BIG NEWS: Major changes at Virgin Flying Club

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• David says:

  31 Oct31 October 14:55

  Rather confused terminology – in some places “Peak” and “Standard”, in other places just “Off Peak” vs presumably standard. This also can give rise to confusion about whether it is discounting or premium charging.

  Otherwise, I absolutely hate long scrolling single page sites.

• Billy says:

  31 Oct31 October 14:55

  Miles Plus Money fares, officially not earning TP are now in line with BA Avios discounts, and will earn miles and Tier Points. So that’s something.

• lee says:

  31 Oct31 October 15:03

  This is huge devaluation of value on your points in Upper Class And I would say this is linked to the cap on credit card fees and instead of putting the points down on your credit card per £ spent they have just inflated the miles needed .

  Avios can hike massively now as I see virgin flying club losing lots of people collecting there miles unless your an economy traveller .

  How long Before Avios announce a huge increase if they keep doing this at the rate they have for the past 2-3 years then this will be game over for this hobby .

  • TGLoyalty says:

    31 Oct31 October 15:10

    Swings and roundabouts some redemptions in UC are now less miles at standard periods

    • lee says:

      31 Oct31 October 15:21

      Which ones have been reduced in UC as ive only seen increases ?

      • Charlie says:

        31 Oct31 October 15:26

        London to Florida has reduced from 100K to 95K in off peak.

        Nothing to write home about, but Florida is a popular choice even in off peak so its nice nonetheless!

        • lee says:

          31 Oct31 October 15:36

          Caribbean has been hiked also .

          I personally just feel earning Airmiles then spending then in economy is a complete waste of time they are trying to increase economy sales as nobody really is stupid enough to pay what they where asking before.

          The taxes are almost the same as the full priced economy ticket by other airlines

          This is just my opinion

        • Simmo says:

          1 Nov1 November 09:09

          Its quite interesting for some of the expensive cash routes.

          Take Vegas as an example; usually £600-£1000 cash.
          now its 30,000 off peak + £250ish?

          I see that as good value! – However I can’t remember the last time I flew economy

  • Charlie says:

    31 Oct31 October 15:24

    I see this more as Virgin’s long awaited response to the increase in award tickets in BA/American Airlines/Etihad/etc.

• Myriam says:

  31 Oct31 October 15:10

  thank you for this article. as a red member, I rely on my credit card to earn most of my miles. not that fussed about the changes to earning in the air, all airlines benefit the people who fly upper class anyway.

  loving the 20k off-peak prices!

  • lee says:

    31 Oct31 October 15:23

    20k for economy is almost pointless as you can pay the same fees with say someone like norwegian without having to use any miles ?

    • secstate says:

      31 Oct31 October 15:35

      Yeah given VS’ fees I don’t see much benefit to the cheap economy awards when you can frequently find fares for the same price as their award fees. BA has the same problem.

      • Myriam says:

        31 Oct31 October 15:41

        I guess it depends on whether you don’t mind flying long-haul with a low cost carrier.

        • lee says:

          31 Oct31 October 15:58

          ive flown long haul to Bangkok from Oslo with Norwegian and I can say that they where miles better than Ba Economy seat which we had on a Outdated airplane that I was surprised was still in service they are no Ryanair I can assure you .

        • secstate says:

          31 Oct31 October 16:06

          I am in the US (half English so fly to see the family in the UK fairly frequently) so the math may work differently for me. VS (and BA) seem to charge more fees and taxes for flights originating in the US. Right now an economy ticket on VS is $725 for next summer and the fees on said award is $463. So basically I’d be using 40k point (peak) to save $262 that is a very poor value to me. Also our legacy carriers have been really duking it out with fare sales so finding $500-600 cash fare to Europe is not that hard. Basically to me it makes no economic sense to burn VS miles on Y fares.

      • lee says:

        31 Oct31 October 15:48

        Exactly my thoughts Secstate they are just increasing the popular redemptions not sure why people are seeing the y redemptions as great deals .
        I would rather fly with Norwegian to Orlando for about £350 then pay 20,000 miles plus taxes.

        Virgin taxes are £236 to Orlando

        I see flights to Orlando regularly for about £300-350 so your paying 20,000 miles to save a max of £114 which is about 0.6p per mile

        • Mark says:

          31 Oct31 October 16:39

          the only up side I can really see in the reduction in economy miles is that its now much easier to use your amex upgrade voucher as you’ll need less miles.

    • Gavin says:

      31 Oct31 October 16:57

      One way and indeed return Reward flights in economy have their place in certain circumstances (for example the need to travel in an emergency eg family bereavement).

      A redemption in economy in this case would be likely far cheaper than booking a ticket on the day

• Andy says:

  31 Oct31 October 15:16

  I was just about to apply for the Black MBNA card and now I’m not sure what to do! I’m not a massive points earner so the idea of PE redemptions dropping sounds good to me, and I’ve got no kids so off-peak pricing is attractive.

  • Mark says:

    31 Oct31 October 16:40

    I’d still say go for it, if you get the 5k and 10k upgrade voucher you’ll not need that many miles to actually use it.

    • Fenny says:

      31 Oct31 October 18:31

      I was just thinking that with my PE upgrade voucher and travelling off peak, I’m spending fewer miles to get a Economy seat upgraded to PE, but are they changing the fees? What I save doing that will go towards the hike in UC redemption miles.

• n says:

  31 Oct31 October 15:39

  Incredible news for those who travel on Y redemptions…

  Caribbean – 20k/40k
  Dubai – 20k/40k
  Delhi – 20k/40k
  US – Northeast – 20k/40k

  US – Midwest – 25k/45k
  US – South – 25k/45k
  Cancun – 25k/45k
  Johannesburg – 25k/45k
  Lagos – 25k/45k
  Honk Kong – 25k/45k
  Shanghai – 25k/45k

  US – West – 30k/50k

  • n says:

    31 Oct31 October 15:43

    all return

    prices are “off-peak/peak”

• Clive says:

  31 Oct31 October 15:55

  What people are forgetting is that Y Award tickets are basically fully flexible so you are not always comparing apples to apples.

  • steve says:

    31 Oct31 October 16:01

    Clive this is not necessary true as your reliant on there being availability to change your flight .

    • Rob says:

      31 Oct31 October 16:06

      I can see plenty of opportunities to get 1p per mile on an economy redemption to be honest.

      For a start, the peak / off-peak dates don’t reflect the peak travel times for certain places. The best times to visit the Caribbean, for eg, are ‘off peak’ so you are looking at 20k plus tax. That is easily 1p per mile.

    • Jake says:

      1 Nov1 November 15:31

      True, but the points are refundable, so you’re getting a refundable fare even if you cant necessarily change to another date.

• bobby says:

  31 Oct31 October 16:17

  where is the list of destinations and points needed? i can not find it through the link… sorry, I must be doing something stupid..

  • bobby says:

    31 Oct31 October 16:20

    found it. didn’t see the link to the pdf first time.

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