Changes to Flying Club from March 1st

[Pete]

Mileage Earning

Cabin Current NEW
Upper 200% 200%
Premium 150% 150%
HYE (Y, B, L) 125% 100%
LYE (M,Q,X,V) 100% 100%
LYE (N*) 0% 50%*

Member Mileage Bonus:
Current NEW
Gold 25% 50%
Silver 0% 25%
Red 0% 0%

Summary of Changes

Confirmed
- Alignment of HYE earning 125% to 100%
- N 50% earn for US and Caribbean regions
- N 100% earn on all other routes – Asia, Africa, Australia, Middle East and India
- 1 tier point for 50% earning routes per sector
- Mileage Bonuses to increase to 50% on Base flown mileage (BFM) for Gold and 25% for Silver
- Sydney route tier points – direct route to now match tier points earnt with a HK stopover


Mileage Redemption – new levels
All Confirmed – amended levels in Bold

MILES REQUIRED Return Trip
Economy PE UC
US
Boston 45000 67500 90000
JFK/Newark 45000 67500 90000
Washington 45000 67500 90000
Miami 50000 75000 100000
Orlando 50000 75000 100000
Las Vegas 50000 75000 100000
Los Angeles 50000 75000 100000
San Francisco 50000 75000 100000

CARIBBEAN
Antigua 50000 75000 100000
Bahamas 50000 75000 100000
Barbados 50000 75000 100000
Cuba 50000 75000 100000
Grenada 50000 75000 100000
Jamaica 50000 75000 100000
St Lucia 50000 75000 100000
Tobago 50000 75000 100000

AFRICA
Cape Town 50000 75000 100000
Johannesburg 50000 75000 100000
Lagos 40000 60000 80000

MIDDLE EAST
Dubai 40000 60000 80000

INDIA
Delhi 50000 75000 100000
Mumbai 50000 75000 100000

FAR EAST
Hong Kong 60000 72000 100000
Shanghai 60000 72000 100000
Tokyo 60000 80000 100000

SYDNEY
Sydney 105000 126000 180000
HK - Sydney 45000 54000 80000


Dates
Changes Effective 1st March.
Earning – all bookings taken prior to 1st March will earn at old rates
All bookings taken after 1st March – earn at new rate
Redemptions – all bookings up to end Feb to be debited at old rates, even if flight is post March 1st
All bookings from 1st March, new rates apply

Thanks Pete,

Just trying to do a comparison. Looks like the US trips have been hiked a bit and some PE redemptions.
Will have a more detailed look tonight, as I might want to get some bookings in before hand!
Cheers
Jon

[fozzyo]

Some excellent news!

The promotion of Gold bonus is welcome, and the addition of the Silver bonus is even more welcome - hurrah! Nice to see the Silver level having value added, something that has been discussed at length on many topics here.

Initial reaction was a bummer about increase in flight costs, but with the new earning bonuses that is only understandable.

Mat xxx

Pete,
Have miles for upgrades and companion flights been changed as well?

-Steve

Can somebody clarify how the gold and new silver bonuses work???

[Decker]

Shame about the hikes but it does flatten out some of the inconsistencies I guess . Glad we've booked our MCO/MIA already though. (Did I mention I'm alright Jack? )

[fozzyo]

Originally posted by tallprawn
Can somebody clarify how the gold and new silver bonuses work???

My understanding is that if you make a new booking after 1st March if you a a Silver FC member you will earn miles flown + 25% of that, and if you are a Gold member miles flown +50%.

So New York in Economy is:

Miles flown - 6,916
Silver Bonus - 1,729 (Earning 8,645 miles)
Gold Bonus - 3,458 (Earning 10,374 miles)

Originally posted by Decker
Shame about the hikes but it does flatten out some of the inconsistencies I guess . Glad we've booked our MCO/MIA already though. (Did I mention I'm alright Jack? )

The hikes do suck, out of interest how long have they been at the current level?

Mat xxx

The silver bonus I guess is a further 25% added to your existing mileage earn. Nice touch for Silver members like me, that want a bit of extra value for being Silver.

Originally posted by fozzyo

The hikes do suck, out of interest how long have they been at the current level?

The USA redemption amounts were dropped after 9/11. I would guess loads are now such that they change had run its course. Oh well, no more redemptions of 78,000 miles for our jaunts to SFO. [:(]

BC

Good to see that Silver is moving away from a polished version of red and getting some clear benefits.....

[Bazz]

An extra 20k miles each to the west coast in UC is not welcome but the rise in earning levels mitigates somewhat. As stated above some of the anomolies appear to have been addressed i.e. there will be a lesser charge (90k) to go to the east coast, which makes sense. It always puzzled me as to why it cost the same miles for either east or west coasts in UC.

[honey lamb]

I'm very mathematically challenged at the moment and am trying to work out the number of miles to upgrade. [?]

Some interesting changes.

For me, just looking at the last year, the Silver 25% bonus miles would be more than wiped out by the extra 20k miles for a UC redemption to the West Coast [:(]. Perhaps though, I should be looking further back than one year - it's difficult to assess the impact.

[Pete]

Earning an extra 25% (either as Gold or Silver) on base mileage, is hardly likely to net you the additional 20K required for an Upper reward to the West Coast.

Whilst the Silver benefit is good to see, I think generally this is a bit of a negative step.

Originally posted by honey lamb
I'm very mathematically challenged at the moment and am trying to work out the number of miles to upgrade. [?]

ISTBC, but I think the upgrade miles will stand. I guess it makes sense as the difference between a Y to G upgrade (60k miles) and a G free ticket (80k) was a bit slim IMHO.

I see that the Y redemptions seem to have stayed static, which I guess means that VS are valuing UC more highly now, but recognising that Y has been left behind ([}:)]). The 25% for silvers is a nice touch. I obviously like the 50% for golds although would have preferred 75%[ii]

I think the reduction in miles on N is not too serious, but the reduction in YBL to 100% sucks[V]

As Flying Club Silver, the extra earning is a very welcome change for me. If I book now in Upper and fly in March I wonder whether the Silver bonus will be applied or not? Or whether the "Earning Ð all bookings taken prior to 1st March will earn at old rates" statement just applies to the BFM of the bookings in Y/B/L/N where the basic miles earning changes. Hmmmm.

The 25% Silver / 50% Gold now matches BA, but lower qualification with VS. ( No changes to qualification levels I guess )

I'm not surprised at the increases for East / West coast to be honest, the west coast redemptions were bargains really.

David.

The redemption hikes are not welcome, just as my balance was getting close to 4 x UC returns to East Coast USA [:(] At least when I do pay I will get more miles to get to the magic target quicker though.

Will now have to explain this to GF as to how it affects this years holidays.

Graham

[mcmbenjamin]

Well N fares ex-USA will earn TPs/Miles so that is good. All is well.

After looking at the figures a few stats

Average Increase:
Y-14%, PE-20%, UC-12%

Increase by Percentage

0%
Y - Carribean/Dubai/Tokyo/S Africa/Lagos
PE - Tokyo
UC - Carribean/Dubai/Tokyo/S Africa/Lagos/Sydney (inc HKG-SYD)

8%
PE - HKG-SYD

12%
PE - SYD

12.5%
Y - HGK-SYD, Boston, New York, Washington
UC - Boston, New York, Washington

15.2%
PE - Hong Kong, Shanghai

16.7%
Y - SYD

20%
Y - Hong Kong, Shanghai
PE - US(West), MIA, MCO, Carribean, S Africa, Lagos, Dubai, India

25%
Y - US(West), MIA, MCO, India
UC - US(West), MIA, MCO, India

35%
PE - Boston, New York, Washington

Hope this useful

Phil

P.S. Generally speaking for Au, Ag holders the additional 25% matches or outweighs the additional mileage for all except the 35% bracket. So generally 25% additional mileages will cover the additional cost.

P.P.S. you could argue that since Au holders already had 25% bonus the additional 25% actually only represents an increase of 20% over previous earnings so you'll have to lower the bar on the above stats.

P.P.P.S. Since the bonus is on actual mileage and does not represent class of travel this changes it a bit too - see later mail

[HighFlyer]

Good stats Phil!!

Liking the extra 50% Au bonus, but given the increased redemption rates it all seems much of a muchness. Waving goodbye to those previously good value East Coast redemption rates too, as the increase really is quite high, but as others have mentioned, it was going to increase at some point.

[y] for the Ag bonus though, a nice recognition!

Say you had a trip planned for this year (like I do). Couldn't you just redeem your miles before March to avoid the increases and then change the flights when you are sure of your travel dates? I gather UC awards are changeable without penalty for Au members?

The Strawb

[Pete]

Sorry, had to pull this earlier since it hadn't been published on the VS site, and they (naturally) wanted to be first out with it. Sorry guys!

Pete

[HighFlyer]

Good stuff guys!

[Pete]

VS have confirmed to me that there are no changes to Upgrades or Companion Rewards.

Pete

[Decker]

Excellent - makes them even more value then!