Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

[NM]

I would also be very interested in anyone who has recently redeemed points on VS. A few months ago I thought VS might be my salvation from QF (I have most of my points with Amex)... I rang the local Virgin Atlantic office to ask about the availability if "Upper Class" seats anytime over the next 12 months to get an idea of how hard this would be. The response was zero seats in J for the next 12 months... and I should keep trying a year ahead of my planned travel dates. Also rang Virgin Blue, who quoted a rate many times higher than booking directly with Virgin Atlantic... So i'm pretty reluctant to move to this program and have my DJ flights credited to VS if seats are even harder to obtain than with QF...

I believe you can use VS points for redemptions on SQ and there are a lot more premium SQ seats leaving Australia and heading to Europe than there are VS Upper Class seats.

 

[dajop]

I believe you can use VS points for redemptions on SQ and there are a lot more premium SQ seats leaving Australia and heading to Europe than there are VS Upper Class seats.

Also VS points can be used on MH and NZ, which provides even more options.

 

[ANstar]

VS has had very tight availability on the HKG-LHR leg. The HKG-SYD leg you can get J almost anytime you want - even with onyl a few days notice.

They are starting another LHR-HKG flight so I would expect things to get better.... ins aying that I would not use my VS miles to fly through to LHR with them

their burn rates is 180k return for J, where as you can use the VS miles to fly J with SQ for 150k return to Europe.

I prefer the VS program to SQ as I also now put my Malaysian and DJ flights there and the main STAR members I would fly (SQ,NZ) are tier earning partners.

 

[AviationNZ]

their burn rates is 180k return for J, where as you can use the VS miles to fly J with SQ for 150k return to Europe.

So in your experience, would you suggest putting AMEX points into VS, then using these points for J/F flights to LHR (with SQ) and LAX (with NZ thru AKL, or soon with V Australia)???

What is the SQ availability (J to LHR) using VS with, say, roughly 2 months notice???

 

[ANstar]

So in your experience, would you suggest putting AMEX points into VS, then using these points for J/F flights to LHR (with SQ) ?

It works for me as I like to fly MH, DJ, NZ & SQ (as well as QF)

I put my Amex points there as well, but thus far have only redeemed on SYD-HKG in J.

I guess if you were only using the VS program with SQ redemptions in mind it owuld be better to credit to Kris Flyer as you would get a 15% reduction for booking online.

 

[pksw]

I would also be very interested in anyone who has recently redeemed points on VS. A few months ago I thought VS might be my salvation from QF (I have most of my points with Amex)... I rang the local Virgin Atlantic office to ask about the availability if "Upper Class" seats anytime over the next 12 months to get an idea of how hard this would be. The response was zero seats in J for the next 12 months... and I should keep trying a year ahead of my planned travel dates. Also rang Virgin Blue, who quoted a rate many times higher than booking directly with Virgin Atlantic... So i'm pretty reluctant to move to this program and have my DJ flights credited to VS if seats are even harder to obtain than with QF...

I have done used Virgin Atlantic to claim SQ flights before - the first time in Y, the second in I class. Bear in mind, you cannot claim SQ reward flights on a 777-300ER or A380 flight - only the 747 and 777-300 flights are available for redemption.

 

[michaeljs]

Is it better to transfer from Amex to Virgin Atlantic or Velocity?

I already have a few Velocity points (~8K).

I guess I can earn VA points flying on Virgin Blue?

TIA

Michael

 

[ANstar]

Is it better to transfer from Amex to Virgin Atlantic or Velocity?

Depends on what you want to redeem. If you want to fly virgin atlantic to say hong kong, then I would put the points to atlantic as for a little more than what it costs in economy with velocity you can fly business.

 

[simongr]

I guess I can earn VA points flying on Virgin Blue?

Michael

You might want to check that - well I did and it seems you can

Virgin Atlantic Airways - Popup

@Anstar - If the J seat through Virgin Atlantic is only marginally more expensive than DJ's whY redemption under what circumstances would it be better to put points to Velocity?

I don't know these programs hence

 

[ANstar]

@Anstar - If the J seat through Virgin Atlantic is only marginally more expensive than DJ's whY redemption under what circumstances would it be better to put points to Velocity?

I would only put to velocity if I wanted to redeem for travel on Virgin Blue.

 

[simongr]

I would only put to velocity if I wanted to redeem for travel on Virgin Blue.

Ah - no wonder I didnt think of that

Cheers

S

 

[oliverd]

My somewhat limited experience with DJ/VS - I have only redeemed points on domestic DH flights - but made some enquires by phone in assessing where my points should go is:
(1) The points on VS (eg. SYD/LHR in J) is about double when booking via DJ (using DJ points) compared to the advertised VS redemption rate
(2) The number of VS "premium" seats such as J-class seems to be restricted when booking via DJ
If on wrong on these - point (2) I've received conflicting advice - please let me know but for non-Virgin flight the DJ scheme seems limiting..

Oliver.

 

[JohnK]

Did VA Flying Club go by the name of Virgin Freeway recently?

I am renting an Avis car in less than hour and I have been trying to put in my VA Flying Club membership into my Avis profile and the only option that remotely resembles VA Flying Club is Virgin Freeway. Normally I would give up but I know that Avis is a partner of VA Flying Club, afterall I clicked on the Avis link from the VA website.

 

[Chicken]

Did VA Flying Club go by the name of Virgin Freeway recently?

Actually, I think Freeway was the old name used by VS 10 years ago, then it was changed to what is now called Flying Club.

Google is your friend.

 

[oz_mark]

Did VA Flying Club go by the name of Virgin Freeway recently?

I am renting an Avis car in less than hour and I have been trying to put in my VA Flying Club membership into my Avis profile and the only option that remotely resembles VA Flying Club is Virgin Freeway. Normally I would give up but I know that Avis is a partner of VA Flying Club, afterall I clicked on the Avis link from the VA website.

Virgin Freeway is a fairly old name for Flying Club.

 

[JohnK]

And Avis has not bothered to update the FF program list in all that time!

 

[dajop]

And to reassure you Virgin Freeway selection is the correct one. Have done this quite a few times, and points have always come through to my Flying Club account with no problems. Can be quite generous for a single day rental, compared to 3 pt/$ with QF.

 

[JohnK]

And to reassure you Virgin Freeway selection is the correct one.

Thanks that is reassuring. Interested why Avis has not updated their drop down selection.

Can be quite generous for a single day rental, compared to 3 pt/$ with QF.

From what I understand I should earn 1,000 Flying Club miles for todays rental. That is a good return when you consider that I only spent ~$41, including GPS, on the rental for the day and I would have received ~60 QFF points....

 

[dajop]

From what I understand I should earn 1,000 Flying Club miles for todays rental. That is a good return when you consider that I only spent ~$41, including GPS, on the rental for the day and I would have received ~60 QFF points....

Provided you are not on a corporate rate, in which case you'll only earn 500 miles. But that's still a good return. For a rate as low as $41, I suspect you would be on a leisure rate, which earns the full 1,000 miles.

 

[JohnK]

Definitely not a corporate rate so hoping for 1,000 miles. It was a rate generally available on the Avis website.

If I can hire cars that cheaply from Avis regularly then it is almost worth it to hire a car and go for a leisurerly drive when I am in Brisbane some weekends.