Query about best usage of miles

Hi,

I just wanted to enquire as to what the best way of using miles with Virgin Atlantic or other airlines, I hope this is the right place to post this.

I already have silver club membership with Virgin Atlantic due to an offer from my company.

I have recently flown a round trip from Manchester-Los Angeles with Virgin Atlantic and I intend to do this trip about twice a year, I currently have 24,500 miles from this first trip.

My main aim would be to save money but I wouldn't mind flying in classes other than Economy if that was something which is viable for me to do.
I also have the question of whether other airlines on this route have better reward programs and if so, I'd prefer to switch to flying with them instead!

I've read about part upgrades with Virgin and so far that seems like the best choice of use with my miles, let me know if any of you have some better suggestions.

Hi, most V-Flyers tend to agree that the best use of miles in terms of value for money is on upgrades from economy or Premium Economy to Upper Class.

If you use them to pay for 100% reward flights you still have to pay the taxes and fees which can be substantial. For upgrades though, you'd typically spend about £8-900 for a semi-flexible "M" class return economy fare to LAX plus 50,000 miles to get yourself into Upper Class, a standard ticket for which could cost well over £3k otherwise.

Of course you still have to find reward seat availability which isn't always easy on west coast routes but if you're flexible on dates it's usually doable.

Were you to use BA/Avios, the advantage is you could buy the cheapest Premium Economy fare (as opposed to having to buy a more expensive flexible one on Virgin) in order to use your miles to upgrade to Club World. The disadvantage is you can't upgrade two cabins with miles like you can with Virgin, so you can't jump straight from economy to Club World.

With more flights and more routes, you may find more reward seat availability on BA although if you read the Flyertalk forums, there's some evidence that for the west coast rewards are pretty hard to come by with them as well.

Hope that makes sense.

So rather than doing a part-reward with my current miles, I should hang onto them until I have myself a good 50,000 then go for an upper class return both ways?

I'd love to do that but the problem is I'm currently not on such a great wage and it might be useful for me to save money rather than spend more(800-900 is quite a lot of money for me to save as an extra on top of the fare right now)

That is the kind of thing I'd like to do in the future once I get a higher wage(which should be in a good 2 and a half years time) but for now I think I'll hold off, maybe my best bet would just be to stock-pile a load of miles then use them in the future when upgrading to upper class is an option, do you think this could be a good idea?

So rather than doing a part-reward with my current miles, I should hang onto them until I have myself a good 50,000 then go for an upper class return both ways?

I'd love to do that but the problem is I'm currently not on such a great wage and it might be useful for me to save money rather than spend more(800-900 is quite a lot of money for me to save as an extra on top of the fare right now)

That is the kind of thing I'd like to do in the future once I get a higher wage(which should be in a good 2 and a half years time) but for now I think I'll hold off, maybe my best bet would just be to stock-pile a load of miles then use them in the future when upgrading to upper class is an option, do you think this could be a good idea?

I agree with Gumshoe, best use is to upgrade.
The cost of an upgradeable economy ticket is a bit more than the cheapest one but it's that last step up to Upper that you are getting the most out of your miles.
If you can't afford the upgradeable tickets right now, but are still earning miles then yes hang on as they stay valid as long as you are adding to your balance.
Dick D

I guess it depends what your ultimate aim is.

If money's tight but you still want to get away, then using "miles plus money" or spending miles on 100% reward seats will save you some £s even if it's not the best use of miles.

If, however, you're happy to wait with the aim of having enough money and miles to upgrade in years to come then stockpiling your miles is sensible. As long as your Flying Club account remains active they won't expire and there are lots of ways to earn miles and keep your account active.

Stockpiling shall be my plan then!
I'll steer clear from MPM just because I don't earn miles on those flights and most of the time, they can be more expensive than a sale fare.

Might ask at airport if I can use miles to upgrade there one time if I have some spare money but otherwise I'll just stick with economy for a few years and then begin experiencing bliss

Thanks for all your help!

Hello

sorry to jump on this thread, but I do keep hearing about the best use of miles being to upgrade but I'm afraid I don't understand why (sorry to be thick!).

For a west coast route, if I was to travel UC then is the best use to use miles for a reward seat, if you have enough? Or is the guidance to you use miles for an Economy or PE reward then use miles again to upgrade to UC. Or is the suggestion to pay for an upgradeable ticket then upgrade with miles (I can't really see how that saves money).

I guess another thing to factor in is the limited availability of reward seats and what ticket to get while waiting and hoping reward seats become available for your selected route and dates.

Sorry for the questions, I get easily confused!!!

Hello

sorry to jump on this thread, but I do keep hearing about the best use of miles being to upgrade but I'm afraid I don't understand why (sorry to be thick!).

For a west coast route, if I was to travel UC then is the best use to use miles for a reward seat, if you have enough? Or is the guidance to you use miles for an Economy or PE reward then use miles again to upgrade to UC. Or is the suggestion to pay for an upgradeable ticket then upgrade with miles (I can't really see how that saves money).

I guess another thing to factor in is the limited availability of reward seats and what ticket to get while waiting and hoping reward seats become available for your selected route and dates.

Sorry for the questions, I get easily confused!!!

If you use 100000 miles for an upper reward ticket you are still going to pay a fair amount of money in taxes and levies.
If you use 50000 miles to upgrade and buy an upgradeable economy ticket a large part of the tax/levy is absorbed in that fare.
For each step, Economy, PE, Upper you get more value for you miles used.

If you have miles to burn then use all miles.
If like me miles are a bit tight then buy an upgradeable Economy ticket and use mile to upgrade to Upper.

It's not really worth using miles just to upgrade to PE as the cheapest PE ticket is not much more than an upgradeable economy.

Hope that makes sense,
If I'm bored later I'll try and do some real figures for the costs.

Dick D

Some real figures.
Cheapest London to LA return fares
Economy £610 of which £390 are tax and other fees.
PE £1135
Upper £3303

Using just miles will cost
42000 for Economy Plus tax and fees
70000 for PE
100000 for Upper

Upgrading will cost 12500 per cabin upgrade per leg, so 50000 for full upgraded return flight. Plus an upgradeable Economy ticket costing around £900(I haven't checked that) and a bit more tax/fee for each upgrade.

For me, the £2200 jump from PE to Upper is by far the best use of 25000 miles.
42000 miles for a Economy ticket with a real value after taxes etc. of only £300 is the worst use.

Dick D

Some real figures.
Cheapest London to LA return fares
Economy £610 of which £390 are tax and other fees.
PE £1135
Upper £3303

Using just miles will cost
42000 for Economy Plus tax and fees
70000 for PE
100000 for Upper

Upgrading will cost 12500 per cabin upgrade per leg, so 50000 for full upgraded return flight. Plus an upgradeable Economy ticket costing around £900(I haven't checked that) and a bit more tax/fee for each upgrade.

For me, the £2200 jump from PE to Upper is by far the best use of 25000 miles.
42000 miles for a Economy ticket with a real value after taxes etc. of only £300 is the worst use.

Dick D

And often, you can grab a sale economy fare for even less, meaning that 42k of miles pay for as little as £10! I was looking at Mr W's VS booking for next year and he is only paying that albeit on an east coast route.

Buy economy with cash and upgrade to upper may not be the cheapest in money terms, it is usually thought to be the best use of miles in terms of value. So it will depend on whether you want to save money or maximise the value of your miles.

The other thing to mention about buying EC then upgrade with miles is that you accrue miles and TPs on the paid for flights, so the net miles used will be even less. Full miles reward, on the other hand, will not give you miles and TPs when you fly.

Some real figures.
Cheapest London to LA return fares
Economy £610 of which £390 are tax and other fees.
PE £1135
Upper £3303

Using just miles will cost
42000 for Economy Plus tax and fees
70000 for PE
100000 for Upper

Upgrading will cost 12500 per cabin upgrade per leg, so 50000 for full upgraded return flight. Plus an upgradeable Economy ticket costing around £900(I haven't checked that) and a bit more tax/fee for each upgrade.

For me, the £2200 jump from PE to Upper is by far the best use of 25000 miles.
42000 miles for a Economy ticket with a real value after taxes etc. of only £300 is the worst use.

Dick D

Thanks for the info Dick D. So I think now I understand, as mrsw suggests it is a decision between money saving and making best use of your miles. Either spend £900 on an upgradeable economy ticket then use 50000 miles to upgrade to UC (and still spend the taxes and fees difference between Economy and UC) or just use 100000 miles on an UC reward seat and spend just under £600 on taxes and fees.

Thanks again for the responses, it helps a lot.

Regards