Virgin Atlantic: ‘We scrapped the 12 guaranteed reward seats due to member feedback’

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• Dez Berresford says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:39

  Unbelievable Jeff

• daveinitalia says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:48

  As long as they don’t introduce dynamic pricing on the Greggs reward. Imagine if it cost more points to redeem for a sausage roll in the Greggs by Westminster than it did for one in Hebburn Shopping Centre!

  • dundj says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:23

    Don’t give them ideas.

  • levantine93 says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:30

    I don’t think you can redeem for greggs anymore btw..

    • Rob says:

      10 Dec10 December 08:34

      Whoa, you’re right. Disaster 🙂

    • JDB says:

      10 Dec10 December 08:44

      They had to stop the Greggs option once Jacob Rees-Mogg started eating there.

      • Can2 says:

        10 Dec10 December 09:24

        🤣🤣

  • John says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:53

    Are they the same price if you pay with money?

    • daveinitalia says:

      10 Dec10 December 10:06

      Greggs prices vary depending on the location. They avoided zone 1 in London for many years because of the high rents there, but after saturating the rest of Britain (except Cornwall) they ended up moving into central London too but prices are more expensive in areas where their costs are higher.

• Chris says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:51

  ‘ Combined with our excellent onboard service and people and outstanding products…’

  This is the biggest joke in their latest delusional spiel for me. The nosedive of the Virgin Atlantic product over the years is far more significant than any other I’m aware of. As someone who was a genuine fan, first Premium and then Upper (particularly since the pandemic) have had any sense of class evaporate.

  Premium used to have a genuinely comfortable, wide seat and decent service. Now it’s just a standard economy elbow tournament with your neighbour, and you’re lucky to see a member of cabin crew twice during the flight. Any Premium trip I’ve done since the pandemic has required walking to the back of the plane where the stuff are lingering at the rear of the economy cabin if I want so much as a glass of wine.

  Upper is even more embarrassing. I’ve done six or seven flights this year, and a good dozen since the pandemic, and without fail they’ve been a shambles. Whether that’s total lack of anything that could be called a lounge or food in Mumbai, lack of attention from crew on US routes (even on daytime flights), continuing ‘coffin class’ seats on flights sold for thousands of pounds, or the flight I did from Bangalore two weeks ago where a ten hour flight had no real hot meal (I kid ye not! Just breakfast) and the pre-flight drinks they brought round (4am boarding time, not sure if that had anything to do with it) were all soft drinks until the fantastic guy in the seat next to mine said ‘Are you kidding? I don’t pay £4000 return for a glass of pre-flight orange juice’ and a suitably chastened crew member wandered off to pop open some champagne. My outbound flight to India had an IFE screen so scratched that I didn’t bother with it the whole journey, and flagging it didn’t result in so much as a single compensatory point (or any other kind of tangible apology).

  Some of these things may sound petty, but not only the in-flight service but also the head office follow-up is an absolute shambles these days. I’d be Gold currently, were it not for Delta and Virgin’s complete inability to credit valid miles and tier points, even when flagged with all required evidence of flights. Instead I’ve just been lied to and gaslit in an increasingly infuriating string of arguments with head office.

  Wonder why I’m still even flying with them? Me too. I will actually earn Gold by January, hoping for a status match in 2025, and then they won’t see me for dust!

  • memesweeper says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:44

    The lounge I used In Mumbai was OK. No clubhouse, but better than most contract affairs. My expectations may be lower but I wasn’t disappointed in any aspect of the Upper service on board.

    • Chris says:

      10 Dec10 December 10:09

      The one I used in 2023 (March/April?) was possibly the worst I’ve ever been in. But I was told later that it was imminently being replaced so I suspect if you’ve flown in the last 12 months it could have been a lot better. To be fair, the one in Bangalore was alright once in (albeit absolutely packed, with a long queue).

  • Amaranth says:

    10 Dec10 December 09:39

    The guy next to you sounds like an absolute tool, to be frank. It’s not “fantastic” to laud over generally young, just-above-minimum-wage workers how much you’ve spent on your ticket, rather than just politely asking for a glass of champagne. Yeesh.

    • ken says:

      10 Dec10 December 10:02

      Indeed.

      It won’t be his/her decision to serve up orange juice.

      And not unreasonable to think most won’t want to be on the wallop on a 4am flight.

    • Chris says:

      10 Dec10 December 10:07

      Yeah, fair point – and I’m glad it (genuinely) wasn’t me that said it. But he’s not incorrect that it’s a pretty poor show to quietly (it appears) remove that pre-flight perk.

  • Trojans says:

    11 Dec11 December 01:35

    India does not allow alcohol to be served on the ground pre-departure. No airline is going to serve that to you.

    The lounge in Mumbai and Delhi are quite good, better than most other lounges.

• Just Nick says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:55

  Virgin credit card cancelled just now. I have £135k points and a 2-4-1 voucher but they now feel worthless. Really disappointed in Virgin.

• Steve R says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:56

  Reminds me of BA. Changes to meals after 9.00pm in Club and brunch until 11.00am are things the ‘customer wanted’.

  • JDB says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:16

    The trouble is that BA does get feedback along these various lines and they firm that into something that suits them. People said food wasn’t their priority on late departures and others complained about the first courses so rather than change or improve them, the solution was to get rid of them. Job done!

    The next thing will be removal or reduction of choices in CE which will solve the issue of people complaining about not getting their first choice and save money.

• Matthias says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:57

  I want to defend VS a bit here, as I don’t think it’s all bad for everyone.

  Clearly if you were looking for a specific date in the future or a specific destination you may now be out of luck.

  However if you are flexible on both, there are some excellent and much cheaper options available than before.

  I have 100k points plus a voucher from a credit card deal. I’m not that fussed when or where I go, and now for something like 60k points plus £1,300 (need to check exact numbers again) I can go to New York or Washington in Upper Class for 2 people. That’s amazing value compared to BA.

  • Rob says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:16

    The problem is that you seem to be retired / unemployed based on your ability to travel any day / any time which makes you relatively worthless to Virgin as a customer. The people who are walking are the business travellers with kids who need reward seats during school hols and on key leisure routes, and Virgin needs these people to stay.

    • John G says:

      10 Dec10 December 08:39

      Not exactly. I hesitate to say most, but many people have a lot of flexibility as to when they can take leave from work as long as agreed in advance. The biggest restriction is likely to be if you have kids. I’ve been happily travelling when I like for years and my job is not exactly the most flexible in the world. All change next year when daughter starts school!

      • Matthias says:

        10 Dec10 December 08:51

        Exactly – neither retired nor unemployed, just a bit more flexible especially on destination. I definitely can’t travel “any day, any time” but on some destinations there was plenty of cheap availability to choose from, even over weekends.

        However, you are right that I am definitely worthless to Virgin as a customer as my points have all come through the credit card and I have no intention of actually ever buying a ticket with them. So keeping me happy most certainly won’t help their bottom line.

    • memesweeper says:

      10 Dec10 December 08:48

      Exactly – if you want a loyalty scheme you need an attractive offering for regular customers, so leisure routes with affordable redemptions.

      A “joker” for frequent flyers that opened up saver tickets on non-sold out flights booked more than four months out, for instance, would transform the palatability of these changes.

    • Mikeact says:

      10 Dec10 December 11:40

      So sorry I’m a ‘Worthless customer’. I guess you will all be one day, when the time comes.

    • Thomas says:

      10 Dec10 December 12:10

      Someone is flexible so therefore must be old, or sitting on their backside doing nothing all day? The things you come out with at times Rob!

      • Rob says:

        10 Dec10 December 12:29

        You know what we’re saying. Your core heavily transatlantic business traveller is (statistically) going to be late 30s to early 50s with a busy work schedule and a couple of kids. They want school holiday redemptions on leisure routes.

        • Thomas says:

          10 Dec10 December 12:44

          ” The things you come out with at times” was typed with a smile btw!

        • CJD says:

          10 Dec10 December 14:05

          Plenty of late 30s couples won’t have kids.

        • Neal says:

          10 Dec10 December 14:56

          Me and my partner both VS Gold, can travel flexibly and contribute 30k+ combined to them every year.
          Gay couple no kids. Don’t think we are “worthless customers” as you say Rob. Please don’t model every customer based on yourself/ your family structure.

        • Rob says:

          10 Dec10 December 16:13

          Do you believe that you will benefit from the new pricing structure?

          Remember that the ONLY routes with a decent number of Upper Class Saver seats are New York, Washington, Bangalore, Boston, Mumbai and Riyadh. Are those your only VS destinations?

      • Liam says:

        11 Dec11 December 14:25

        I agree, Rob lives in his own bubble unaware that people are having children at a later age.
        Too often I find his comments are biased to his viewpoint and come off as condescending or insulting.

        Accusing someone of being unemployed or retired when they can be mid to late 30s with no kids and plenty of purchasing power which the airlines want.

        Honestly his comments are what put me off reading HfP

        • Rob says:

          11 Dec11 December 14:57

          I had my kids at 38 and 41 (40 and 43 for my wife). I recommend this, by the way. It’s quite nice being in your 50s with a kid – as long as you can stay alive, of course.

          But 1994 was the last time that I could book a holiday with 100% certainly that my job (or my wife’s) would not require the sort of jiggling that Virgin’s new structure does not allow. Remember that Virgin is not offering any Saver seats within 28 days so you have zero chance of a last minute change to the outbound or return, whereas BA tends to open up seats at the last minute.

    • HampshireHog says:

      10 Dec10 December 18:01

      Or with a desire to choose your destination

  • Sherri says:

    10 Dec10 December 09:14

    Not many people have that level of flexibility. Prior to the change we were easily booking 3 round trip PE (occasionally UC) reward flights for two adults to the Caribbean per year. Historically we’ve booked our accommodation well in advance and just booked our flights as they’ve dropped into inventory. My husband’s job doesn’t give flexibility. We’re now stuffed. You’re definitely in the minority.

• Andy says:

  10 Dec10 December 08:08

  I asked to upgrade from economy to premium two tickets to Barbados and was quoted 46K per ticket each way.

• jj says:

  10 Dec10 December 08:11

  The cabin crew on my last Virgin flight were so dreadful that my biggest issue with my remaining Virgin points isn’t finding flights. It’s persuading my wife that a Virgin redemption flight is better than a cash flight with airline whose staff aren’t surly, rude, lazy, forgetful and narcissistic.

  • Pb says:

    10 Dec10 December 09:13

    Yes but their advert tells you what’s important .

  • Chris says:

    10 Dec10 December 11:17

    Glad that’s not just me. Must say it’s not *all* the cabin crew as, of course, a considerable amount are attentive, polite, and often even apologetic when there’s issues or ‘surprises’ (such as previously expected things falling victim to cost cuts) – however the percentage of sultry, jobsworth and inattentive crew is so, so, so much higher on Virgin Atlantic than any other airline I’ve flown on the last five years, in all cabins. I feel like I’ve done enough flights to get perspective on an average and it doesn’t shower Virgin in glory in my experience…

    • jj says:

      10 Dec10 December 14:58

      @Chris, it was my first Upper trip with Virgin. The outbound crew were OK – not special, just OK – but the inbound crew were by far the worst I have ever experienced on any business class flight with any airline.

      I was also hugely amused to see how far the Virgin marketing messages deviate from reality. The adverts make Virgin out to be fun, creative and diverse. In reality, the cabin crew were entirely fun-free white women, the cockpit was staffed exclusy by white men, all passengers in Upper were white, and most were middle aged and apparently heterosexual. Every stereotype of airline travel was fulfilled, but somehow the marketers live in a fantasy world where their real staff and customers have been replaced by characters from a metropolitan Fantasyland.

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