Flying club & Virgin Red

It seems that in 2019 VS flying club will be joining Virgin Red...

from Virgin Red
We just wanted to get in touch to let you know about an exciting development we’ve been working on here at Virgin Red HQ.

We're always looking for more ways to improve and develop our offering further and, as a result, we will be bringing together Virgin Red and the currency of Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club - miles - to create a new Virgin-wide loyalty programme.

A new company, Virgin Group Loyalty (VGLC), will be established to own and manage this exciting programme - ensuring the loyalty rewards you receive are truly outstanding. The new loyalty programme will launch in 2019 and we look forward to writing to you about the benefits joining the programme will offer closer to the time, rest assured you'll be the first to know.

There are no changes to Virgin Red or the way your membership of Virgin Red works right now. We'll share more exciting details in the coming months and what it means for you, our Virgin Red members.

If you have any questions in the meantime then please don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Thanks!
The Virgin Red team

I've just received the following from FC:

Dear x,

As a valued Flying Club Silver member, I wanted to share some exciting news.

Today we’re announcing that Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic have agreed to create a new company that will launch a Virgin-wide loyalty programme, to reward customer loyalty across Virgin branded companies with unique and differentiated reward opportunities.

The new loyalty programme will use the Flying Club currency, ‘miles’ and will bring you more opportunities to earn miles, with the result of getting you to Reward Flights sooner. The new loyalty programme plans to launch in 2019 and I look forward to writing to you about the benefits of joining this programme closer to the time.

I want to reassure you that there won’t be any change in the way you interact with us or the benefits you currently receive as a Flying Club member. Flying Club will continue as Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer programme and will continue to use miles as its currency. You will still continue to earn Tier Points and earn and spend miles across Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines and our partners as you do today.

In the meantime, if you would like any further information please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions.
https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/how-flying-club-works/offers-news/virgin-loyalty-programme.html

Best regards,
Oli Byers
Senior Vice President Sales & Customer Loyalty

Just got one too, received GFL this May, I'll be mighty pissed if they mess with that!

[mitchja]

Stopped using Virgin Red yonks ago as I lost the will to live using it and just didn’t see the point in collecting points every month for absolutely nothing?

It was also never fair the way they awarded all Flying members the same monthly bonus regardless of tier....basically anyone could join FC for free, never step on board a VS flight and still earn the same monthly bonus as Gold and Silver FC members

Virgin Red did always say they would look at earning Flying Club miles so hopefully this may improve Virgin Red.

Always a bit suspicious when you get a vague announcement with no specifics & a FAQ makes it seem overly formal. Another devaluation coming our way?

I think you’re right to be suspicious. If every Virgin brand starts rewarding its customers with FC miles, as Oli Byers’ email suggests, a LOT of additional miles will be issued which means far more people will be fighting for reward seats. Which, unless there’s a significant increase in inventory, surely means they’ll become harder to come by.

On the other hand it sounds like we’ll be able to redeem FC miles with other Virgin brands which could be useful for people sitting on a lot of miles they can’t use.

Interesting that they’ve brought in the guy who created Avios to run the new company. Will we eventually see VS Flying Club and DL SkyMiles (and maybe even AF/KL Flying Blue) adopt a common currency like BA/IB/EI/VY have with Avios?

RIP VFC.

No way whatsoever this will benefit anyone outside of the virgin group.

Article in Head for Points

I think I'm going to cash out my FC account now just in case of a devaluation.

If it makes the VS miles more flexible as the "new currency" of Virgin Group companies I think it'll be a good thing.

FC miles are already more flexible than many airlines reward currencies with a number of decent transfer partners available (e.g. Hilton, Eurostar)

Let's hope there's no devaluation attached if there are more ways to earn and spend miles introduced.

This has got devaluation written all over it for me when it comes to spending them on VS. More earning opportunities means more people with more miles, all gunning for the same number of flights/seats. And what happens when demand increases and supply stays the same? Yep, the price increases.

I wonder what they'll do with the Flying Club tiers and the ways in which you can earn TPs. Will people be able to get a Virgin mobile, take out a Virgin Money ISA and credit card, catch Virgin Trains, join a Virgin gym etc and then get LHR Clubhouse access? I would be surprised, but time will tell.

Here’s the headforpoints take on it: https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/08/2 ... -launched/

In a nutshell Rob is confident it will be a success but has concerns, not least about Virgin Atlantic’s motive for effectively selling off Flying Club to the Virgin Group and Delta.

He’s also suggesting that FC may move to a revenue-based model (ie miles and/or status you earn would depend on how much you actually spend, not a fixed amount according to route and cabin).

I've always operated an "earn and burn" policy when it comes to FC miles which has served me fairly well. However, my main concern is one that I've been aware of the possibility of for some time: the potential for a revenue-based model to be introduced, as gumshoe mentioned. Delta have operated this for some time now, and I would not be at all surprised if VS follow suit. That would definitely make it tougher for us as a lot of our flights are booked in the cheapest cabins (whether by third parties or us). Most of our paid for fares are cheap H/K premium ones, with the occasional Z fare thrown in if we're going on holiday or a company is willing to book it. Plus, we fly a fair bit with partners; I'd say at least 1/3 of our yearly AU points are made up from SQ/SAS/DL, so I'd imagine this will probably have a negative impact on us. C'est la vie, I guess. I'll be pessimistically curious to see how this all unfolds.

As a side note, I used to use the Virgin Red app but got really sick of it. They changed the way the competitions were run so it seemed really unfair, and I also realised that at the time there were so few tie-ins with VS (the only Virgin brand I really care about) that it was pointless. Virgin Red just seemed like a data-mining app to me and constantly wanted my details and opinions for free, and ultimately there was no point in me persisting with it.

Yet at the same time Air Canada is bringing Aeroplan back in-house as per Globe & Mail

These are my predictions (based on the existing Virgin Red loyalty app and wild speculation)

- You will be able to earn FC miles by taking out Virgin Mobile, Broadband, Gym and TV contracts
- You will earn monthly bonus FC miles when you remain "brand loyal" and have multiple Virgin products (e.g Mobile+FC+Broadband+Gym)
- The more Virgin brands you subscribe to, the more loyalty miles you will get awarded each month
- FC earning and spending on VS flights will remain largely unchanged
- The Virgin Money credit card and savings accounts will remain and bonus FC miles awarded on taking out other Virgin Money products
- New VS perks will be offered to cater for those with small FC balances from their non-VS accumulation (e.g onboard drinks voucher, Extra luggage allowance, Economy Delight upgrade, Clubhouse access etc)
- You will be able to spend your VS miles across more Virgin brands (at an extremely poor exchange rate)

Will be interesting to come back in 2019 and review the above when we know more!

spellinn, I actually quite like your take on it and would be quite happy if that ends up being the outcome!

I see on the Virgin Atlantic careers site there are several roles advertised for the new loyalty scheme, including some senior VP roles. Anyone fancy applying and making sure we all get good rewards ! Maybe an annual bonus for V-Flyers

[mitchja]

Now I've read a bit more about this, this just actually sounds like Virgin's own version of Avios.