Virgin Credit Card and Airmiles

[AcrossthePondNic]

Wondering if anyone has any comments as I'm looking into whether it would be worth signing up to get some airmiles towards booking our next flight to WDW. Obviously it will be best to make sure I clear the balance each month and I'm not a huge spender but is earning the airmiles worth it?

 

[saintrob]

I'm a massive fan of the Virgin Atlantic credit card. I have the black version which costs £140 a year but means that for every £ spent I receive two airmiles. I also have my Tesco club card points automatically converted to Virgin airmiles. We're a family of three and all have a credit card which builds up miles to the same account. I clear the bill each month and we use the card for all our spend. If a business doesn't take Amex then we use the visa which gives 1 mile per £ spent. Each year we usually have enough miles for 3 x return flights in UC to Orlando. There are other alternatives for us such as paying for PE and upgrading to UC with miles (which we've done this year) I can only travel during the school holidays but have managed to bag flights and have also got them over the Christmas period although travelling via Atlanta.

 

[AcrossthePondNic]

Thanks! We can only travel during school holidays too. My husband and I have both signed up to flying club and linked our tesco club cards. I signed up first then invited him to join. Is there a way to pool our points? I think we'll do the credit card at the weekend.

Is it easy to use your points earned towards flights?

 

[saintrob]

Unfortunately not. Each person has to have their own flying club account. We have the credit cards in my name so that the bulk of the points go on my flying club account. My DH and DS also rack up flying club miles as miles are also gained after flying with Virgin Atlantic. (Flights booked with miles don't qualify) Sometimes the miles they have will be enough to bag an upgrade. We've been pretty lucky in getting flights and have always managed during the summer holidays.

 

[AcrossthePondNic]

We're not frequent flyers but we're signed up so we have nothing to lose. Will probably make sense to have the CC in DHs name. We plan to fly out before him next time so he will be flying solo. Maybe he'll stand more of a chance of getting a flight that he can use the points for.

I've also seen that you've flown a lot in August. We are looking at August. We'd prefer April but it won't work with holidays etc for us this time. I've been in July. Many years ago. I don't remember it being significantly hotter but it was definitely wetter. Though it was a slightly hotter than usual April when we went. Do you find the humidity to be a problem?

We're hoping for a YC stay but not until August 2018.

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

I can only travel during the school holidays but have managed to bag flights and have also got them over the Christmas period although travelling via Atlanta.

I just wanted to say a massive "Thank You" to you.

I have enough Virgin miles to get the 4 of us UC flight for our trip Xmas 2017 and I've been stalking their website since January to see when they would release the 2016 dates to see when I'd have to pounce next year. Anyway long story short there has never been any UC reward seats on London to Orlando direct flights in Dec 2016 released or return flights in January 2017. I looked at going via JFK and it looked there was a bit more availability but it still seemed a bit thin. Then after reading your post I widened the net and believe it or not there are all classes of reward seats available for the whole of Dec 2016 from London to Detroit and from Detroit to London for the whole of January 2017 even now just 6 months before travel. So it appears that particular hurdle has been sorted

 

[saintrob]

We're not frequent flyers but we're signed up so we have nothing to lose. Will probably make sense to have the CC in DHs name. We plan to fly out before him next time so he will be flying solo. Maybe he'll stand more of a chance of getting a flight that he can use the points for.

I've also seen that you've flown a lot in August. We are looking at August. We'd prefer April but it won't work with holidays etc for us this time. I've been in July. Many years ago. I don't remember it being significantly hotter but it was definitely wetter. Though it was a slightly hotter than usual April when we went. Do you find the humidity to be a problem?

We're hoping for a YC stay but not until August 2018.

No, we don't find the humidity a problem. We've been in April too and although August is definitely hotter we just spend more time around the hotel pool in the afternoon.

Good luck in getting the flights you want and hopefully the YC which I love.

 

[saintrob]

I just wanted to say a massive "Thank You" to you.

I have enough Virgin miles to get the 4 of us UC flight for our trip Xmas 2017 and I've been stalking their website since January to see when they would release the 2016 dates to see when I'd have to pounce next year. Anyway long story short there has never been any UC reward seats on London to Orlando direct flights in Dec 2016 released or return flights in January 2017. I looked at going via JFK and it looked there was a bit more availability but it still seemed a bit thin. Then after reading your post I widened the net and believe it or not there are all classes of reward seats available for the whole of Dec 2016 from London to Detroit and from Detroit to London for the whole of January 2017 even now just 6 months before travel. So it appears that particular hurdle has been sorted

That's fabulous!

It's the same for us from Manchester with the Atlanta route - seats seem to be available near enough every day so I've bagged them for our Christmas trip with miles! For Easter I paid in PE and upgraded to UC with miles. It cost me less than paying for PE direct to Orlando!

Good luck with your trip!

 

[steveyjc81]

Check out the v - flyer website, lots of good tips on there. Might be hard getting availability on Orlando route - smaller Upper Class. More luck with into MIA in my opinion.

 

[Wakey]

I have had 10000 plus points for 8 years now about to expire and I've never been able to use when we wanted to go. None availability in school holidays. Useless they are.

 

[pickers1982]

cracking scheme, we got our family of 4 to and from orlando premium with airmiles and still have lots left over and saving again. Granted this was out of school hols and we flew weekdays to help.

i see it as something for nothing and long term saving if you pay it off every month.

 

[Jon84]

FYI. You can pool points. Just call flying club and they can move them around as needed to buy flights with the miles

 

[pickers1982]

Yes we pooled my wife and mine accounts to buy tickets for our family of four

 

[wayneg]

Had lots of Miles & Money fares, this October flying home with reward seats in Upper class. Managed to use them in and out of school hols. We don't use our credit card a lot but miles add up, I also collect via Tesco, convert their points to Airmiles, again not many but adds up. Another way for me is doing surveys ( I think they have to invite you) I claim 2,000 miles a month doing those. Well worth collecting though.

 

[pickers1982]

Had lots of Miles & Money fares, this October flying home with reward seats in Upper class. Managed to use them in and out of school hols. We don't use our credit card a lot but miles add up, I also collect via Tesco, convert their points to Airmiles, again not many but adds up. Another way for me is doing surveys ( I think they have to invite you) I claim 2,000 miles a month doing those. Well worth collecting though.

How much time does it take roughly in surveys to get the 2,000 miles?

 

[wayneg]

How much time does it take roughly in surveys to get the 2,000 miles?

I probably spend on average about 15-20 mins a day, only do them at work Mon- Fri, never on a weekend.

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

Yes we pooled my wife and mine accounts to buy tickets for our family of four

Can you tell me how you pooled your miles as I know you can transfer or gift miles but you have to pay for that.

 

[pickers1982]

Can you tell me how you pooled your miles as I know you can transfer or gift miles but you have to pay for that.

We just phoned up to book and gave them our flying club numbers and they did our booking. We didn't transfer any pre booking they just took them from both accounts in different proportions when we booked.

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

We just phoned up to book and gave them our flying club numbers and they did our booking. We didn't transfer any pre booking they just took them from both accounts in different proportions when we booked.

That's really interesting as when I booked our flights for our 2014 trip I needed to use points from all 4 of our accounts. When I rang to book they made me transfer all the points from my husbands and son's accounts into mine, and made me pay for it, so I'd have enough points to cover flights for the 4 of us.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

We are DVC members so just need to book flights. We also are fans of black Virgin Amex and Visa we put all expenses through it where they take Amex or Visa. Pay it off each month. Use miles and money or just miles or upgrades. Just about to fly PE both ways in September for 450 pounds return for 2 adults!