Miles Received from VH booking

I booked my last holiday with VH. It was booked many months in advance and was not a megadeal or any other promotional deal.

I was concerned to see when I logged onto the VS website I had only recieved half miles for my trip. Now I know that VH can use discounted fares, but in the past I have always recieved full miles for my flights.

I am disappointed, especially as I consider that I paid full price and gave months worth of notice. Anyway that VH may retrospectively change the booking code that they used. This does have an impact on my reward flights situation.

[HighFlyer]

Hi Kevin,

Do you know what fare class your flights were booked in?

VH normally issue H or V fares for PE and Y. If you still have a copy of the eTicket it will tell you your fare class alongside the flight details. If you can find us the fare class code and let us know (along with the route) we'll know for sure whats happened.

I do sympathise as i recall the days when VH would issue S and W fares for PE as standard.

Thanks,
Sarah

[Neil]

I recieved full miles for my recent VH trip in PE (150%) - believe it was booked as a H fare!!

Neil

[preiffer]

There have been a few reports of VH booking an economy booking into N.

That would explain the 50% mileage - but I agree that it's a poor show when customers aren't informed.

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by Attitude23
I recieved full miles for my recent VH trip in PE (150%) - believe it was booked as a H fare!!

Neil

H should be 150%. I am guessing FV75 had Economy tickets booked in either V or N?

Thanks,
Sarah

Presumably when you book you quote your FC number, which I would have thought should be a prompt for them to say that they holiday you are booking is in a lower miles fare (such as N). At least this way it would give you the option of either not booking, or paying a little more to get the full milage. It is not good that FV75 didn't know in advance.

The other explanation could be that only one leg of flights has registered. I could see this happening if for some reason there had been a change in the flight arrangements - any clues FV75

IIRC, N used to be nil miles until the recent FC re-vamp (?). Could this move towards VH using N be a reaction to the new FC rules do you think?

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by sailor99
Presumably when you book you quote your FC number, which I would have thought should be a prompt for them to say that they holiday you are booking is in a lower miles fare (such as N).

Although its been a while since i booked anything with VH, the experiences i have had suggested that most VH staff are not too familiar with fare class codes as it is really a VS area - and even then it can be hard to find someone at VS who knows the rules. For every VH booking i made i wanted to know the fare class codes (i wanted to upgrade my PE seats) and it seemed to take an age to find out the information. I think that the safest option for us all is to find out the fare class ourselves before we make the booking. That's certainly how i operate as i like to know what limitations or restrictions my ticket will have.

Thanks,
Sarah

I am sure you are right, Highflyer. While I can understand them not understanding the details of fare class rules and changeability, I am much less sympathetic to them not knowing which fares earn the higher rewards in a promotional tool run by a sister company (ie FC). After all, FC is a pretty strong marketing tool for VH too.

I am with Paul on this one (and I don't mean to imply you are not, highfly) in believing if VH are palming off N's to customers with out informing them, then this is a pretty poor show.

[mitchja]

VH cannot even add your FC number to the booking as I dont think they can access your VS PNR part of the booking. VH dont seem to have any control over the flight side of the bookings other than requesting upgrades so I doubt they will be aware of flight booking codes or fares classes.

Regards

[HighFlyer]

I agree completely Jeremy! Had the same argument myself with them when they fed me the 'we are nothing to do with VS, we are a seperate company' line. I do understand and appreciate that, but at the same time if they are offering flights from a sister company they should have some idea of the rules and workings of FC if they are to successfully advise customers. Hence why i no longer utilise VH and use VS directly for all my bookings. I don't care if i can save £50 - id rather speak to someone knowledgeable about my trip.

Thanks,
Sarah

I must admit that when they took your booking, and confirmed the seats, then they would (like any other travel agent) be able to pass on your FC number along with your name and API. For a "premium" agent (by which I mean they are not, say, airtours) and particularly one in a common group structure with VS, it seems a little poor to me.

I agree completely Jeremy! Had the same argument myself with them when they fed me the 'we are nothing to do with VS, we are a seperate company' line. I do understand and appreciate that, but at the same time if they are offering flights from a sister company they should have some idea of the rules and workings of FC if they are to successfully advise customers. Hence why i no longer utilise VH and use VS directly for all my bookings. I don't care if i can save £50 - id rather speak to someone knowledgeable about my trip.

Thanks,
Sarah

Agree totally,stopped using them a couple of years back when you could no longer make significant savings and always ended up with a ticket VS didn't want to touch FC wise.

[mitchja]

Originally posted by HighFlyer
'we are nothing to do with VS, we are a seperate company' line. I do understand and appreciate that, but at the same time if they are offering flights from a sister company they should have some idea of the rules and workings of FC if they are to successfully advise customers. Hence why i no longer utilise VH and use VS directly for all my bookings. I don't care if i can save £50 - id rather speak to someone knowledgeable about my trip.

Thanks,
Sarah

With you on that one Sarah. Lets not forget here the reason why VH was originally set up and that was to sell VS flights! Yes OK, VH have evolved over the years into a seperate holiday company now selling many other flights as well but they should not forget why they are there.

I too am rapidly moving away from VH and booking seperatley.

Regards

Sarah, I'm not 100% sure, but I am assuming that the booking class is N, although my previous booking have been V. I generally ask the question about booking class, but my wife who is not familiar with the different booking codes booked this holiday.

I flew for LHR to MIA (14/5) on the VS5 and returned from MCO to LGW on the VS16 (28/5).

Both sectors are on the VS site, so it is a booking class issue for sure. I'm not a regular flier like some of you guys on here, but I have flown VS at least twice a year for the last 3 years and booked all my trips with VH, so I would have hoped they would consider me loyal and have given me the best booking class for miles.

[HighFlyer]

Kevin,

For the MIA flight, were you credited 1 TP (and 2215 miles) or 2 TPs (and 4430 miles?) If its the first it will have been an N class fare.

As i said previously, its not a case of you being loyal or disloyal, simply that the VH staff tend to give the cheapest available fare (thinking its of benefit to the customer i presume) but to the disdain of us FC members.

I would send a letter to both VH and VS CS and highlight your plight. VH should really not be giving N fares!

Thanks,
Sarah

I'll send a letter and see what comes of it.

I'm not sure the customer gets the benefit of the cheapest available fare though. As all prices are stated in the brochure it shouldn't make any difference.

Thanks for your advice.

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Kevin,


I would send a letter to both VH and VS CS and highlight your plight. VH should really not be giving N fares!

Thanks,
Sarah

They still are. I received my tickets today for a trip to St Lucia in August (is this a record?) and the E leg of the trip is in "N".

To be fair, there were a number of mysterious but welcome discounts applied when we made the booking, and I do get some miles, but it still hacks me off (a little bit).

Paul

agree with the others - i always used to check VH before booking flights cos they were cheaper than VS. - a flydrive was cheaper than just the flight with VS.

but no longer - seems VS caught onto this and made sure they were competitive with VH.

so no longer ever check.