Virgin Flying Club miles - how do you spend

[Mrs Dazzle]

Anyone out there redeemed any of their Flying Club miles? If so, how did you do it?

DH and I both have sufficient either for a companion flight for our Florida trip next August, or upgrade from Economy to PE.

Ideally I would prefer to book a fly-drive through Virgin Hols since we're FV's, and I also have a Virgin Hols £200 voucher to offset against the cost of the holiday, but I don't know if I can use my Flying Club airmiles if I don't book direct with VA . . .

Help anyone!

Taaaaaaaaa

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
As far as I am aware Flying Club miles can only be used with VA and not VH but it may be a case of speaking to a different employee and getting a different answer as is often the case with large companies. We have just booked 2 Upper Class flights to LA and only paid £60 in taxes..!! Mate of mine said a few years ago he couldn't be bothered with loyality cards as you never get much out of them, he has changed his mind now..!!

Mick.

 

[minniemick]

We booked with Virgine Frequent club & also used our airmiles. You have to book your holiday apply to Virgin Airmiles they send you vouchers & you send these with your balance.

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

If you want to use your miles to book a companion ticket be aware that only certain ticket categories are applicable. For example, only full-fare economy tickets are eligble for companion awards, not the heavily discounted economy tickets. It might be cheaper to buy two low-cost tickets than it would be to buy a full-cost ticket plus a companion ticket.

Regards

Rob

 

[UKDEB]

To redeem Flying Club miles for flights, companion flights, Miles Plus Money or upgrades, just phone the Flying Club. They're really helpful and will talk through all the options and help you decide which is best. Make sure you also phone around for some quotes as sometimes the discounted rates can be better.

Matt phoned on Friday to get quotes for next April. PE Companion was £970.72 (i.e. £485 each) plus 30,000 miles, upgrade from economy to PE was £463 plus 20,000 miles, Miles Plus Money for PE was £735 plus 7500 miles, UC companion was £4200 (£2100 each) plus 65,000 miles, upgrade from PE to UC was £883 plus 40,000 miles. These fares were all to fly in to Washington and out of Orlando. Quite clearly some of these deals are much better than others - there never seems to be any rhyme or reason.

 

[gilld]

I'm a bit confused by the Flying Club. Are flights with Virgin Holidays counted towards the airmile balance? If so, how do you register these flights and what about flights with Singapore Airlines who are partners? Can anyone clarify for me please?
Thank you....
Gill

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Thanks everyone - some very useful information indeed. My thinking cap is now fully operational

Mick - has your mate got a loyalty card now Wow - lucky you. I loved our UC trip to Lt Lucia last year, fantastic.

Deb - really useful info, thanks flower, it's given me an idea of the sorts of costs we're looking for

Gill - you get your Flying Club miles direct with VA, not V Hols. When you first apply, you don't get the credit-card type card, just an email confirmation normally giving your membership number. When you ring up to reserve your seats with VA, make sure you quote both your flying club numbers for you and your DH since you can both earn mileage (we do). When you check-in at VA, or partner airline (Singapore) again hand over your membership number to make sure they've got it logged, both outbound and inbound. When you've made your initial flight using this membership you then get sent the "proper" card to use

 

[gilld]

Sorry, Annie, I'm probably being particularly stupid today, but if our flights (VA and Singapore) were booked with VH originally, will they still count?

Thanks
Gill

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Hi Gill- of course you're not being stupid, these were all the things I couldn't work out when we first joined the Flying Club a few years ago

Virgin Holoidays - use your Frequent Virgin discount with them, but if you are a Frequent Flying Club member you can also get the 10% discount (but sadly not the two together, I did ask ).

To get your airmiles with Virgin and partner airlines, this is when you use your Flying Club card. It doesn't matter who you've booked the flights or holiday through, if you are flying VA or partner airline, claim for your miles.

Have you checked out if who you flew to the Maldives with are VA partners? You may be able to back-date, worth checking out if they are a partner airline

The problem with all these "loyalty" cards is, you feel you need to use the benefits. But like people have pointed out above, it might not necessarily be the cheapest method, so much searching to be done