V-Flyer

I already have a PE upgrade certificate on my FC account and am in line to get another PE upgrade and a companion voucher from my MBNA VA Amex/Visa card. I can get a semi-flexible S fare code Prem Economy ticket that allows upgrades and companion vouchers. I certainly can't afford an Upper ticket in J ! But I'd like to travel in Upper, at least on the homeward bound, night time, flight. I'm trying to figure out the best way of using the vouchers, if at all. So, does anyone have experience of using these?

Q1: can I upgrade the companion seat from PE to Upper with miles, if I also upgrade my purchased ticket using miles, or is it fixed at the paid level?

Q2: otherwise, can I use half the companion ticket for the outbound day time flight, then use miles for the return? I seem to remember that is possible with the PE upgrade voucher.

Q3: can I upgrade to Upper with miles if using a PE upgrade certificate?

Thanks for any ideas about getting the most out vouchers

I can only answer Q3 I'm afraid - and it's a no. You'd have to scrap the PE upgrade voucher (it would be credited back to your account) and use miles to upgrade straight from Economy to UC.

The answer to Q1 and Q2 ( like Q3 as per gumshoe's reply ) is no.
Unlike BA's 2-4-1( which granted is a pure miles redemption incentive) the VS companion voucher is pretty useless for use in UC unless somebody else is paying for the J class fare .
DL

Yes, the vouchers are pretty useless if you want to fly Upper. And someone isn't sticking you in there on the expensive fare (such as your company).

If I ever earn those vouchers from my credit card, I got "duh". If I earn a 2 for 1 with BA, I go "Gotta get earning"...

I quite like the PE upgrade vouchers, they got us a great deal on some necessary work flights to California in the summer. There was no UC availability on our dates anyway, but there was for PE, so it saved us a lot of money as flights in July are so expensive. It is a shame they can't be upgraded further, though.

For me, I fail to imagine a scenario where the companion voucher will ever be of practical use, sadly.

Thanks all for confirming that the companion vouchers are pretty pointless unless I want to fly PE. I wonder how many that are earned actually get used.

Really disappointing to hear that the companion voucher can't be used just one way (if I'm interpreting the answer correctly). Hard to see why Virgin would want or would benefit from this restriction.

Maybe I should ditch the Virgin card and stick to using my BA card. The only thing that might keep it is the VISA as well as Amex.

colin_thames wrote:Thanks all for confirming that the companion vouchers are pretty pointless unless I want to fly PE. I wonder how many that are earned actually get used.

Really disappointing to hear that the companion voucher can't be used just one way (if I'm interpreting the answer correctly). Hard to see why Virgin would want or would benefit from this restriction.

Maybe I should ditch the Virgin card and stick to using my BA card. The only thing that might keep it is the VISA as well as Amex.

Just received my annual Companion Voucher on my VS Amex...as always the points raised above come to mind and the voucher stays in the account gathering dust! Oh well, Mrs P is doing very well on her BA Premium Amex and is on target for all benefits

spacedog wrote:I quite like the PE upgrade vouchers, they got us a great deal on some necessary work flights to California in the summer. There was no UC availability on our dates anyway, but there was for PE, so it saved us a lot of money as flights in July are so expensive. It is a shame they can't be upgraded further, though.

For me, I fail to imagine a scenario where the companion voucher will ever be of practical use, sadly.

I agree on the PE voucher, we use ours every year and make some great savings.
As much as we would like to, we can't quite afford 3 long haul flights in UC every year, so the PE vouchers allow us to travel on a shorter flight in a very comfortable cabin for a very low price, which we out towards our other flights .

The companion vouchers are useful for business travellers who need flexible tickets. Which is presumably the type of customer MBNA are hoping to attract, so makes sense really.

You could try booking a combi fare, the outward bound as an economy redemption and the inbound as an s class premium economy fare. Then use your voucher to upgrade the outbound leg to premium (you can use it for 2 people flying one way as opposed to 1 person return) then use miles to upgrade the return leg from an s class fare to an UC seat.

while the VISA does collect miles, the spend does not count towards any vouchers.
Only AMEX does.

I personally think the best 'value' if there are 2 of you is to buy Economy with miles & then upgrade to PE one way using the one voucers (you can do that). Then decide how to do the other leg. Either book economy & upgrade via miles, or a full miles ticket, etc.

The companion voucher is pretty much worthless & needs changing to make it an attractive offer.

Eggtastico wrote:The companion voucher is pretty much worthless & needs changing to make it an attractive offer.

It's not worthless to people who mainly travel on flexible tickets - ie the high value business travellers VS are trying to attract from BA.

Because of its size VS can only ever offer limited reward inventory so if it's going to hand out "free" flights just for spending on a credit card it wants them to spend a bit of money first. It's a specifically targeted offer, not a worthless one.

gumshoe wrote:

Eggtastico wrote:The companion voucher is pretty much worthless & needs changing to make it an attractive offer.

It's not worthless to people who mainly travel on flexible tickets - ie the high value business travellers VS are trying to attract from BA.

Because of its size VS can only ever offer limited reward inventory so if it's going to hand out "free" flights just for spending on a credit card it wants them to spend a bit of money first. It's a specifically targeted offer, not a worthless one.

but the business traveller side of it don't make sense.
First up, how many people pay for their ticket & claim the expense back, compared to the business paying for it either directly or through a business credit card.

If paying yourself & claiming back, then I guess the free seat would be for a partner rather than a business colleague. How many people are in jobs that allows flexibility on travel dates?

I would be interested in seeing how many of the vouchers get issued & what % actually gets used.

Maybe a better offer would be an upgrade voucher to first class on all revenue PE tickets.

Also people seem to be brand loyal - so while there are people here who will fly Virgin first & anything else second, the same can be said for BA & as BA have much more destinations, it may make it more difficult for people to switch.

Maybe a 3 for 2 offer on miles redemption would be better than a companion ticket? ie 3 seats for the miles of 2.