V-Flyer

Ok fellow virginetters,

You've probably seen ive been asking posts on if I can sell miles etc, Had no luck on ebay this week (I know you shouldnt do this anyway) but I really have no idea what to do with them... I have 56900 miles with 10 tier points (currently on red).

The reason I thought about selling them was because no matter how often I look I just cant seem to get any kind of 'amazing saving' with my miles! You cant get anything with them without spending upwards of £400 or the taxes at least, I know this is good compared to what you would save on the full cost of a flight but there just seems to be so many restrictions such as not being able to upgrade without buying a full fare ticket (which prices for are absolutley ridiculous at the moment) or having to fly on certain days to include a saturday night stay, the whole thing really doesnt sound as rosey as VS make their miles out to be?

So, if anybody has any suggestions on what to do with them then do feel free to offer any advice/tips!

Why do you have to do anything with them? They are valid for three years from the last activity on your account, so why not just keep hold of them? Your circumstances might change, or you might strike lucky on one of your flights where a good saving is available.

I'm not sure what your 'goal' is when booking flights, but of course if you are only looking to fly in economy for the cheapest price possible then miles really don't work well for you. If however you wish to fly in either PE or UC then there are potentially huge savings to be had using miles.

I have frequently used miles for an economy midweek ticket (Tues-Fri) without including a Saturday night, which is a huge saving against a normal fare

Penny,

Do you book Miles + Money or spend your miles? You have to pay taxes and charges on these right?

iant01 wrote:Penny,

Do you book Miles + Money or spend your miles? You have to pay taxes and charges on these right?

Yes, you have to pay taxes and charges on the miles tickets. However, what Penny is saying, that for a normal economy fare to get the cheapest fare codes they all require a min of a Sat night stay, but if say you wanted to go to New York for a 3/4 night stay from a Monday to Thursday then using miles makes it a cheaper way of doing this.

Neil

If you fly on business and your company pays for a base ticket, using miles (and perhaps a bit of cash) to upgrade is a really excellent use of them.

Also as Penny_L said, if you need to avoid the Saturday night rule, then redemption tickets are by far the cheapest way of doing so. Also, if you are booking close to the time of travel, if redemption seats are available this can save you a lot of money versus the walk-up fully flex fares -- especially in UC.

In some ways the worst use of miles is probably the main one -- 100% leisure redemptions (certainly in Y, a bit less so in PE). Straight UC redemptions can save you a fortune, though -- I bought my wife a G return to SFO, which saved about £2,000 compared to a Z even if you include the cost of the taxes/surcharges.

Now that you've boasted about trying to sell them on eBay, I wouldn't be surprised if you go into your FC account to find them zero'd by VS (ref. the T&C's?).

That'll fix your dilemma!

To me they are useless on economy flights unless you were having to pay one of the high fares.

They are kind of self fufilling on PE flights (an L upgradable fare, plus taxes are about a K PE fare).

But they are great on a UC flight (you can buy a L upgradable and taxes plus the miles to get something like 900 UC return to JFK) or reduced UC price with no milage usage (a silver with an Upgradable PE fare will pretty much earn the miles they used to upgrade on their PE ticket and 50% bonus, you can make more if you use the virgin amex too).

I am a Virgin collector from way back when seeing someone off at LHR we saw some kind of promotion that got us a free (and in those days, totally free ) BMI flight just for joining. Over the years we have used miles and money which usually is a good value discount on a cheap economy fare and also a reward flight to Florida but the best value was recently when we managed to book a cruise from Singapore to Shanghai and flew SIA outward and used our miles to upgrade to Upper on the long flight home. The Shanghai lounge is rubbish though, that's another story!

If you really don't want them, you can call VS and they will 'donate' them to charity.

slinky09 wrote:Now that you've boasted about trying to sell them on eBay, I wouldn't be surprised if you go into your FC account to find them zero'd by VS (ref. the T&C's?).

That'll fix your dilemma!

B) xx( B)

Tell you what, I'll take them off your hands for a tenner. All I ask is that you pay the transfer costs... )

ratechaser wrote:

slinky09 wrote:Now that you've boasted about trying to sell them on eBay, I wouldn't be surprised if you go into your FC account to find them zero'd by VS (ref. the T&C's?).

That'll fix your dilemma!

B) xx( B)

Tell you what, I'll take them off your hands for a tenner. All I ask is that you pay the transfer costs... )

Now you two are being very unkind y) y)

You can cash them in for virgin holiday vouchers then sell them on EBAY . 10000 MILES = £50 VOUCHER

tinau9 wrote:You can cash them in for virgin holiday vouchers then sell them on EBAY . 10000 MILES = £50 VOUCHER

Pretty sure VS would cry foul on this one too.... B)

iant01 wrote:So, if anybody has any suggestions on what to do with them then do feel free to offer any advice/tips!

I agree that for the leisure traveller they are not much good unless VS are having one of their reward sales, which do happen on occasion. This allows people to pay economy like prices and enjoy the premium cabins.

Back to the suggestions, check out VS website - spend miles with flying club partners, depending on where you are based you are bound to find something to spend them on...

At the very least see them as a way to reduce the cost of something you would usually have to pay more for. :w

Alternatively, wait three years and they will go away all by themselves

Swap for hilton hhonours points perhaps if they are of any greater use to you?

I got 2 PE flights for next month MAN to MCO for 90,000 miles plus taxes. There may be better ways to use the miles but it's costing less than one fare in PE using M+M. We don't need the miles for anything else & VS had this offer to fly PE for Y miles so we booked.

Katie