VCC Companion ticket

Just had a look at my VCC statement online and there is en entry for a qualification for a companion ticket.

I know you should receive one if you reach the qualifiying spend. How does it work, do you apply for it through VCC or through VS.

Any info appreciated

Iain

[HighFlyer]

Iain,

Does it appear in your FC Statement if you log in at the VA website?

Sometimes you need to make a call to MBNA and get them to work their magic, once its on your VA account you should be able to just call Flying Club and utilise it

Iain,

The qualifying spend is £15000 each year, from the date the account was opened. One ticket per year. The companion ticket works the same way as paying miles for a companion option - i.e. you need a 'full fare' ticket ( covers a few different fare codes in Economy, PE, only J ticket for Upper ) in the class you want. Similarly, there must be reward availability on the flight.

The companion award can only be booked via the Flying Club helpline. You can use a revenue ticket not purchased through Virgin Atlantic direct to get the companion ticket, but if it was me I'd rather phone them and get both sorted at the same time to be sure.

My companion reward appears in my Flying Club statement as "Virgin Money Free Companion Ticket Qualification"

Suggest you look at the T&C's here, section 4.3

Thanks,

David.

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Iain,

Does it appear in your FC Statement if you log in at the VA website?

Sometimes you need to make a call to MBNA and get them to work their magic, once its on your VA account you should be able to just call Flying Club and utilise it

Hi Sarah,

Yep it is there on my FC statement, so I take it I just phone up FC to use it when I want ( as long as I buy a corresponding paid ticket). Have I got that right[:I]

Iain

[Nottingham Nick]

Iain

If it is there on your statement, it should also appear on the screen of the FC agent when you ring to book your flights.

There has been a lot of debate in the past as to whether the companion ticket represents value or not. IMHO, each case has to be taken on its merits.

Get a quote from the FC and see if you can beat it by buying two paid tickets, bearing in mind that your companion ticket won't be mileage earning.

I have found in the past that the FC will be straight with you, and will tell you if you are getting the best deal by using it.

Regards

Nick

[HighFlyer]

Hi Iain

Agreed with Nick, call FC and check that they can see it, if so, they can help you get the most value out of it.

In my experience, the best use for the companion ticket is a return PE flight to the East Coast, if you wanted to take Irina to NYC for a shopping weekend for example [:I]:D it would be agreat way of using it, and having a nice trip away while saving a few pennies.

Utilising it with a J fare is almost never going to be cheaper than buying two Z fares (with the possible exception of flights to JNB) so some people on here find difficulty in using the benefit. I have a Companion ticket on my account that expires next August, so im in the same boat as you, trying to think of a cost efficient way to utilise it

Utilising it with a J fare is almost never going to be cheaper than buying two Z fares (with the possible exception of flights to JNB)

And SYD,I have only ever used 2 and they were PE to BOS, quite good as we got opuped both ways:D

Thanks for all the help and info. I quite like the idea of flying to DXB on the 31st march for my birthday, so may try and use it then.

Thanks again
Iain

Just a quick question regarding the new criteria for Companion Reward flights, hope I've placed this against an appropriate existing thread:

In all the Virgin FC Amex black card literature and also in the LROM's original post regarding the new AMEX cards it is clear that Companion spend level threshold reduced to £7.5k, Existing spend level will be carried over for companion, so if you have already spent over £7.5k then you will have already reached companion threshold.

I've just received my first statement for my FC Amex Black but no mention that I've qualified for the Companion Reward, despite having already spent over the required £7.5K on my FC mastercard prior to receiving the Amex card. (I've had the mastercard since early this year). Any thoughts welcome, not sure if I should query this with MBNA or FC?

Cheers, James

I don't think the companion ticket is applied until your anniversary date (i.e. when your annual fee is due) and even then I have always had to chase up to get the companion ticket added to my account.

Originally posted by wood07
I don't think the companion ticket is applied until your anniversary date (i.e. when your annual fee is due) and even then I have always had to chase up to get the companion ticket added to my account.

I'm a happy chap this morning, have just looked at my FC statement on line and lo & behold there it is VAA Credit Card Companion Flight Qualification Looks like they've applied it well before my anniversary date based on spend. Odd though as I reached the qualifying £7.5K threshold months ago - even before the AMEX arrived [:?]

VegasCrazy

I got the same on my VS Statement on the 23rd August.

Not sure if it's my £7.5K spend or my annual date of renewel on my card.

Regards

Paul

Paul, just looked again at my statement and guess what - mine was also applied on 23rd August! Clearly this is nothing to do with anniversary dates as we don't all have the same anniversary, plus I'm nowhere near my anniversary date, still got a good few months to run.

My reckoning is that MBNA decided to do a sweep up of everyone who has reached the £7.5K threshold and simply applied the Companion rewards to all our accounts on 23/8