Complimentary Fare / Qualifying fare code

Hi a bit of help if i may.

Having spent a considerable sum on my VA Credit card i have now accumulated 'a complimentary companion return flight reward the next time you book a qualifying flight with Virgin Atlantic'

The qualify flights are fare codes are Y,B,& L. When i search for flights the only one of these fares codes i can find is Y which is usually well over twice the cost of a 'normal' flight.

So I am thinking what is the point if the single fare plus taxes is going to be more than 2 'normal' flights.

Am i missing a trick here ? Do the Y,B,& L fares codes come down in price during sale periods? or is it all just a bit of a con?

Any advice would be apprecited

[Neil]

Hi and welcome to the site.

As you have found out, the companion vouchers are pretty much useless. Obviously you are getting the price for a Y fare, which is the most expensive economy fare code, and quite a lot more expensive than an L, which you could also use the companion voucher with. However, once you add the surcharges and taxes on to the companion fare, you will almost certainly be better off just buying two of the lowest buckets available.

The price of the higher fare codes are not affected by the sales, as those fares are only in the lower codes (usually O for economy), but they do fluctuate up and down depending on many factors.

There are exceptions to this, for example if there are no low bucket fares available, then you would obvious get a saving, but in the main the advise you will find most people give on here, is that for an economy fare, the vouchers are pretty pointless.

One time the companion voucher can work well is when buying a PE fare as quite often there isn't that much difference between an K (cheapest PE fare) and an S (fare code that can be used with companion voucher), this does change however when sale fares are on, and the K fares are quite a bit cheaper.

Neil

Thanks Neil. Fairly useless then like the cynic in me suspected

Ok, I'm assuming the worst here, but I will ask stupid questions because I will have one of those...

Those three are upgradable economy fairs.

1) What fare code does the companion flight come in at.
2) Can you upgrade yourself with miles after the companion flight is bought?
3) Can you upgrade the companion flight with miles?

I'm assuming what I'm aiming for is a no, but interested. I always previously thought of a companion flight being used on an Upper fare, but using it as a route to an Upper would interest me, but I doubt you can...

[Neil]

Companion ticket can only be booked in combination with a revenue fare bought in Y,B,L fare codes. You can only book the companion fare in the same class as the revenue fare.

You can upgrade the revenue ticket to a higher class with miles (subject to reward availability) but you cannot upgrade the companion fare with either miles or cash.

Neil

[mitchja]

If you start on this page of the VS website, you do get the option to choose from a selection of fare codes (select the cabin first, then select the fare code you are looking for) so you should be able to search for a slightly lower (cheaper) fare rather than a full Y economy fare.

You can upgrade the revenue ticket to a higher class with miles (subject to reward availability) but you cannot upgrade the companion fare with either miles or cash.

Of course not. Otherwise it would not be pointless.

Yes as usual, things are not what they seem on first glance.
A free companion flight is more expensive than buying two regular economy tickets.

Another tough one to learn is that 'Reward flights' are not reward flights at all, they are Reward upgrades, where basically once you have paid the fees and taxes, and 80,000 miles for an UC ticket, you have paid more than a regular Economy seat. So in fact, your reward flight is really a reward upgrade, after $1050/GBP500 in taxes and fees, i.e. more than an economy ticket.

It's an area badly in need of government regulation. VS will only have themselves to blame when that happens.

Well to be fair VS (and other airlines) have never advertised them as 'free' flights.

Where some airlines differ is in not charging the fuel surcharge on reward flights. BA also charge the fuel surcharge now as well. ISTBC but they all charge the taxes and airport fees.

If CO (when you could do this) wern't going to charge me YQ for a LFK-LHR reward for flying on a VS metal flight then it was very strange that VS did charge the surcharge.

Does the BA amex have a companion seat and if so, is it actually usable? A PE upgrade too (I'm not wasting 40K miles to use one of those)?

Does the BA amex have a companion seat and if so, is it actually usable? A PE upgrade too (I'm not wasting 40K miles to use one of those)?

The BA 2-4-1 voucher is a better deal than the VS companion voucher, in my view. It gives you an extra seat when you make a redemption booking. You pay taxes and surcharges for both.

The BA Amex doesn't, so far as I can remember, have an equivalent of the VS PE upgrade voucher.

The BA 2-4-1 voucher is a better deal than the VS companion voucher, in my view. It gives you an extra seat when you make a redemption booking. You pay taxes and surcharges for both.

The BA Amex doesn't, so far as I can remember, have an equivalent of the VS PE upgrade voucher.

Then it has some value then and will quite possibly be used, rather than the laughable VS ones.

For instance to book a J to LAX to get a companion flight, in say June. Its 9K.

I mean if you had the perchance to pay that sort of price, you'd get a fare for 3K, paying for both and still saving 3K. So no limo and no flexibility, but companion won't get a limo or flexible either will it?

Mines will be heading for the bin when they send me it.

This may be an obvious point but the companion voucher does have some value when you (or even better, your employer) actually need to purchase a flexible ticket to start with. In that situation you are basically getting a very cheap reward seat to go with your own expensive fare, and that can represent a good saving in some circumstances.

But I agree that for most leisure travel it is pretty useless. I've had a few of them and never managed to use them.

Its done more to annoy me than anything that virgin has done before...

More so when I find out the likes of BA one is _some_ use...