Spending virgin points

Hi everyone ,
Me and my family have been saving and collecting virgin points over the last year or two and fingers crossed I think we should have enough to finally book between us .
Am I right in saying we get more for our money as such using them on virgin Atlantic and not virgin holidays?
Also if we do have enough do we need to transfer all the points to one person so they can do the booking ?

[Nottingham Nick]

Welcome to V-Flyer.

In order to get the best advice, I would say you need to give more information.

When and where are you looking to go?
How many seats are you looking to book?
What class are you looking to book in?

The answer to those questions will give regular fliers the ability to advise on your best course of action.
Booking reward seats can be something of a dark art - especially on the holiday routes around school holidays - you also have to take into account taxes and charges.

Transferring points often isn't cost effective, but there can be workarounds depending on how many accounts we are talking about and how many points are in each account.

There are helpful and knowledgeable people here, so hopefully you will get good advice.

Nock

Thanks for the reply
We are looking at Manchester to Orlando return flights next October beginning of the month. No need for us to go school holidays or anything.
It’s 4 adults and 1 baby who will be on lap.
We have one adult with 10000 points
One adult with 30000 points
One adult with 60000 points
And one adult with 50000 point
That’s just a rough number not exact. Going from what flights are September we need upto 150000 points plus £1200 pound which we should have points wise but split between us which is why I wondering do we need transfer them all to one person
First time we have ever tried to use these points so I’m a bit clueless with them so any advice is appreciated

Hi and welcome to V flyer

I may be well off the mark as don’t know points values and taxes off the top of my head but those prices you state seem to indicate you wish to fly in economy? Nothing wrong with economy at all but it’s not always the best use of air miles / points. If you confirm your preferred class of travel then other will be able to assist you in making and informed choice about next steps.

For some one new the “points game” I highly recommend paying a visit to www.headforpoints.com or www.turnimgleftforless.com. There guides and what not on there, although aimed at BA miles the principle is the same.

Good luck and have fun

Hi and welcome to V flyer

I may be well off the mark as don’t know points values and taxes off the top of my head but those prices you state seem to indicate you wish to fly in economy? Nothing wrong with economy at all but it’s not always the best use of air miles / points. If you confirm your preferred class of travel then other will be able to assist you in making and informed choice about next steps.

For some one new the “points game” I highly recommend paying a visit to http://www.headforpoints.com or http://www.turnimgleftforless.com. There guides and what not on there, although aimed at BA miles the principle is the same.

Good luck and have fun

Thanks for the reply, will take a look at the links you mentioned thanks.
Yes just economy we want to use the points while we can , I can’t see us going back to Orlando for a good few years so going to use them and I know we wouldn’t get enough to go any other class than economy.

Ok so had a little look and here’s what I would do if your personal finances allow. Find some dates with availability in prem
Book eco and upgrade, it’s 22400 each not in peak so you have more than enough miles to book from 2 accounts.

Prem is a really great product and the extra space can make a word of difference after 8 hours

Watch outs for this though: an advertised ticket price in eco may not be upgradeable, always worth ringing flying club to check or booking “delight” as they are always upgradeable ( unless it’s changed since launch) also there may not be 4 reward seats around when u want to fly so depends on your flexibility.

Do a little research and don’t be afraid to ask questions on here

I’m not an expert but not sure id advise upgrading with miles to Premium if the OP is trying to save money. The money cost for taxes etc is usually quite substantial on top of the miles.

I read somewhere the other day that upgrading economy to premium is one of the worst use of miles, is that right?

Steve

101,000 not 150,000 if you went the start of Oct.

I think you could make 3 PE outright rewards work and then just get one cash ticket.

I’d imagine you can buy a cash economy fare for around £350, so I really wouldn’t use the miles if economy is your goal.

I’m not an expert but not sure id advise upgrading with miles to Premium if the OP is trying to save money. The money cost for taxes etc is usually quite substantial on top of the miles.

I read somewhere the other day that upgrading economy to premium is one of the worst use of miles, is that right?

Steve

Thanks everyone for the replies . We do only want to book economy this is purely so we can do it the cheapest way possible , I know this might not be the best way to use our points as such.
I have looked now at September for next year for example 30th aug - 13th September Manchester to Orlando return , if I click miles flight it comes up for economy 142000 points plus £1034 for the whole group.
If we had that many points between us , can I just ring virgin and get them to take all our points into consideration or do they need to be on one persons account ?
I feel like I’m missing something

101,000 not 150,000 if you went the start of Oct.

I think you could make 3 PE outright rewards work and then just get one cash ticket.

I’d imagine you can buy a cash economy fare for around £350, so I really wouldn’t use the miles if economy is your goal.

We have a villa booked from the 6th October so are looking for them . Flights on virgin Atlantic only out until middle of September so I’m just trying to be prepared with what I need to do

Apologies if this is out of date info but it used to be the case that while anyone could use their miles to pay or part pay for anyone else’s flight, each person paying had to have enough miles to pay for at least one entire leg.

So to take a hypothetical scenario:

Return flights for 2 cost 200,000 miles - so 50,000 miles per person per leg.

Say Passenger 1 has 150,000 miles and Passenger 2 has 50,000 miles - no problem. P1 can pay for 3 legs and P2 1 leg.

But say Passenger 1 has 175,000 miles and Passenger 2 only has 25,000 miles - not allowed. One would have to pay (substantially) to transfer 25,000 miles to the other or buy 25,000 new miles.

Like I said I’m not on top of the current rules for spending miles so they may have changed.

I’m not an expert but not sure id advise upgrading with miles to Premium if the OP is trying to save money. The money cost for taxes etc is usually quite substantial on top of the miles.

I read somewhere the other day that upgrading economy to premium is one of the worst use of miles, is that right?

Steve

Thanks everyone for the replies . We do only want to book economy this is purely so we can do it the cheapest way possible , I know this might not be the best way to use our points as such.
I have looked now at September for next year for example 30th aug - 13th September Manchester to Orlando return , if I click miles flight it comes up for economy 142000 points plus £1034 for the whole group.
If we had that many points between us , can I just ring virgin and get them to take all our points into consideration or do they need to be on one persons account ?
I feel like I’m missing something

Ah okay, it’s as you’re coming back in peak.

So you’ll need 12,500 for outbound and 22,500 for the return per adult.

Get the 10k adult to 12.5k and pay 1 x 12.5k
The 30k adult can pay for 2 x 12.5k
The 50k adult can pay for 2 x 22.5k
The 60k adult can pay for 2 x 22.5k and 1 x 12.5k

The infant should be easy enough.

How do I get the 10k adult to 12.5k? ShopsAway / Tesco Etc.