NEW: Get 50% off USA redemptions in a new Virgin Atlantic reward seat sale

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• BJ says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:03

  This is the third redemption sale since around Black Friday. Seems like Virgin are having serious difficulties filling their seats and/or USA demand is cooling rapidly for all carriers resulting in fierce competition.

  • Erico1875 says:

    14 Mar14 March 06:12

    Being rattled for a grand pp for a redemption booking cant help

    • BJ says:

      14 Mar14 March 06:33

      Yes but that is’t unique, BA were similar until RFS went global. USA not my market but are the fees between BA and Virgin notvin the same ballpark when comparable amounts of acios/points are used? BA just trying to move seats with more (increasingly difficult to collect) avios and less cash while Virgin goes in opposite directiin with same high fees but less points.

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

        14 Mar14 March 07:51

        Pretty equal at the end of the day. Personally I’d prefer low points high charges as I’m in effect buying a refundable ticket at a discount. I’d otherwise pay cash.

  • Rhys says:

    14 Mar14 March 09:13

    Virgin now guarantees reward seats, so if it doesn’t fill those it is leaving money on the table. This seems like a sensible strategy to get bums on seats, especially with taxes and fees at around £1k.

• Thomas says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:24

  Here’s hoping their pals over at Voyages slip out another points redemption offer for a cruise sometime soon…

• Jay says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:32

  It’s a good offer for sure but their fees are just too high. You can get cash fares for the same amount of points plus fee. The USA isn’t as attractive as it was pre COVID. Prices are much higher plus their famous tipping structure. New York is out of control. Rob, any chance virgin will do anything to reduce their redemption fees? They’re insanely high and these aren’t ‘reward’ seats, £1k in business is a gut punch.

  • Ralph says:

    14 Mar14 March 06:37

    Totally agree, no point in writing separate post, this one nails it.

    • Rob says:

      14 Mar14 March 07:37

      The fees are the same, give or take, as BA if you use the same number of points. I don’t understand why you think 95k (pre discount) + £1000 is ‘worse’ than 180,000 Avios + £350, because it isn’t. If you value a point / Avios at 1p then Virgin is cheaper even before the 50% off.

      You’re also, of course, making up the bit about pricing.

      The cheapest BA business class return to NYC before the end of June is £2,169. This is non-refundable. It would also require a weekend stay which you may not want.

      • marks7389 says:

        14 Mar14 March 08:56

        Where BA is better is where you have a companion/upgrade voucher. Plus their wider route network means more choice of destination and more seats, particularly if you have an Amex Premium Plus companion voucher.

        • Rhys says:

          14 Mar14 March 09:18

          Virgin credit cards also come with upgrade/companion vouchers.

        • Mark says:

          14 Mar14 March 17:51

          Yes, I know 🙂

          What I mean is, in Rob’s comparison above, using a companion or upgrade voucher with BA makes it a better deal compared to Virgin with a companion or upgrade voucher, because a higher proportion of the cost is in points rather than cash.

      • Man of Kent says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:04

        The other thing to bear in mind is that if you have no status and value seat selection then it’s free at point of booking with Virgin but BA want around £500 to select a pair of seats in CW return.

      • Jay says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:23

        The BA example costs a few £100 more than a typical redemption cost and you’d earn significant tier points with it (and some Avios boosted if paying with a BA Amex). If Virgin want to offer a point of difference to BA they should reduce these charges. They were c. £600 pre COVID. That was at least competitive for a reward ticket. Paying £1,000 for a seat doesn’t feel rewarding when it would’ve involved very considerable spend to accrue the 90-100k plus points for the redemption. Especially when using on the old coffin seat.

        When virgin Mastercard pulled the Boingo WiFi recently they promised ‘exciting’ other benefits. I wonder what that is and if we will actually see anything. The fact you can’t use the voucher for a true 241 without silver status is pretty poor.

        I know BA are similar. But clearly Virgin are struggling. If UC seats are routinely quite empty than it’s better to fill these with reward customers paying £600-700 (basically, something feeling different to daylight robbery) rather than turning their nose up at £1k?

      • Lev441 says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:25

        But BA at classic redemption levels are £850 to east coast… for a family of 4 that’s a £600 saving going on BA over virgin. Plus more likely to have 2for1 /upgrade vouchers too?

        I do think virgin need to have a look at themselves and change the fees as they are outrageous and it’s what has stopped me picking Virgin over BA on all my flights in the last few years

        • Rob says:

          14 Mar14 March 10:11

          I agree there is a £100 or so difference and it’s not a total match between BA and Virgin at the same level of points, but it’s not too far off.

          Frankly I’d be more interested in what aircraft VS is running in Upper Class than whether its £100 more than BA or not. This is the bigger issue. It is simply uncompetitive with BA on routes where the 787-9 and (old) 330s are running and rather than trying to make up for it with better food and drink they’ve let that go down the toilet too.

        • Mark says:

          14 Mar14 March 17:53

          Fully agree with Rob’s comment here.

      • cin4 says:

        14 Mar14 March 19:02

        Both are terrible value.

  • BJ says:

    14 Mar14 March 07:18

    You have to compare like with like though, a reward ticket is essentially fully flexible for a very small fee. There is simply no logic in comparing them to cheap promotional revenue fares that are usually non changeable and nonrefundable. They are different animals but miles collectors often fail to consider that in their haste to find a good value reward. If the cheap revenue fare meets your needs and it costs less or not much more then you buy that if you have the cash and save the miles for another trip where you can get better value such as using with vouchers, complex itineraries, leak travel etc.

    • memesweeper says:

      14 Mar14 March 09:10

      If you want a refundable fare, that’s great, points bookings are often a bargain.

      If you were going to buy non-refundable, the points bookings are often not a bargain.

      You need to do the maths yourself.

      Virgin distinguishes itself from BA by giving status credit for reward flights ,which will be important for some.

      • Rob says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:17

        Nobody WANTS to buy a non refundable ticket.

        It’s simply a risk you are forced to take because the saving is too big to ignore.

        I’d say 90% of my flights are redemptions and therefore refundable / changeable. It literally changes your life. Holiday weather looking bad? Cancel two days before. Bored after three days? Come home early or change your return to another city / country and move. Busy at work / sudden clash with school event? No bother, I’ll be there – flight is moved.

        Even if a cash price and redemption were equal cost I wound take the redemption every time purely for the flexibility.

        • Jay says:

          14 Mar14 March 09:25

          Fair point but how are you achieving this with your hotel booking? Most don’t just let you end and check out early once you’re there. I know many sites allow cancellation without penalty up to a few days before though.

        • LittleNick says:

          14 Mar14 March 09:25

          I guess that’s where we differ Rob. I guess we are in different markets, most people I personally know book non-refundable cash fares. Once I’ve booked my redemptions in my mind they’re essentially locked in and I’m going (bar a real emergency).
          If you’ve got a hotel booked though and you leave early, do you not typically lose out as you still have to pay for the remaining nights booked?

        • Rhys says:

          14 Mar14 March 09:36

          Yes, but if you were offered a refundable ticket at the same price as a non-refundable one, you would take it, wouldn’t you?

        • Rob says:

          14 Mar14 March 10:02

          That just sounds a bit …. middle aged 🙂

          If a hotel has 24 hour cancellation for fresh bookings, they will let you leave early with 24 hours notice. Any reputable property will also do you a deal, especially if you have status, have booked via a preferred partner etc.

        • memesweeper says:

          14 Mar14 March 12:20

          I also value the flexibility, but for some bookings that’s a lot more important than others. This year I’ve canceled 75% of my Avios bookings so far. In previous years (excluding covid times) I flew the majority.

          My point was each person will need to put a value on that, and for people who were otherwise going to book non-refundable, that value might be low.

        • Mark says:

          14 Mar14 March 18:03

          The problem with that argument, though, is that even though redemption bookings can be cancelled for a low fee if you can’t travel, the changes of you being able to change them at short notice are slim due to the restricted availability. We’ve been travelling almost exclusively on redemption bookings for long haul for the past 16 years – probably twice a year on average, and quite a bit for short haul as well. I can only think of one occasion in that time where we opted to pull an outbound booking forward a day when new availability opened up. Otherwise we’ve flown the flights we booked often a year in advance, apart from during Covid when the airline cancelled the flights.

      • Trevor says:

        14 Mar14 March 10:48

        I really enjoyed the flexibility that came with the BA covid vouchers – book, change mind, book somewhere else – BA got to keep my money and I got flexibility . Having tasted this freedom my enthusiasm to commit to non refundable travel months in advance has definitely waned.

• Mark says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:57

  Don’t forget once there you’ll also get the chance to pay $28 for a takeout Caesar salad 🙌

• Mike says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:07

  Just called and upgraded my flight for Sunday. Pricing isn’t showing online but was fine on the phone.

• AL says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:12

  *calls Swansea*

  • Willmo says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:43

    ‘Get me Swansea on the phone, stat’

• VinZ says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:16

  I literally booked a flight to JFK yesterday in upper class but I think I got a good deal. 32,000 points + voucher + £995 in tax.

  • Chris W says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:18

    Cancel and rebook

    • VinZ says:

      14 Mar14 March 18:28

      But how much would I save? Some points? I rarely use them… I think I won’t risk it

• Graeme says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:30

  Thanks for this HFP. Upgraded PE to UC on points one way to Orlando for 12,500 and £310. Happy with that.

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