Virgin v. BA: miles and credit card

I've been a VS fan for a number of years and a VS black Amex holder for 5 years. Although in this time I've flown with BA and had no real problems I definitely prefer the VS product particularly UC v Club and PE v WT+.

Most of my miles have been earned with the VS black Amex which gives me enough miles for an UC G fare each year and a family of 4 upgraded to PE for our annual summer trip to USA east coast (using PE upgrade vouchers).

Have had a debate recently with a colleague who is a BA and BA Amex fan about the relative benefits of both programs and cc's.

I hadn't realised that any BA Y or WT+ fare was upgradeable. This along with the vastly larger route map, european routes and I am told not infrequent upgrades of mileage Club fares to 1st suggest I may have to look at the dark side?

VS = better lounge, better business class, better PE, 2 miles/£, Visa miles, more purple!
BA= more routes, better reward availability during school hols (?), cheaper upgradeable fares?

Recently I have found it almost impossible to get reward flights during school hols to any destination other than New York.
Having seen my colleague get G rewards to caribbean this summer with BA with little effort I wondered if it was time to jump ship -
or am I just being won over by the amazing BA olympics ad?!

Discuss.......

The ability to upgrade a sale WT+ ticket to CW with miles is the reason why BA get most of my money nowadays.

That, and BA0001.

Horses for courses. There are some respects in which the BAEC is 'better' than FC -- notably the ability to upgrade any WTP fare with miles, and the Amex 241. Is it really true, though, that mileage Club fares are upgraded regularly? I'm interested to know the truth of that... Somehow I doubt it.

On the other side of the fence, VS has a better ground product, and in many people's estimation it has better onboard products in both J and W. You can upgrade very easily and cheaply from Y to J on VS, using miles -- not possible on BA.

Availability? Well latterly I've found it to be much easier on VS than BA -- I've had a run of 8 G tickets, all upgrades.

A final point -- contrary to what you say, not all BA Y fares are upgradeable -- your colleague is wrong about that.

[Neil]

Just a point about upgrading with miles on BA, you can only upgrade one cabin, so could upgrade from Y to J, so if that is something you do with VS then it is worth knowing.

Isn't BA's Amex free companion ticket worth more than the electronic paper its printed on, ie: might actually be redeemable?

Interesting thread.
Also debating this on the medium term once current miles bank put to use.
The 241 voucher does appear to be actually useable and worth something, unlike the "spinned" VS offering.
Network is a major pull, especially now a BA offering from LBA. We generally buy PE and use miles for G. Lack of options to places like Thailand et al/ south America etc now proving frustrating..

[Neil]

Does the BA card have the option to have both an AmEx and Visa for the same account like the VS one?

I have to say the VS Visa has been a very welcome addition, even at the lower earning levels, it has meant we can now put every single purchase on the card and our miles earning has gone up quite a lot now.

Does the BA card have the option to have both an AmEx and Visa for the same account like the VS one?

ISTBC but no it doesn't.

Does the BA card have the option to have both an AmEx and Visa for the same account like the VS one?

No it doesn't.

As I hinted earlier in the thread, broadly speaking the BAEC has the edge over FC, for all the reasons given, but personally I am happy with VS because of the double-cabin miles upgrades and also -- in my view -- the better ground and onboard products.

As a lapsed VS gold who switched to BA (for flights and credit card!) this time last year, I do find reward flights easier to get hold of.

For me, the big benefit of BA vs VS (in addition to the larger route network) is the fact its part of an alliance- I travel on AA short haul economy reasonably regularly and get lounge access as BA Silver. And spending miles with AA, LAN etc is so easy. You have 10x more destination options for BA miles than VS miles.

That being said, no BA crew can compare to when you get a truly great VS crew. And I've never been to the Concorde Room but even the LHR galleries first lounge (let alone club) can't compare to the LHR clubhouse.

Does the BA card have the option to have both an AmEx and Visa for the same account like the VS one?

I know this has been on the go for a while with the VS card, but they never bothered to offer me a visa. I suppose if I asked they might, but its not something you get by default and might only be by invitation...

Just a point about upgrading with miles on BA, you can only upgrade one cabin, so could upgrade from Y to J, so if that is something you do with VS then it is worth knowing.

Although with BA you can upgrade from any WT+ fare - the lowest of which generally aren't that different to an upgradeable economy fare on VS - so if you're able to do that (company rules about what you book if for work and availability dependent of course!) can be a good deal!

Downside is you end up in club world and not upper class however haha!