V-Flyer

Judging by Flyertalk, BA have changed supplier for lounge catering to BaxterStorey and this has gone done like a lead balloon with customers.

I've never been in a BA lounge but it would seem that the Club offering was only a relatively posh looking buffet in the first place?!

Plenty of people saying they'll now book VS as a result, which can only be good news for Crawley Towers

By the way The VS lounge in the UK is Sodexo

Not sure if it is an own goal - Club always used to be a self-service buffet very similar to that described here. Having tasted the Club and First options in the last month it is pretty good!

I've been watching the FT threads with interest as I have a comparison of the lounges drafted that I am going to post on FT when I have plucked up the courage...

The near unanimity of the criticism is quite striking, especially for the Flounge.

I haven't been there since the changes, but was in Galleries Club a few weeks ago and really it was incredibly average as a lounge offering. The VS Clubhouse is ahead by a country mile.

We do forget sometimes how spoilt we are by the Clubhouses.

The BA Club lounges at T5 are actually pretty decent compared to some of the lounges you get abroad.

Are we Brits really the only people in the world who demand decent lounges? The Anericans clearly don't ...

gumshoe wrote:We do forget sometimes how spoilt we are by the Clubhouses.

The BA Club lounges at T5 are actually pretty decent compared to some of the lounges you get abroad.

Are we Brits really the only people in the world who demand decent lounges? The Anericans clearly don't ...

Very True the above..... never ceases to amaze me just how poor some lounges around the world are.

I'm a refugee from flyertalk, and have been perusing Virgin's offerings. The smaller network and infrequent flights are a problem, but not as big a problem as the lack of alliance.

The catering in GF on BA has gone downhill dramatically since the start of May, it's clearly cost cutting as BA repositions itself as a low-cost operator.

Virgin is tempting, especially as I believe they have a better product in Premium Economy. With about 50 flights so far this year on BA, I'd have no trouble maintaining gold. It's a shame there's no status match though, it would have earned VS £2700 next week on a return to Joburg for an hour or so in the lounge each way.

I'm surprised there's nothing beyond "Gold" either. From Manchester, I'd hit gold after just 4 longhaul returns on Virgin, which would probably take about 3 months.

As it is, I'll probably stick with BA, head for year 1 of GGL, and hope catering improves, hope they bring WTP back on the Tel Aviv flights, and hope things don't get worse.

paulwuk wrote:I'm surprised there's nothing beyond "gold"

There is apparently - but it's not official.

From what others have said on here, VS do "look after" their most valuable FFs (at least 100 TPs and even then it seems to be selective) but you'll struggle to find the details written down anywhere.

There are, however, documented extra perks once you hit 60 TPs (2 Clubhouse passes) and 80 TPs (upgrade for 2).

It's generally accepted wisdom on here that if you hit 100TP in a year 'things start to happen'. What those are, it's unclear.

The VS Clubhouse wipes the floor with everything at T5 other than the CCR (which is a closer run thing). It's also generally accepted, I think, that PE is better than WTP in most respects, although there has been a lot of penny-pinching of late.

One wonders when the penny-pinching will hit the clubhouses...

Personally I'd wait and see how the catering beds in with the new firm. The reaction on FT has been typically apocalyptic but it's early days and BA may yet realise and rectify the problem. And even if they don't, as you say, there are network and alliance advantages, not to mention GGL and the existence of First, which would still provide a lot of compensation for those awful-looking buffet tureens full of dark-coloured slop.

Welcome to v-flyer by the way.

gumshoe wrote:

paulwuk wrote:I'm surprised there's nothing beyond "gold"

There is apparently - but it's not official.

From what others have said on here, VS do "look after" their most valuable FFs (at least 100 TPs and even then it seems to be selective) but you'll struggle to find the details written down anywhere.

There are, however, documented extra perks once you hit 60 TPs (2 Clubhouse passes) and 80 TPs (upgrade for 2).

I have just had my Gold renewed and my tier point reset. Last month I had 140 tier points. I got nothing extra past 80 tier points.
This year I will get my 80 tier points and then switch to BA. There are rewards for being fairly loyal to VS, but there are no rewards for being very loyal, so why bother? !!


Cheers

Gerr

Gerrym wrote:I have just had my Gold renewed and my tier point reset. Last month I had 140 tier points. I got nothing extra past 80 tier points.

Were the TPs all on VS or partners too? I believe it is only the VS ones that count for the super-secret level.

Gerrym wrote:I have just had my Gold renewed and my tier point reset. Last month I had 140 tier points. I got nothing extra past 80 tier points.

I heard a little rumour from someone at VS about a month ago, but I'm not too sure how accurate the information is, but I thought I would post after Gerrys post.

A mixture of cost cutting and a passenger focus shift, have led to VS wanting to reduce the number of UNIQ passengers, mainly those who got over 100tp. This is an attempt to "save" money, and the fact they are trying to attract more one flight a year holiday makers.

As I said, I don't know how reliable this information is, I wasn't that confident in it so didn't post but after seeing this post it might just have some truth...

at240 wrote:

Gerrym wrote:I have just had my Gold renewed and my tier point reset. Last month I had 140 tier points. I got nothing extra past 80 tier points.

Were the TPs all on VS or partners too? I believe it is only the VS ones that count for the super-secret level.

My only source of tier points is Virgin Atlantic flights.


Cheers

Gerry

From what others have suggested, it doesn't sound like passing 100 TPs - even solely on VS metal - automatically makes you a UNIQ (if, indeed, such a thing still exists).

It strikes me as being more selective than that - ie a person rather than a computer decides who's "in the club" and who's not, and TPs aren't the sole factor behind that decision.

Who knows what the criteria are. You'd have thought they'd be more likely to favour celebrities, company directors who control big travel budgets and people who regularly buy full-fare flexible tickets but then again maybe it's totally random, or perhaps UNIQ is just an urban myth spread by VS to get V-Flyers to spend more in pursuit of the mythical holy grail!