Virgin Atlantic adds priority boarding for ‘no status’ members of Flying Club

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• paul says:

  15 Mar15 March 11:08

  I’m not sure Virgin would get the flyers email address at all (until check in is completed)

  OTAs are notorious for keeping THEIR customers as THEIR customers.

  When I owned a hotel, all OTA bookings would come through with an OTA derived email such as guest65644356@expedia-dot-com and any messages would always via the OTA.

  So I don’t think Virgin would be doing much “spamming” until they got the actual email.

  • Bagoly says:

    15 Mar15 March 12:17

    Which illustrates why as a customer it is better to not book via OTA – when there are issues one cannot communicate directly with airline, hotel, or car-rental company.

    • Rob says:

      15 Mar15 March 14:28

      I think that point was proven very clearly during covid!

    • paul says:

      15 Mar15 March 14:52

      OTAs charge a minimum 15% commission from accommodation providers using their platform – and as high as 30% in major hotspots with providers having to pay more to appear on the first page of search results.

      Even now I am shocked at the number of hotels that won’t haggle with a potential guest for a 10% discount, free breakfast or even a free upgrade to secure a direct booking.

      It’s financial madness to maintain rate parity these days.

      It wasn’t that long ago that hotels were contracted with the OTAs not to discount for direct bookings. Thankfully Contract Law has removed that clause so it is bizarre that some hotels maintain it.

      • CamFlyer says:

        15 Mar15 March 17:20

        I recently stayed at a London hotel that permitted hotels.com to undercut its own website. I emailed the hotel and asked them to match, bur never got a response, so I went ahead an booked through hotels.com (in fact, cancelled and rebooked twice, as the rate dropped 20% between when I initially booked and the date of the stay). The website rate stated unchanged, and even after the discount for registering on the website was significantly more than hotels.com. I hope they had a special arrangement with hotels.com for commission; otherwise they left a lot of money on the table.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          15 Mar15 March 21:01

          Hotels.com or in fact Expedia or other bed buyers will have a deal to buy say 30 rooms every night regardless for a significant discount, yup it undercuts them but it also guarantees a level of sold rooms. So it’s not that they allow them to undercut but rather the website can set its own price

          Like the airline industry they’ll make money from overselling too.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        15 Mar15 March 20:08

        Has it?

        • Rob says:

          15 Mar15 March 22:16

          If it had, surely Amazon wouldn’t be allowed to continue to insist that Marketplace sellers do not sell for less elsewhere?

• Jonathan says:

  15 Mar15 March 11:21

  At least they’re doing things how it should be done, prioritising their own customers over those who have status with their partners

  • Rob says:

    15 Mar15 March 11:23

    On the US flights they are NOT ‘their customers’! Those flights are run by a joint venture in which everything is pooled between AF, KLM, Delta and VS.

    Virgin Atlantic doesn’t get your money when you book a VS flight to New York, you need to be clear about that. It goes to the JV which shares it out amongst the four airlines based on an agreed formula.

    • Jonathan says:

      15 Mar15 March 12:09

      Plus there’s so much competition on this route in particular, there’s not money to be made in the first place

      When booking a reward flight, is it the same situation ?

    • Paul says:

      15 Mar15 March 18:25

      Rob, out of interest do you have an idea what that formula is? Is it likely to be a fixed pre-agreed ratio, or variable linked to the way in which tickets end up being sold?

      • Rob says:

        15 Mar15 March 18:33

        I’ve never, ever, seen a detailed explanation of how the costs and revenues are apportioned.

• JAMES says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:30

  Why do people like to get on the plane 1st? I always aim to go on last meaning no queues, more time in the airport bar and less time on the plane.

  • Andy says:

    15 Mar15 March 18:55

    HBO

• Tom R says:

  15 Mar15 March 14:08

  10 boarding groups! It really is getting a bit ridiculous. Personally I prefer getting on later (for long haul) unless sat in J. On a flight where overhead compartment space maybe an issue then earlier boarding makes sense, otherwise the less time sat down doing nothing while going nowhere (at the gate) while people file past you and faff around getting themselves organised the better.

• Christian says:

  16 Mar16 March 12:47

  This site is so pro BA.

  • Rob says:

    16 Mar16 March 13:25

    Funny. We’re actually banned from BA media events due to our anti-BA coverage.

• cin3 says:

  3 Apr3 April 12:12

  Having “priority” that far down just means you need to stand in a stuffy airbridge for 30 minutes.

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