Virgin Flying Club

[wilma-bride]

I am a member of Frequent Flyer with VA. Am I right in thinking that I can only earn miles on my own flights, not those that I have booked for someone else ie DH and the girls.

If this is the case, is there any way for their miles to be added to my account or would DH need to open his own account. Also, what about the girls' flights? Presumably, as they're both under 16, they can't join FC but we pay adult fare for them so they're entitled to earn miles - or not? I'm so confused but don't want to be missing an opportunity

 

[Tammy Stringer]

Joh

Welcome back - by the way - can't wait to hear all about it.

Not sure about transferring miles but I am pretty sure you can't claim for anyone elses miles. They would need to join themselves. I believe you can join from the age of 12. The girls both have collected miles on their accounts from flights - so get the girls registered as you can only claim for the last 6 months. If you recommend them you can get extra miles too

Tammy

 

[UKDEB]

Yes, you'll all need your own accounts. You can't transfer miles between the accounts, but anyone can use their miles for the benefit of other people. Our girls have got around 30,000 miles each which will expire in July if there is no more activity on their accounts, so we may well use them. You can redeem miles for one leg of a journey so, subject to availability, they have enough miles to get us one free flight in PE.

 

[UKDEB]

Oh, and don't forget to introduce them. You'll get 7,500 miles for each of them once you claim their miles from October.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Also, what about the girls' flights? Presumably, as they're both under 16, they can't join FC but we pay adult fare for them so they're entitled to earn miles - or not? I'm so confused but don't want to be missing an opportunity

Why not? I don't believe that there is a minimum age requirement for the Virgin Flying Club or any other requent flyer programme... Infact there are quite a few top teir elites under the age of 5 around...

Boo

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks Tam and Deb. We didn't actually fly Virgin in October and our Feb flights were miles plus money but we're looking at going with Virgin in April for our first trip 'home' (and first trip as an entire family!!!) so didn't want to miss the possibility of extra miles

 

[wilma-bride]

Why not? I don't believe that there is a minimum age requirement for the Virgin Flying Club or any other requent flyer programme... Infact there are quite a few top teir elites under the age of 5 around...

Boo

Actually, there IS a minimum age to join Virgin Atlantic FC - as Tam said, it is 12 years old - makes sense really as that is the age when you start paying adult fare for flights. I'd like to know who the under-5 top tier elites are mind, especially as child fares are not eligible to earn miles with Virgin.

 

[wayneg]

As Tammy says they can join from 12th birthday.
No you can't transfer miles see below from Virgin FAQ's
If you have just done UK to MCO return that should give each member of your family over 8,000 miles each. next flight just book with one of your Daughters accounts, there should be enough for all 4 of you to use 2,000 each for miles and money.
Also worth joining each account thru a recommendation from you. You will get thousands added to your account.

Q Can I transfer my miles to another account?
A No, as it is your personal reward scheme. However, you can use your miles to book a reward for friends and family. Although once booked, such rewards are not transferable.

Sorry if others have responded before me, I have been serving customers in between writing this, so taken me a while

 

[CustardTart]

Thanks for the info, I will sign DS13 up asap!

 

[carolfoy]

There are top tier under 12's around, as they pay adult fare to travel as an unaccompanied minor, I have frequent flyer 'children' as adults with virgin, BA andSQ

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Actually, there IS a minimum age to join Virgin Atlantic FC - as Tam said, it is 12 years old - makes sense really as that is the age when you start paying adult fare for flights. I'd like to know who the under-5 top tier elites are mind, especially as child fares are not eligible to earn miles with Virgin.

Ok, for Virgin. In which case they are very backward.

But not for other airlines - the US airlines (American and United etc) don't have a minimum age: those are the ones with some top tier under 5 flyers. People fly a lot more over there and some executives take their wives & children along with them on various trips, usually in First Class. I belong to a frequent flyer forum and some of the posters on there have children under 5 (maybe under 2) with at least Silver status on BA...

Boo

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Actually, you are all right but also a little wrong
If you are Slver or Red Flying Club then there is an age limit of 12 before you can earn you won miles.
You can use your accrued miles to get benefits for your children though
You can also buy miles if you are short for a reward.

However, we Gold card holders children do collect miles from the age of 2 upwards and until the age of 12 they are transferred into my account, along with the 50% extra miles I get per flight. Plus of course, any family member over 18 gets an auromatic upgrade to silver if they do not qualify for Gold themselves. (Oh plus the extra piece of luggage 1x32kg in UC and One 1x23 kg in econ over standard luggage allowance)

 

[LisaStockman]

My husband and I have both saved enough Virgin airmiles to fly 1st class next year paying for a Premium Economy Flight and using the airmiles to upgrade to 1st.

Has anyone done this successfully to Orlando or anywhere else? We tried to book the upgrade this year for November and they had no availability for Sept, Oct, Nov or Dec.

Many thanks

 

[Boo Boo Too]

My husband and I have both saved enough Virgin airmiles to fly 1st class next year paying for a Premium Economy Flight and using the airmiles to upgrade to 1st.

Has anyone done this successfully to Orlando or anywhere else? We tried to book the upgrade this year for November and they had no availability for Sept, Oct, Nov or Dec.

I have for September/October, but on BA not Virgin... It is a great use of miles. On BA there was LOADS on availability this autumn (flights with at least two award seats available most days).

It may well be that there was availability on Virgin, but the seats have all gone already? Orlando is a less popular destination with people redeeming miles than many others on BA (like OZ, far east, Mauritious, other US airports). Since BA has a smaller network, maybe Orlando is a more popular place for people to redeem miles.

In my experience, generally you do not see an increase in seats allocated for airmile redemption between the initial allocation and a couple of weeks before the flights (when inventory management may release some more of the unsold seats). There are exceptions to this sometimes, but if you don't see award seats being freed up over the next few months, you may want to look into alternatives. On BA, for example, people wishing to use miles to upgrade from London to Australia generally have to book as SOON as those flights open up for booking (11 months or so in advance).

Boo