Flying Club, what to do?

Hi,

I have enough flying club points to upgrade from economy to PE for hubby and I on a return trip to joburg. Typing in my details when trying to book, I thought I saved quite a bit of cash with my miles. When I later compared an ordinary cash flight, with an flying club miles/cash, the saving was £50 each!

Would I be better just booking economy seats with the hope of upgrading when I get to LHR?

Many thanks.

[Neil]

Hi and welcome.

Doing a Miles & Money booking is not a very good way to get value from your miles and rarely offers a big saving over a straight cash ticket, so you won't find many on here who would suggest you book one. You also won't earn any miles on a M&M ticket.

If you know you are likely to be flying Virgin again in the next couple of years or sooner, you would be better to save your miles, earn some more from this flight, and then look to buy an upgradable economy ticket with cash and use your miles (12,500pp each way) to upgrade to PE, this should offer a greater saving. You could also look at earning miles in other ways like the credit card, or hotel stays etc to boost your miles pot.

Neil

Thanks, I already have a credit card that earns me more miles. Can you explain 'upgradable economy ticket' please? Would this be a a ticket where I can move dates for travel around?

Thanks for your help and sorry I'm a bit of a nonce about this!

[Neil]

Hi - there are 12 different fare codes in economy, all with different restrictions and degrees of flexibility.

Only so many of the codes allow you to upgrade with miles, the lowest fare code being an M fare. The M fare, doesn't allow dates changes without a fee (£100per person), but is significantly cheaper than the most flexible Y fare code.

Neil

Sadly, after a phone call to the VA Rewards line hoping they could help me find the right combination. I.E. Paying for my companion and having my outbound flight free, plus every other way of trying to use my points up. It transpired that it was cheaper to buy a PE flight with a member of the 'opposition' rather than go with VA. Also I noticed a £50 price jump in fares on the VA website yesterday. I have enough points to qualify for a 'free' return flight to JFK plus more. I'm wondering how difficult it's going to be finding the right combinations to make this worthwhile for OH and me.....???

Sadly, after a phone call to the VA Rewards line hoping they could help me find the right combination. I.E. Paying for my companion and having my outbound flight free, plus every other way of trying to use my points up. It transpired that it was cheaper to buy a PE flight with a member of the 'opposition' rather than go with VA. Also I noticed a £50 price jump in fares on the VA website yesterday. I have enough points to qualify for a 'free' return flight to JFK plus more. I'm wondering how difficult it's going to be finding the right combinations to make this worthwhile for OH and me.....???

Post your details [travel dates, flexibility, amount of miles you have, what level/colour of flying club etc --no personal details required!!]
There are a some very knowledgeable folk on here who i'm sure will offer best solutions/guidance --- unless you have already booked with the "opposition"?

Thanks, I have 45745 miles. I did book with the opposition as it was cheaper, but used my VA white credit card! This will boost my points a little more. What would be the best combination for return flights to JFK for hubs and myself? Thank you.