Flying Club improvements coming soon

Anyone seeing anything decent to vegas? Everything I am looking at is about 250k return in upper UGH! We can go anytime really apr-Sep but seeing nothing close to the old pricing (135/155)

I think VS is going to see a lot of pushback over this.

I’m legitimately thinking of dropping them entirely after these changes.

Combined with all the cost cutting, this is just getting too much.

Virgin have admitted 25% of flights will never have saver tickets released. Looks like they’ve absolutely killed the loyalty scheme for anyone who travels leisure routes in school holidays.

I’m sat on >300,000 points and 2 credit card vouchers. I suspect that’ll be one return fare in premium at the very best now MAN to MCO. Previously I could have got 2 UC and 2 PE for my family with this.

What a shame.

It’s a bit hard to judge right now as it’s dynamic pricing, meaning flights available have already started being booked…

However, if you can be flexible there are a lot a lot of flights that have the same or even cheaper in points AND taxes.

With the points and taxes saved, you can get a domestic flight to your end destination…

But whilst yes there are flights with a heavy price tag…. 29k points and less taxes , is so much better than 47,500 or even more

350,000 points does indeed seem to be the maximum number of points required each way.

I'm only picking random destinations. LAX is also showing 350,000 on many dates, though at low as 67,500 on other dates.

Can beat you.

Edi - Mco 18th June to 4th July. For 1 person in upper. 460,000 miles plus £997



David

One word - a polite one. OUCH.

I’m with you Commander, burn the last few points and voucher and I’m out, cancel credit card and move on. I’m afraid Virgin just aren’t that good anymore.

I get it’s dynamic pricing but thought I’d have a look anyway.
Our UC LHR-MIA in May is now 250k points return (1pax) and our UC LHR - LAX end aug is 450k return. (1 pax)

We were already on the fence after some poor experiences with VS UC over the past 18 months and this has just pushed me further over the other side.

Hopefully things will calm down and VS will review any impact over the coming months, but until then, I’ll keep on with my new avios strategy. (Not sold on BA being much fun, but I’ll take a risk).

They really need to sort out their website. (If you can manage to get onto the old site, you have half a chance) I’ve spent a few hours looking for flights today.

Thought I’d found a loophole to look for flights with a flexible date by using the delta site - they still use the old type vs site. However when you try and search for upper fares, it bases the search on delta one, so the miles shown are not for direct routes.

Then thought I’d found another loophole as the reward seat search now gives you miles prices for each cabin. However it still shows no seats available when infact there are seats available for cash so according to their new rules, they should be available for points.

Just sent VS a Twitter message and the reply came back that it shows you seats a few days either side BUT that only works for economy even if you select upper.

I wonder if they have taken away the grid feature so you don’t actually see the horrendous amount of miles you need and the normal ones are hidden away unless you happen to pick the correct dates.

Come on Virgin get a grip !

David

I live in Switzerland and I always get the old site. But when I search when I’m back in UK it gives new site. Either use VPN or change the country to rest of world or Europe, should work

Here is a link to flexible calendar at my side, hope it works for you

https://www.virginatlantic.com/flight-s ... 24aa9a3e1d

Here is a link to flexible calendar at my side, hope it works for you

https://www.virginatlantic.com/flight-s ... 24aa9a3e1d

Aha. Thank you so much.

David

Glad it works.

There are some good prices to find but you have to be flexible on dates.

But I found tampa/jfk/atl/BOS return and around £1300-£1600 taxes and lowest was 58k pts needed for return
Popular routes such as MCO, LAS,LAX have gone quite extreme on a lot of days.

But if I can snatch a flight for that price and cheaper taxes and it’s not my final destination, i honestly don’t mind paying either the extra points or a little extra money from the taxes I’ve said for a domestic flight.

But it does seem to be, off peak dates are the cheapest.

My flight in 3 weeks to MIA is priced at over 150k one way, which is insane….

I do feel like they have done this to out price a lot of people of reward seats so they book cash fares instead

350,000 points does indeed seem to be the maximum number of points required each way.

I'm only picking random destinations. LAX is also showing 350,000 on many dates, though at low as 67,500 on other dates.

Can beat you.

Edi - Mco 18th June to 4th July. For 1 person in upper. 460,000 miles plus £997



David

One word - a polite one. OUCH.

It gets worse

IMG_1575.png (320.12 KiB) Viewed 6993 times

Wow. Just wow.

David

But then during the same moment you can find ATL/TPA/JFK a lot cheaper and then book a cheap connextion

[buns]

I always thought the term "Dynamic pricing" was related to demand.

Funny how these obscene figures are there throw Day 1

And don't get me started on the fees!

Buns

I always thought the term "Dynamic pricing" was related to demand.

Funny how these obscene figures are there throw Day 1

And don't get me started on the fees!

Buns

Saver rates will have the lowest rates.
I’ve priced up numerous UC flights return which were £1300-£1600 in taxes for 2 adults, so saving between 400-700 plus points between 110-160 so saving 30k-80k points

This stinks. One open J seat on my flight in a few days and they want 350K points for it. No indication of what at-airport upgrades will be charged.

Worse, they persist in punishing those of us that live on the US West Coast. We're a "vacation destination" and so it feels highly unlikely that we'll ever see "saver" values offered.

What's the best way to convey to management that they're angering those of us with long-term Gold status with this?

If anyone was thinking of going to India, these changes are positive. Lowest points for Mumbai UC return I have seen is 46k + £559 taxes (May and September). That's the lowest, there are plenty of other points bargains to be had that are less points than previously.

I fear that its the popular routes that are screwed. I'll miss booking a last minute reward flight the night before as I cannot imagine it will be cheap points wise to do this anymore.

When trying to book anything it's throwing me errors. Phone lines are 'extremely busy' so far an hour wait and then a 45 minute wait.

Some things never change... Good old Virgin.

I've just done a search for London to Seattle, it's coming up at 520000 miles for June next year, so not a school holiday period. I paid 135000 miles this year, so it's much more.

This is crazy, I won’t pretend that I understand dynamic pricing models or how the algorithms work but are these ridiculous high because so many people are searching atm and the system is thinking that there is a lot of demand so hike the number? And I see a banner message on the VS reward seat checker that they are updating the pricing and come back later!

Now it's taken payment yet not generated a booking. This really is a shambles from VS.

This is crazy, I won’t pretend that I understand dynamic pricing models or how the algorithms work but are these ridiculous high because so many people are searching atm and the system is thinking that there is a lot of demand so hike the number? And I see a banner message on the VS reward seat checker that they are updating the pricing and come back later!

No. It would/should be based on what’s actually been sold. That would include both points and cash.

I have some time tomorrow so I’ll try and find out the correlation between £ to point.

If you take a cheap NYC cash fare, circa £1500, that should produce the lowest amount of points required, but, is that actually happening or are they still separating reward and cash inventory? Naturally, a £4000 fare should be producing the higher figures.

Potentially a little too early to tell.

Re: amounts over 350,000… are these indirect per chance?

Re: old booking link… thanks to who posted that. Makes life easier.

Given my circumstances, I have no kids and a lot of flex, so I should see little change. Potentially, even less points required. If I was a casual flyer to Orlando in the school holidays (aka, Dibbers), I think I’d be cancelling the credit card…

I've just done a search for London to Seattle, it's coming up at 520000 miles for June next year, so not a school holiday period. I paid 135000 miles this year, so it's much more.

Not posted on here in ages - only just started flying with VS again in the last year (and then they decided to cancel my U/C to BOS on the day of the flight - so that was a nice welcome back LOL)

Are we comparing apples with oranges here as there are 2 factors at play?
1) VS have 'reduced' the number of 'cheap' guaranteed rewards seats (previously 12 per flight) - you may have been able to bag your 135k last year from this bucket
2) Dynamic pricing has opened ALL seats to rewards - but at crazy prices. So, it may not be fair to compare 135k with 520k as the 135k seat would not have been available on teh old model?

However, it would be fair to lament the reduction of the guaranteed 12 rewards seats per flight - I think, along with many other sthat have posted, is the real kicker

I thought I'd look through the updated FC Terms & Conditions to see if there are any subtle changes, I found a few:

4.4.1 Points upgrades between the seat classes set out below may be available on selected flights operated by Virgin Atlantic:
• Economy Classic to Economy Delight
• Economy Classic to Premium
• Economy Classic to Upper Class
• Economy Delight to Premium
• Economy Delight to Upper Class
• Premium to Upper Class

You will pay an amount in Virgin Points for the fare, and an amount in money for taxes, fees, charges and carrier imposed surcharges.

Point upgrades can be made on a one-way or return basis

This seems new - especially ability to upgrade Economy Classic to Delight with points?

5.1.3 Gold Membership 2,000 Tier Point reward

Gold Members who have achieved 2,000 Tier Points or more during their membership renewal year will earn an additional two complimentary Flying Club reward vouchers.

James already mentioned this one (two vouchers instead of one).

5.6.1 Flying Club reward vouchers earnt on or after 30th October 2024 are valid for 24 months from the date they are awarded. All bookings using a Flying Club reward voucher must be made within 24 months of the voucher being credited to the account, and the outbound flight must be flown before or on the voucher's expiry date (the return flight can be taken later).

Looks like any new vouchers from today will now last for 24 months instead of the 12 months they did previously (but any existing voucher expiry dates will stay the same).

David