Guru Help

I would welcome some advice on the following.

I managed to get four UC Z fares (2 Adult & 2 Childrens) in the Virgin Atlantic sale last week for our annual family FL holiday flying MAN to MCO 30May-15Jun2012.

I current have +120k miles in my account and just noticed that this week in my flying Club Account it's showing a Companion Reward Flight. Just a week after I booked !

........OK here goes for Questions.

1) Does the account holder have to be the one who uses the Reward Flight or could I gift it to my parents?

2) Would it be possible to change the names on my Z booking to my parents & so me and my wife then uses the Companion flight for same flights?

The reason for these questions are that otherwise the Companion voucher would go to waste in the 12 months. (I still have one with BA which has never been used todate from last year).

Cheers Any advice warmly accepted y)
Rich

[Neil]

I think the first thing to ask is what cabin do you want to use the companion voucher for? It is it is Upper or Economy then I think you will find it doesn't make sense financially to use it as they can only combined with the more expensive fare codes.

To use a companion voucher in UC, it can only be used in conjunction with a full J class fare, which will easily be way more than 2 x Z fares. Same with economy, you will almost certainly find 2 lowest economy fares will be cheaper than a companion and required fare code.

If in PE then you might find that an S fare and companion is a bit cheaper than two lowest K fares.

To just answer one of your other questions, you cannot do name changes on any ticket, regardless of booking class/fare code.

Neil

Hi
Q1

4.5.6 of the T&Cs states

4.5.6 The member or authorised account user can request one companion return flight reward with Virgin Atlantic, provided that the Flying Club member and the companion both travel on the same flight and date, and the Flying Club member's ticket has been purchased at a qualifying adult fare.

So you have to fly!

Q2

Name changes are not permitted (unless its a minor error e.g. to correct a spelling error)



My understanding is that the voucher lasts for 12 months so as long as you book a flight within that year the flight itself could be after that period. So in effect you have until next September to book and could travel as late as August 2013

Don't forget that to use the companion voucher you need tp buy a full fat J fare (ouch!) and there needs to be G availability too. It might be cheaper to book two Z's in those circumstances.

Thanks for the advice,

Full cost J fare at £6k for MAN-MCO means I might just forget about it!

Cheers
Rich

[Neil]

Thanks for the advice,

Full cost J fare at £6k for MAN-MCO means I might just forget about it!

Cheers
Rich

I've had the card since 2006 and never once have I found a way of using the companion voucher, to the general traveller it is pretty much worthless.

[honey lamb]

Thanks for the advice,

Full cost J fare at £6k for MAN-MCO means I might just forget about it!

Cheers
Rich

I've had the card since 2006 and never once have I found a way of using the companion voucher, to the general traveller it is pretty much worthless.

Same with the Companion ticket you get for renewing gold

The companion voucher can save money when you fly PE.

An S fare + taxes for the second passenger can be less than 2 x K fares.