What to do with my Flying Club Miles ?

Hi all,

I have just shy of 180,000 miles in my flying club account & I'm wondering what I can do with them.

I rarely travel alone & pretty much always travel with "Mrs Kered". Redeeming for PE is to my mind, pretty much a waste of miles, as you get nothing special at all & by the time I have taxes, charges, plus the cost of feeder flights from DUB to LHR & back factored in, for all I'd save by spending the miles, I'd have been better of going to my TA & just booking the trip.

180K miles won't get you very far on the route network for two in Upper, so that seriously limits our route options. I have looked at going to Boston for a weekend later this year, but the reward availability in UC is nothing short of abysmal.

We don't like NYC at all, not that availably is any better there, so outside of Boston, there aren't many other options, that I can see. So all in all, realistically I'm not going to be able redeem my miles on any VS flights.

I'd love to be able to transfer them over to my BA EC account, as I'd find plenty of use for them there. But that's not going to happen.

Mrs Kered, does have a Hyatt account so they could possibly go there, but a), are they really worth anything in a hotel account & b), the Hyatt account is in Mrs Kered's name, not mine, so perhaps that could be a stumbling block ??

Car hire, is a possibility, but while you can earn with Avis or Hertz, it looks like from reading the FC page on the website, the only way to spend/redeem for car hire, is with some rental company I've never heard of, or even seen anywhere. So that's not a runner, by the look of it.

So, I'm looking for ideas, as to what I can do with my miles. They're set to expire Oct 2015 unless there's some activity on my account, which I don't really see happening & I certainly would hate for them to go to waste.

Any suggestions ?????

Why not look at the combo fare

Use miles for an upper section and pay for the inbound in premium or economy - especially good if you can find a sale fare.

For an example I am doing GLA to MCO in upper followed by JFK to LHR in premium (bought in a recent 5 day sale) Used miles for the upper portion, paid for the return in premium (which gives you tier points / miles for the return portion ) for around £650 pp.

Tax on a full upper reward would be around the £500 mark and you get nothing back. Yes, you are dropping a class on the return but ....

It's much easier to get a one way upper reward fare than a return fare and that would open up a huge number of destinations.

David

Before they announced VS taking over an Atlanta slot from Delta I enquired about Business trip on Delta to Atlanta.
I was quoted 90,000 miles per person for the return.
From there it's a short hop to an awful lot of places.
If you are flexible with dates reward seats are out there if you book far enough ahead.
Dick D

Boston availability in uc is usually very good. It's a 45 seater often. I think it might be the weekend? I have booked 18 uc seats to or from Boston in past 6 months- at least in 4s and often in 5s. Had to wait 3 months of checking daily to get the last uc of 5 for this August but other than that got them straight away. Book in advance- for Easter 2015 there were at least 7 uc rewards out and back on the day we booked.

With just an additional 20K miles you'd get two UC tickets to Tokyo--that's what I'm saving up for! Of course, as a destination it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I thought to mention it as there are routes with decent redemption availability and Tokyo is one of them.

You could buy some currency through flying club that would give you another 2 years.
Have you tried flights to Washington? Lots of availability there. You could even go to Boston return from Washington? Or vice versa

With 180,000 you are only 20,000 short of two UC Gs , subject to availability of course, to any of the Caribbean routes. The LGW only have 14 seats in UC each but with flexible dates I have never had a problem getting seats.

If your worried about them expiring I would buy 1000 (+200 free at the mo) points for £30 to make sure you don't lose them.

I would buy two economy seats and use the miles to move into UC - that way you will also earn some miles for the flight as well.

Didn't know you could transfer to Hyatt. Have you tried this ?

There is also the option of getting a VA credit card and then the miles you earn each month on that keep all your miles valid for another 3 years. That means if you spend something every month you always have the 3 year validity on your miles

Or just make a quick purchase through Shops Away--once the miles are credited you have another three years to worry about what to do with your stash!

[honey lamb]

There is also the option of getting a VA credit card and then the miles you earn each month on that keep all your miles valid for another 3 years. That means if you spend something every month you always have the 3 year validity on your miles

LucyLu, Kered lives in Ireland so therefore doesn't have the option of a VA credit card or any of the other earning opportunities available to you in the UK except perhaps an occasional one via the Shops Away link. I think I managed a few miles by sending a John Lewis gift card to someone in the UK a couple of years ago but that is all! You lot in the UK are well and truly spoilt!

Kered, you know exactly where I live thanks to events that I experienced two years ago so you know what I am talking about as a ROI resident.

OK, so you have just under 180K miles. Lucky sod! Right - with regard to the ex-DUB flight, book separately and go for a flight cushioned with at least a couple of flights in between. For example - if I have a flight going before midday, given that there are only 4 flights ex-Cork during the course of the day, I fly out the day before and overnight in LHR because if the first flight is delayed, then there is a knock-on effect. Obviously you have more choice ex-DUB but cushion your flights which also enables you to take advantage of cheaper ones.

So with regard to your VS miles, the opportunities are endless. Buy M fares and upgrade; buy 20K miles which will extend the lifetime of your miles (I bought Aer John 1000 miles at Christmas for that reason - a cheap Christmas pressie and one he requested) and give you a chance to suss out the options for you to buy full reward seats by being uber-flexible. Just before the HLHF (Honey Lamb Holiday Fund) was depleted because of events of 2012, I managed to snag a full G return to SFO and last year an M->G fare to YVR. I would never have been able to use either without miles.

David is a fan of the combo-fare. Do look at that. It might be what you are looking for but the message is, there are options there; you're not restricted to the east coast of the USA - the world according to VS is your oyster. Go for it!!

Agree with JCBR, buy a couple of EC M's and upgrade to UC using miles. If you fancy California - I was browsing availability to/from SFO next April and there are G's available! Not sure how much an M would be but guessing around £900 - so that way you get an UC ticket worth £K's for a drastically lesser outlay

Just getting back to this thread after a busy day yesterday & all I can say is "Wow" !

Thank you all so much for all the very helpful replies & suggestions.

Sadly, as Honey Lamb says, I don't have access to to the Virgin Credit Card, or pretty much any other miles earning possibilities, being based in Ireland.

The idea of the combo fare, is a very good one, Ie. miles outbound / cash booking for the return. I didn't realise that was doable, as I had presumed that the cash bought sector, would incur the usually horrendous one way fares. I'll have to explore just how to do that on the website.

Really there's lot s of good ideas put forward in this thread, so I'll do a bit of research & see what I can come up with. I'd hate for my miles to go to waste, I don't in all honesty see myself flying VS very much at all anymore, these miles have sat in my FC account for a long time & I just want to clear them out in an all out splurge for Mrs Kered & myself & be done with it.

Thank you all once again for your very helpful suggestions

Honey Lamb, We'll be passing your door later on today, on our way "Down West" for the weekend & I'll wave as I pass