Desperate Plea for Miles

Does anyone know of a way to purchase Virgin Atlantic miles? I would like to buy 160,000 miles to book two upper class seats in September, but unlike most states-side airlines, I can't find a market for miles. Is there a frequent traveler out there who could help me out?

Sorry, VS does not allow you to purchase miles directly, and the terms and conditions of Flying Club say:

4.22 Members shall not sell or auction free tickets or miles in any circumstance. Selling or auctioning tickets could lead to the termination of a member's membership

BC

[Nottingham Nick]

I was watching that auction - the seller seems to think he can get round the legal position by saying he is actually selling a postcard.

I do not know the exact legal situation but I can see it being fraught with problems and personally - much as I would love to buy 80,000 FC points for less than £1K - I would be very dubious about enetering into such a trade - even though the seller appears to have a very good EBay track record.

Nick

Yikes - Sorry to raise a touchy subject. Seems I can be an Ugly American without even leaving my office.

I'm sure I'll make it on Virgin without miles eventually.

Thanks for the info.

[mitchja]

I wouldn't touch these sort of autions with a barge pole!!!!

One thing you can do it join either Starwood Preferred Guest program or Hilton HHonors.

Both of these hotel programs are FC partners and both other the ability to buy their own points which you can transfer into your FC account.

Not sure about HHonors but as I'm a Preferred Guest, here's some info:

Minimum purchase is 500 for $25 and max is 20,000 ($1000) in a 12 month period. The transfer ratio is 1:1 but as a basic Preferred guest you can only transfer a minimum of 2500 points.

Regards
James

[Nottingham Nick]

James.

Interesting - I wasn't aware we could do that - is it permissible for UK members to do it?

I just wish VS had a tie up with Marriott - I tied my colours firmly to their mast and have 60K points just waiting to be converted to FC points - don't look like it will ever happen though. [:(]


Nick

[mitchja]

Hi Nick

Opppps sorry yeah your right - US credit cards can only be used, the web site does say:

Currently, we are only able to process credit cards with addresses in the 50 United States, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.


James [:I]

Is there any indication when Hilton HHonors members will be able to convert bought points in to miles??

I think my credit card will take quite a battering when that option becomes active for UK guests!!

Hi,

I have recently bought 1000 miles to for about $12 i think. This put me over the 10,000 increment limit to transfer to virgin flying club.

See :- http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/reward ... ge_2.jhtml

P.S The transfer ratio is 10,000 Hilton to 1,500 Virgin. Although staying on a qualifying "double dip" room gets you hilton miles plus 1000 virgin flying club miles. Ive collected quite a few this way.

Cheers.

Steven

10000 honnors points to 1500 miles is not a very good trade as they are 1 mile VS/2HH points per amex membership reward point.I have converted them in the past as every time I have tried to book a room with HH points they have no avalibility or black out dates so have been totally useless to me, at least you can use them on VS with relative ease.

If you stay at a Hilton can you have them swipe your FC card and get the miles that way or do you have to collect HHonours and transfer?

[Decker]

You have to be a member of Hilton Honours. As Steven pointed out Hilton are unusual in that they do something called "Double Dipping" where you can get an allocation of Air Miles to your Virgin account as well as your Hilton Points.