you're talking about using your miles for free seats (still have to pay tax), upgrading from Economy to PE, or are talking about using Miles plus Money. 'Free' seats can be few and far between so can be really hard to nab. Upgrading is a bit easier but comes with the handicap that you can't upgrade discounted tickets ie non-flexible which most people fly on - in my opinion it's only ever worth doing that for upgrading PE to UC because you lose most the value by having to pay an inflated price for the original Economy ticket. Miles plus Money has way more availability and is the easiest of the options to get.

That's been my personal experience of it anyhow. HTH

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

Hi Helen. I often use our Virgin miles to get tickets. I've found the best way to get the most value from them is to use than in a miles+money option. Depending on when you're thinking of going, and if I know you it will be in the school holidays, I would definitely get your tickets at the 11 month window. If they are not showing on the website then call the Virgin frequent flyers service desk as sometimes the tickets are available they're just not showing on-line. I've always found that there are miles+money tickets available on every flight whatever the route as I've now used that option to Florida, Sydney and New York.

Anyway hopes that helps a bit, if you've got any more questions just ask.

 

[torsie24]

We just got miles+money economy and premium economy seats for next March/April.

They were available straight away at the 11 month window.

 

[fairytale]

Thank you for posting this thread.

I am on the look out for 6 PE - miles plus money seats for next October.

I am presuming that I will have to await for my return leg to be at the eleventh window before I can book and I am therefore concerned that all the M+M seats will have gone by then for our outbound flight, if that makes sense ??

 

[MrsJobba1]

Thank you for all your replies and Hi Izzi

Looks like we want to use the miles and money.

Does anyone have the Virgin frequent flyers service desk number to hand?

And to confirm you have to book 11 months from the RETURN date yes?

Thanks again

 

[Netty]

its the flying club number you want,
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/contactus/index.jsp

 

[MrsJobba1]

its the flying club number you want,
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/contactus/index.jsp

Thank you