Miles balances & VS surviving - should we be worried?

Should we be worried about our miles account balances? If VS is in difficulty and folds (please, please no!) then we'd loose our saved miles.

I have over 700,000 in my Au account, not sure what I could do to 'protect' them anyways?
It's not like you can transfer them to Amex, and then back again later!

[mitchja]

If this is something you are considering, the 2 main options would probably be transferring to either Hilton (at a ratio of 2 miles : 3 points) or IHG (which is 1:1).

I thought VS miles were held by a separate company jointly owned by DL and VS so would not be affected if anythign happened to DL or VS?

Same as Avios is a separate company in the IAG family.

Don't hold me to this but I also imagine that BA may offer something like a status match for transferring? I think this has been done previously between VS/BA even though neither has folded. In the case that one had folded they might be less keen to give away miles and status for free though especially as 99% of VS routes are covered by BA and so if VS folded customers from a UK carrier perspective would be limited to BA anyway.

[mitchja]

I thought VS miles were held by a separate company jointly owned by DL and VS so would not be affected if anythign happened to DL or VS?

Same as Avios is a separate company in the IAG family.

That was mentioned a while ago ~ way back in 2018 I seem to remember (wasn't it also involving Virgin Red somewhere along the lines as well) but nothing ever seemed to come of it or did it?

Edit - found a press release on the VS website but nothing else since.

According to Companies House Virgin Group Loyalty Company Ltd became Virgin Red Ltd in early December 2019.

Should we be worried about our miles account balances? If VS is in difficulty and folds (please, please no!) then we'd loose our saved miles.

I have over 700,000 in my Au account, not sure what I could do to 'protect' them anyways?
It's not like you can transfer them to Amex, and then back again later!

I also have a large number of VS Miles but loosing them given the current Coronavirus situation doesn't even make my list of things to worry about right now.

I've been sitting on a 7 figure balance (all from flying) so decided to hedge my bets I transferred 500k points to Hilton - it took just 10 days. Yes I know it's a lousy conversion but that's a week at the Conrad Maldives.

My decision wasn't just to divest from Virgin, but in all honesty I can't see me using them. With cash fares (especially ex-EU) likely to hang around the 1k to 1.3k mark for some time, I can't see any logic in blowing 120k+ flying club points and pay £650 in fees - I'd rather pay the cash. Only real sweet spots left in flying club are partner awards like ANA

On the subject of Conrad Maldives, I'd also highly reccomend Conrad Koh Samui having had Xmas/New year there this year. Definitely an EXCELLENT use of Hilton points and I'm considering doing a similar transfer for a 2 week mega break in a Conrad (but probably this one) in future.

Both are equivalent, but the fact each room at Koh Samui has a reasonable sized private pool makes it "superior" to Maldives in this lifetime diamonds view ;)

We have a holiday with virgin holidays planned for November to Disneyworld.

At the moment we've got over 180000 miles, if we were to use these to take off the cost of the holiday and virgin atlantic was to go into administration how would this work. Would we get the equivalent cost back, or would we just lose the cost of the miles.

I'm pretty certain I've seen on here before that hsing miles to take off the cost of a holiday is not a good use of miles? But would it be wise to spend them now so as to get some value from them?

[mitchja]

The question would be though *if* VS goes down, would it bring down Virgin Holidays as well? I suspect it *could* do as whilst V Hols do offer other airline options, I would guess most of bookings use VS. At least V Hols has ATOL protection.

If that did happen I would guess you would get your money back as normal regardless of how you payed for the holiday package.

Virgn Holidays isn't owned by V Atlantic so IF VS collapsed V Hols could still continue trading (though like all trave agents it would be a struggle)

It is 51% owned by the Virgin Group. Can't find out who owns the rest though.

It is 51% owned by the Virgin Group. Can't find out who owns the rest though.

I thought it was 100% owned by the Virgin Group?

I know Wikipedia says it is 51%, but I assumed that was a mistake/confusion around the 51% ownership of VS..

I'm pretty certain I've seen on here before that hsing miles to take off the cost of a holiday is not a good use of miles?

I would say it's subjective. The rate is £18 off for every 3,000 miles, so in your case it's about £1,080 off which could be used for other things instead such as spending money. If you know you're not likely to use the points on a reward flight or as part-payment for flight fares, then you may as well cash in and use them towards the cost of your Virgin Holiday.

I have no idea how it would work if things went wrong and how much ATOL would refund you.

The rate is £18 off for every 3,000 miles.

I'm afraid it's down to £16.50 off for every 3,000 miles now. And it's the same rate for miles plus money fares direct with VS and Virgin Holidays bookings. The good news is that there is no cap. So if you're swimming in miles, I think it's actually pretty good because don't have search and be flexible for reward seat availability.

Virgn Holidays isn't owned by V Atlantic so IF VS collapsed V Hols could still continue trading (though like all trave agents it would be a struggle)

It is 51% owned by the Virgin Group. Can't find out who owns the rest though.

According to companies house VH is minimum 75% owned by VS
Link

The rate is £18 off for every 3,000 miles.

I'm afraid it's down to £16.50 off for every 3,000 miles now. And it's the same rate for miles plus money fares direct with VS and Virgin Holidays bookings. The good news is that there is no cap. So if you're swimming in miles, I think it's actually pretty good because don't have search and be flexible for reward seat availability.

Thank you - I stand corrected!

Regardless, I consider using miles to pay off the cost of a Virgin Holiday a worthwhile use. If it's a family trip in particular, a £990 saving for 180k miles is significant as the money saved could go towards other parts of your holiday instead such as park tickets, currency etc., especially with the GBP/USD rate continuing to be poor (live market rate just now is £1/$1.23).