Companion flights and LGW Planes Help needed

Could anyone tell me in "virgin for dummies terms" what the companion flights are. I spoke to customer service, the women was very rude and laughed at me, I was very annoyed and put the phone down so never got the answer needed.

I have 26000 miles that expire in may 2012 so would like to use miles to go to Las Vegas 31st March to 12th April, would consider flying to LAX. So do I buy a flight (full price) then spend 20000 +taxes on a flight for my partner?

Also I emailed customer service and the response was as follows

"In order to redeem your miles for a companion reward you would need to purchase a full adult fare (J, W, S, Y, B, L, ) It is 20,000 miles.
You would also need to check the availability for reward seats as this is what would be used for the 20,000 miles"

The next part I emailed regarding the LGW planes, we have had two horrible flights to LAS so have been flying by other airlines. I asked about the new planes and this is the response given.

"We do have some new aircraft on our Manchester route, Gatwick aircraft are being refurbished commencing summer 2012. They will be fitted with the new seats as well as a brand new award winning In Flight Entertainment system. I hope this has gone some way in answering your queries"

This is why we are thinking of flying to LAX.

Any help much appreciated.

[Nottingham Nick]

Welcome to V-Flyer

If you use the search function about Companion fares, you will find lots and lots of threads bemoaning their poor value.
They were dismissed as marketing spin; and very rarely represent value for money. More often than not, two points earning tickets are cheaper - especially when you consider you still have to pay taxes and fees on the companion fares, which for economy are £300+

Having said that, they can represent good value - the main time is when your company (pr someone else) is paying for the main ticket. Other times are some PE fares, especially when booking late and the cheaper buckets are sold out or no longer available. It is just a case of doing the maths for each booking.

There are also numerous threads about the poor state of the LGW 747 fleet and its old looped IFE.

If you fly from LHR, all of the 747s and the Airbus A340-600s have V-Port, but 3 of the 4 Airbus A340-300s have the awful old Odyssey system - see the-toolbox/aircraft-database


Nick

you say your miles expire next year.
if you log in to your FC account on the VS site and make an online shopping purchase via the online shopping link you will earn some miles for your purchase.
earning just 1 mile will keep your miles active for another year

personally i would book both of you an economy ticket and use your miles to upgrade yourselves to PE or UC if you have enough miles

So do I buy a flight (full price) then spend 20000 +taxes on a flight for my partner?

That's right -- in theory. But the cheapest qualifying fare for your dates (L, I think), would currently cost you about £902 for a return to LAX.

You would then need to spend 20,000 miles + around £304 tax/charges on the companion fare -- but you can only do that if there is reward availability. I just checked, and there isn't currently any for your dates to LAX. (These things change frequently, though, so I wouldn't give up hope.)

So to do it you are going to need £1,200 and 20,000 of your miles, plus some luck (so that the reward seat becomes available). If you go down this route, I think you have to book it via the call centre.

Alternatively, if you can shift your dates by a couple of days, you can currently simply buy normal economy tickets for under £600 per person. Your dates cost more like £700 per person at the moment.

This is why people are sceptical of the companion fare. If you can be a little bit flexible with your dates, you could basically pay the same amount of cash (and no miles) now, and not have to wait for reward seats to open up. And you'll earn miles and tier points on your trip.

Hope this helps.

Incidentally, you should also consider flying via San Francisco if you want to avoid shabby planes to Vegas -- at SFO you can transfer onto Virgin America, I think, who fly direct between the two.

The new 330s are operating the VS MAN-MCO flight and operates 4 times weekly LGW-MCO VS 27

Wow these really are useless. I've got 2 of them and thought they were bad value with an S class and the additional so called taxes!! Didn't realise that it would cost me 30,000 miles as well. Back to 2 K's for me then.