Flying Club

I am a new member and have a black VA credit card.. I now have 10 tier points and 36000 miles.

Do I lose these miles if I dont use them in a set period?
I also have 10 TIER points, do I lose these at the end of the year?

If I book a Miles+Cash flight do I still earn any miles on that flight.

Not sure how best to use them/save them?

[Decker]

Miles will expire at the end of three years. Any account activity will keep them current. Tier Points reset at the end of your membership year. Miles + cash do not earn miles. Consensus is that best use of miles is upgrades and worse use is coach flights as coach flights are mostly tax and fees which still need to be paid on an aware redemption.

Miles will expire at the end of three years. Any account activity will keep them current. Tier Points reset at the end of your membership year. Miles + cash do not earn miles. Consensus is that best use of miles is upgrades and worse use is coach flights as coach flights are mostly tax and fees which still need to be paid on an aware redemption.

And even if you don't fly with VS or partner, it's easy to reset the 3 year clock by buying a bag of spanners, a piece of mouldy cheese or anything else with click through shopping on the Flying Club site

Cheers chaps - when you say upgrade do you mean miles + money or buying an economy fair and then upgrading some other way, enlighted me please!!

[Scrooge]

Miles + money are generally a bad deal, once in a while a good one will show up, but normally it's best to stay away.

Even buying an economy class ticket and upgrading isn't the best deal as you have to buy a specific fare which in general (being very general today) are very close if not more than the next cabin up i.e. economy to premium.

The best way of using miles IMHO is just to keep saving and use them on an upper class reward flight.

The best way of using miles IMHO is just to keep saving and use them on an upper class reward flight.

I agree that is the best use but i am still a long way off with only just over 24000 miles

[Scrooge]

Keep saving them, also take a look around here for miles earning opportunities.

Keep saving them, also take a look around here for miles earning opportunities.

already taking on board some of the advice for earning.
i have a VS AMEX a TEXACO star rewards card and occasionally have e-mails from e-rewards and a BAA world-points card for all my little weekend breaks wherever i decide to go.

(posted for anyone else who wants some earning tips)

Just to mention - if you use your VA Credit Card and earn miles with it - for any purpose - even £2.35 at Tesco - then you will "renew" your miles account expiry date for three years from the statement/earning date. So regular use of such a card, even if for small amounts, whilst not earning vast numbers of miles, is a good way of keeping your account alive. Indeed, it is the main reason I got one.

Miles + money are generally a bad deal, once in a while a good one will show up, but normally it's best to stay away.

I bought UC return LHR > SFO with MPM in the Jan sale and paid £1400 (in Z) which was over £1000 off the sale fare. I agree though, it's difficult to find a great deal on them.

Upgrading from Economy to Upper with miles can be a good deal when you think of the saving against the cost of the Upper ticket.

[Neil]

Upgrading from Economy to Upper with miles can be a good deal when you think of the saving against the cost of the Upper ticket.

Agree, that is my favourite way to spend miles. It still offers a really big saving over a straight UC fare, and you still earn miles and TP's.

Or with the Black VS card should be fairly easy to earn the reward Y->W upgrade. A good deal if a reward sale comes along? Or NYC for 29500?

The key trade-off between upgrading and saving miles for reward flights is whether you need tier points or not. If you put a lot of value on TPs, then a reward flight loses a lot by comparison. If TPs aren't such a big deal to you (ie, you know you won't fly enough to make Au or even Ag every year), then reward tickets become much more attractive IMO.