Virgin Credit Card - Miles or Money

[spm23]

I have to pay the balance of my virgin holiday. I can pay on my credit card which is a virgin one bit it will cost me £80 but I will get 11,000 miles. Or I can pay by cheque, save the money and not get the miles.

Is 11,000 miles worth the £80, I think it is as we travel virgin and are saving miles for another family trip. Any views.


Also, has anyone ever been able to convince virgin to waive the 1.5% fee for their own credit card, it does seem a bit poor but I suppose its master card rather than Virgin who are taking the commission.

Thanks for any views and advice.

 

[AndRu]

I have miles from two previous trips to the USA which were worth about 16,000 miles. I've since had a Virgin credit card that gives me 2 miles for every pound spent and I've been using this (and paying off in full!) to get even more miles. The next time we're going is in August '07 but I can't use Miles+Money until September this year due to the 11 month rule.

However, pricing up the trip using equivalent days for August '06 on both VA and Miles+Money proved that the latter will save me in excess of £1500. So for me, Miles+Money is well worth the effort.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Also, has anyone ever been able to convince virgin to waive the 1.5% fee for their own credit card, it does seem a bit poor but I suppose its master card rather than Virgin who are taking the commission.
/QUOTE]

I had a similar problem with Co-op Travelcare...I had the co-op travelcare Visa, and one of the benefits of that card, written in black and white on numerous doccumentations and their web site, was 0% commission when booking with Co-op Travelcare.......but try telling that to Travelcare !!!

First purchase I made was a single childs flex-ticket, and that was no bother, 0% charged. The second purchase I made was more substantial, about £900 (car hire + 3 adult flex tickets), but the bloke on the phone had never heard of their own card having 0% charge, and went to his supervisor, who similarly had aparantly never heard of it....in fact the supervisor refused to allow it unless I provided the invoice number of the previous purchase where I explained was no problems.....of course I had lost that. They werent prepared (or had no facility to) to look at their own web site to see for themselves either.
Extremely frustrating....but the lad was OK, he reduced the car hire charge to an amount similar to the 2% charge, so even though I was paying the charge, it was just the same to me in the end.
Actualy, now Im back, I might write and complain and get my "2%" back .

 

[fulles]

Can someone explain how the air miles work?

Presumably you can exchange any number of miles against a flight. For example, if I had accumulated 1000 air miles, could this be taken as part-payment for a flight to Florida or would I need to accumulate the whole 9000 miles?

Also, if I had a Virgin credit card and spent £4500 I would get 9000 air miles (at 2miles per £1). I can't image I would get free flights to Florida for that. Presumably you have to pay airport taxes etc.

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick.

Steve

 

[spm23]

Steve,

I think you need 50,000 miles for a free trip to Florida( still have top pay tax and fuel charge I think) but only 2,000 miles to get a miles + money offer which reduces the basic price (not sure how much by). I think if you have more miles, it reduces the price further but I could be wrong.

You only get 2 miles per £1 spent if you pay an annual fee, otherwise is 1 mile per £1. I always pay mine off as there are quite a few business expenses which helps with the holidays but am currently accumulating miles. I have not tried to book summer season yet with these miles, that will be fun.

You can use the miles to upgrade if you want to PE or even First Class and you can use the miles for ther non flight related things such as hotels etc.

Hope this helps and thanks to the others for the advice, I will pay on card, take the miles as it takes me to 70,000 so nearly a freeboe for two of us, and see about writing to virgin about it and being disapointed that its not a perk of the "virgin" club.

I travel on the trains to London each week, just wish I had some miles for that

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Can someone explain how the air miles work?

Slightly OT, but I collect BA Air Miles (not Virgin).

I collect airmiles the following way:
- when you fly BA or a partner (for example 1.25 x miles flown for a WT+ ticket)
- with a BA American Express card - I have a Premium Plus card (1.5 BA miles for £1 spent, 3 BA miles for a £1 spent with BA). Card has a £125 per year fee, but this is reduced to £30 is you have another Amex card (i.e. an Amex Red which has no annual fee...)
- Tescos clubcard points - 250 clubcard points = 600 BA miles
- When I stay at a Hilton hotel - 1000/500 BA miles bonus per stay + 1 NA mile per £1 spent (or something similar)
- Also get 500 BA Miles when I rent cars from Hertz.

This tends to build up (including a BA special promotion - have earnt about 70k miles in seven months). I tend to use BA Miles in 25k chunks - it costs 25k BA miles to upgrade a WT+ ticket to Club World (Business Class) for a return journey to the US. So 50k miles for husband and I.

Boo

 

[gavvy]

The virgin credit card with flyingclub miles has been withdrawn for new customers at the moment.
Apprently MBNA who run the card are launching a new one in July but it will be an American Express card. I am not sure if those with the Mastercard will be allowed to keep the card we have or if we will be forced over to the Amex.
Personally I dont really like Amex, its not accepted everywhere unlike Mastercard.

 

[Celestine]

You can now buy airmiles. 1000 for £30 or 5000 miles for £90, so you paying £80 but getting 11000 is infact a bargain! (if you see my contorted logic) Return economy is 50000 miles, 75000 PE and 100000 UC, but you can get singles for half, so we're hoping to economy out & UC back for 75000 next year for our 10th wedding anniversary. so are frantically saving & spending (if you get my drift).