£95 for 20,000 miles, good value?

Well well well, just got off the phone with Amex as I had made an error with setting up my Virgin Atlantic transfer. When I had finished I asked when my 20,000 air miles bonus would be credited. The women said to me "when you transfer 1000 points over you will trigger the bonus". So I said to her "hold the front page that's not what the offer was from Virgin. That means spending £1000 to get to transfer that amount over". She replied back that virgin had told them that was needed to trigger the air miles. I said to her "you're moving the goal posts". "Well contact Virgin and speak to them" she replied.

She gave me this number 0870 161 6059. So i have just rang them and spoken to a pleasant young lady. I explained the situation with her - she put me on hold and when she got back to me, she said "that's not supposed to happen; that's not what the offer says; that's just not on! It does not show that in any of the paperwork they have at their end, so she said "leave me your contact number and I will get back to you". I said "I look forward to your reply. As far as I'm concerned that is false advertising on the part of both Virgin and Amex. It never states anywhere you effectively need to spend £1000 to get your bonus!

So watch this space - will let you know if she gets back to me or, anybody else can phone the number above and complain as well, if you think you are not going to get your bonus.

I always said there was more then meets the eye with the offer.

I still have not got my card !!

I applied for the card as soon as the offer started. Signed the form, returned, but still heard nothing.
After reading the thread this morning, I called up Amex today, and to be honest not expecting much action, other than another form to be sent through the post.
Before I knew it they had emailed me the form to sign and fax back. I did this and got a telephone call stating they had received it.
I also explained that I am travelling to Kazakhstan on business tomorrow, and their reply was:
"No problem Sir, I'll arrange for you to pick up your card at the Amex desk in T4 tomorrow morning, or we can get it shipped to Kazakhstan for you".

I was amazed. Never had that kind of service before - and want to use it ASAP to get the 20K miles!!

appears there's not much joined up thinking on the part of AMEX/VS here ...was told by AMEX to transfer 1,000 MR points, which I had, so I did...and that the 20,000 would follow..."..it could take 14 days to get the first transaction through though..."..they said. Well, it took 72 hrs for the 1,000 miles to convert to VS FC miles ...but still no 20,000 [:(]...keep u posted...

hi everyone
just received an E mail from virgin customer services regarding my link above . posted below is the reply

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for your email.

I have been able to find the following information for you.

THE OFFER:
Flying Club members applying for an American Express¨ Gold Charge Card before 31 August 2005, can earn 20 000 bonus Flying Club miles when they make their first purchase* on the card before 31 October 2005.

*Points are not earned on Cash Advances, American Express Traveller Cheque purchases, Foreign Exchange and Card and Account fees, charges for dishonoured cheques, Late Payment and Referral charges and Express cash transactions.

HOW TO APPLY FOR THE CARD:
Member's must call 0800 085 7766, quoting reference number L51291KE99.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
This offer is not valid to existing American Express Card members.
Application for the American Express Card is subject to approval.
Full details of the Membership Rewards programme will be sent on enrolment.
Once approved for the American Express Gold Charge Card the member will receive 20,000 Flying Club miles if the card is used for the first time before 31 October 2005.
Points are not earned on Cash Advances, American Express Traveller Cheque purchases, Foreign Exchange and Card and Account fees, charges for dishonoured cheques, Late Payment and Referral charges and Express cash transactions.

I have not been able to find any information that confirms that you need to transfer 1000 points to receive the 20,000 miles, so i would advise you to contact Amex with the above information.
Kind regards

Sarah Hamilton
Flying Club Customer Services

hope this may be of some help to everybody

[Nottingham Nick]

Go for it, Andy.

You are the pioneer . We will watch with interest, to see what you are told. I had already taken the precaution of printing off the T&C in case of any legal disputes, down the line. [}:)]

It is nice that VS will back us up though.

Nick

[Decker]

Good work Andy - I'm sure that will be very useful for the others involved. As Nick says "go for it" and let us know how it goes...

""appears there's not much joined up thinking on the part of AMEX/VS here ..."

rest assured chaps i Will be on there case I'm going to wait for my statement pay it and if the 20.000 air miles do not appear then i will go from there , don't want to give amex the argument that i have not even had a statement from them and i am demanding my bonus air miles
hopefully we will hear good news in the mean time that someone has had their bonus air miles

I've recently got my Amex card. Spoke to Amex customer services today as I'd recently made my first payment. Apparently the 20,000 miles are transferred automatically at the end of July - supposedly this is the same case for everyone that has signed up. He believes these miles should show on my FC account early August. I think the 1000 miles trigger is a mix up- apparently to gain FC miles through normal spending, this has to be triggered by gaining 1000 Amex reward points (i.e. spending £1000 on the card) - once this has been done, 1000 FC miles are credited to your FC account. As you continue to spend, they are continually credited everytime you reach 500 (£500 worth) of Amex points.

thanks for the info Andy i'm going to sit tight for now , then hopefully we will all be smiling in early august if not it will be ear bashing time for amex

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks, AndyK.

We will watch and wait [8D];)[}:)]

Nick

Hi all,

Just to add my two pennies worth...I am in the same position as Andy; I have received my card and made my first purchase on it, though am awaiting the credit of miles. I am going to do the same -wait for my statement and pay it, then see if the miles get credited automatically wihtout having to force the issue. I shall keep you posted on the progress.

Cheers,
Jacq

Just logged onto Virgin Atlantic Flying club, and :D:D I'm 20,000 miles better off. They wernt there this morning so its happened this afternoon.

Thankfully I didnt have to do any chasing with Amex. Now time to carry on chasing MBNA for the 4,000 from the Virgin Monday Credit Card.

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for the heads up Steven, I have just checked my account and there are 20K lovely points courtesy of Amex :D[8D]

A big thanks to manymiles for the original heads up about this great promotion.

Nick

Mine are in today as well

just read the posts and thought better check my account and there they are all 20.000 juicy air miles , and it looks like great news all round [y].use them well guys:D
andy

made my first payment last week on the Amex Gold, and checked account today and the 20,000 miles are there (no ANEX statement received as yet).

echo the thanks to those who highlighted this promotion.

Rich.

Good news for me too - just checked and the 20,000 are now in, though dated 7th June, which must have either been my first purchase date or when they sent the card to me. I haven't had my bill yet, so I guess you don't need to make your first payment before they are credited - excellent! [8D]

Jacq

Originally posted by stevendq
Just logged onto Virgin Atlantic Flying club, and :D:D I'm 20,000 miles better off. They wernt there this morning so its happened this afternoon.

Thankfully I didnt have to do any chasing with Amex. Now time to carry on chasing MBNA for the 4,000 from the Virgin Monday Credit Card.

I am having trouble getting my points from MBNA is this common? My husband is about to sign up with them?

Both my wife and I have Virgin/MBNA Flying Club cards (1 pair of private and 1 pair for business use).

Both had a shaky start with miles being credited, but they both run like clockwork now. Miles get credited same day every month. We are due our first Companion Flight at the end of August so we'll see how efficient that part is;)

The main thing is to deal with Members Shop and not the main MBNA number.

I asked Virgin/MBNA about separate accounts for private and business, but was told they have a policy of only one account per person.

My wife has an account where I am an additional cardholder. We use the cards on this account for all our private spending and the miles get credited to my wife's Flying Club account.

I have a separate account with my wife as an additional cardholder. Both cards on this account are used for business spending and the miles get credited to my Flying Club account.

We pay the £80 annual fee on both accounts (1 charge per account, not per card) so they both earn double miles and both got the initial 4000 mile bonus instead of the standard 2000 miles.

Both accounts are running very well and accumulating miles quite nicely.

You don't think how much things cost, but how many miles you will earn;)

Well I spent a tenner in Tesco today on the Amex...

So in a week I should be 20K better off?

It took less than a week for my 20k to get posted after first purchase (although I purchased a rather nice pair of sunglasses rather than baked beans!)

Well, just to add my comments...

I got my card 4 weeks ago and decided to use it alongside my Texaco "weou" card.

This means that I can now get 2 miles for every £1 spent on petrol and I use the Amex as per the promotion.(1 point on "weou" and 1 point on Amex)

I have now spent over £600 on it and the points show on my Amex rewards and my "weou" points [8D]

Paid my £95 fee and my first months statement...

... Unfortunately, still no 20k miles [n]