BA and VS - care of premiere flyers

was discussing BA and VS with a fellow expat here in the US over a glass of wine last night, and she, a veteran of 10 years back and forth, said she gave up on the VS GC status, as it just amounted to the lounge and she never, ever, got upgraded, eg from Premium to Upper, despite her status and years of travel.

switching to BA, and reaching the equivalent level, she is now regularly 'taken care of', and often gets upgrades, as a priority. hmmm. obviously a very nice bonus.

these are her thoughts not mine, just thought I'd put it out there, and see if others agreed or not?

[preiffer]

Simply put, I don't agree.


But then every person's experience is personal - so I don't doubt that may have been her impression.

Me either. I've had two op-ups in my life, one on each of BA and VS, both due to extremely oversold flights. Neither airline upgrade as a matter of course, US style, in my experience - at least not for your 'regular' VS Au and BA Ag. If you happen to be on a route where BA is normally busier than VS, you might experience more upgrades.

My struggle with flying VS out of the US is with the difficulty of arranging connecting flights. BA is obviously better for this. In every other aspect, I prefer VS, and I see no especially superior benefit in being BA Silver over VS Au - unlike say being a United 1K or GS, where you might get more preferential treatment for upgrades.

Must say we had a lot more upgrades(PE to UC) when we held VS Au cards.In the last 4 years of BA gold status managed just 1 opup from J to F and 1 from WT+ to J,both were most welcome.

[HighFlyer]

I think it is a matter of perspective. Does she fly the same route? Are the flight times/frequency different? There are a lot of factors between two airlines that may account for differing loads, and with BA have 4 cabins and VS having 3, depending on which class she books there are a lot of factors that may make a difference.

Also you say 'equivalent level', on BA their BAEC Silver is equivalent to VS Gold, does she have BAEC Gold or Silver?

I've been fortunate to receive a number of upgrades from PE to UC with VS over the years but certainly not on a regular basis and I know other V-Flyers have had varying levels of success again dependent on the routes and cabins they fly in.

Thanks,
Sarah

Op ups are always going to be a gift rather than a given, with as Highflyer says some routes being easier to play than others. The CH is a constant and a great draw as far as I'm concerned and I am just grateful for the odd 'bleep' when it comes my way, but every passenger travels with different expectations and priorites.

Been discussed many times before but I have flown more than 100 return flights on Virgin and normally buy PE and Upgrade before departure. Which of course anyone can do.

I have also been a Gold Card member for a long, long time, over 10 years.

So the problem is that I get nothing for my loyalty and I am currently collecting BA miles and will be flying them a few times this year to see how they compare.

I also have an enormous number of miles which I cannot use, try booking a family of 5 in PE or UC with miles. It cannot be done, ever.

The point is for travelers like me there is no reason to stay loyal.

BA does appear to offer much better availability of reward seats and that alone is enough to make me start trying BA.

[HighFlyer]

quote:Originally posted by manymiles
I also have an enormous number of miles which I cannot use, try booking a family of 5 in PE or UC with miles. It cannot be done, ever.


To play Devils advocate I've been part of a party who have secured 5+ UC reward seats to NRT and PVG. You might not get the route, date and flight you want but the rewards ARE out there. Just not perhaps on the MCO and JFK routes that the majority want [:)]

Thanks,
Sarah

[preiffer]

Was going to say - I've had 4 x UC rewards to SFO for Christmas and New Year, on two separate occasions. Never had an issue. [y]

quote:Originally posted by manymiles
I have also been a Gold Card member for a long, long time, over 10 years.

I also have an enormous number of miles which I cannot use, try booking a family of 5 in PE or UC with miles. It cannot be done, ever.

The point is for travelers like me there is no reason to stay loyal.

BA does appear to offer much better availability of reward seats and that alone is enough to make me start trying BA.


Like you I have been Au for many years, unlike you I don't have a large family and have never had a problem in redeeming miles. Though as others have said, it is possible with planning and flexibility.

Of course BA has more options, with 57 747s, 40+ 777s etc. it has many more seats and many more destinations. VS cannot compete on that level. Be interested in your views on how things compare.

There is no doubt though that VS is parsimonious with upgrades outside of specific events like overbooking situations. This compares very infavourably with many US airlines who dole out free upgrades / eVIP passes / buddy passes etc. much more than non-US airlines do. It would not surprise me if these things counted against VS when corporates look to select preferred airlines too.

But that's not me necessarily arguing for change to match the US airlines. When I book J or F on a US airline, I almost always pay, then realise that what looked like an empty cabin on booking has filled up with free upgraders and wonder why I bother.

I do think though, that VS should look at this. I've always felt for example that the companion voucher could be replaced by two upgrade vouchers and that that would go a very long way with frequent fliers who VS really needs to retain.

I agree VD AU needs something more.
Colleagues who fly air canada get a few upgrade vouchers which they can use subject to seat availability, this would be a sensible way to provide some status payback but limit the damage for VS. My experince is BA do upgrade due to status and not just for load.

Perhaps anyther idea would be to give a few CDC vouchers to AU card holders this would be a cheaper option but a nice extra for those in PE or UC without CDC?

quote:Originally posted by slinky09
But that's not me necessarily arguing for change to match the US airlines. When I book J or F on a US airline, I almost always pay, then realise that what looked like an empty cabin on booking has filled up with free upgraders and wonder why I bother.


When I've done stints with US colleagues who travelled US carriers they almost inevitably got upgrades due to status so always bought the cheapest upgradeable ticket. When company policy allowed business class travel, there was a scheme that played on this; if you bought an economy ticket, in full expectation of being upgraded, your pay packet was credited with half the difference in price between the economy and business class ticket.

Paul

Try Kingston - I found a date with 8 seats available in UC on more than one occassion....

quote:Originally posted by manymiles
Been discussed many times before but I have flown more than 100 return flights on Virgin and normally buy PE and Upgrade before departure. Which of course anyone can do.

I have also been a Gold Card member for a long, long time, over 10 years.

So the problem is that I get nothing for my loyalty and I am currently collecting BA miles and will be flying them a few times this year to see how they compare.

I also have an enormous number of miles which I cannot use, try booking a family of 5 in PE or UC with miles. It cannot be done, ever.

The point is for travelers like me there is no reason to stay loyal.

BA does appear to offer much better availability of reward seats and that alone is enough to make me start trying BA.