Flying Club improvements coming soon

This change has been such a mega s***show, is there any possibility they might revert back to the old system, until they can have this ready for prime-time, which it clearly is not!

I've kicked up as much stink as I can on socials and via the exec email. I hope they consider changes. If this hits revenue bookings, they'll realise how badly they've executed this.

It's all about the money. So vote with your feet people.

Booked my first miles flight with the new points system.

Overall, alright. Can’t quite work out how they calculate all the different miles costs but got a LHR-JFK upper for 22k miles. Can’t complain.

Obviously more return but still less than 80k in return.

[buns]

This change has been such a mega s***show, is there any possibility they might revert back to the old system, until they can have this ready for prime-time, which it clearly is not!

I've kicked up as much stink as I can on socials and via the exec email. I hope they consider changes. If this hits revenue bookings, they'll realise how badly they've executed this.

It's all about the money. So vote with your feet people.

Today, I called to enquire about changing an existing 2-4-1 booking.

The miles being asked for were simply eye watering and whilst I was only looking to alter the return date, for the companion ticket they have to recalculate the entire routing!

In stark contrast, yesterday we went on line with BA and booked a 2-4-1 directly with the need for any human interaction and points used with only minimal charges levied.

Your are right Commander B, the writing is on the wall VS - sit up and take note.

Buns

Points earned formula is now: miles flown * booking class % * 30% for silver/60% for gold.

The website isn't 100% clear on this but at the minimum you're earning 280% miles flown for Premium (K/H), 400% (W/S) then Upper 480% (Z/I) and 800% (J/C/D). I'm not sure if the table is taking the extra 30/60% for As/Au into account.

Thanks for that, I had been looking for this and I don't think they posted that information on the website until recently; after the change it just vaguely mentioned there would be "up to 75%" more points in Premium and "up to 50%" more in Upper.

I think those figures you quoted are including 60% Au bonus. On this page (on desktop browser at least), it shows the amounts for each tier.

So, it looks like before any Silver/Gold bonus, basic Premium (H/K) has increased from 100% of base miles to 175% and basic Upper (I/Z) has increased from 200% to 300%.

At least this also sorts out the slightly weird anomaly of Economy Delight earning more miles than Premium as it did previously.

Whilst these high reward seats are ridiculous… earning more points on the booking is actually great.

Miami return circa 8,800 miles.
UC Z fare, 8800 x 3.9 x 30% silver bonus = 44,616

That’s just enough to get JFK return UC/Prem return at the most cheapest of saver rate.

Miami return circa 8,800 miles.
UC Z fare, 8800 x 3.9 x 30% silver bonus = 44,616

I think you're double-counting the Silver bonus there. The 390% already includes the 30% bonus as it's 300% * 1.3 = 390%, so 34,320 points in that example. Still better than the 200% * 1.3 = 260% from before Oct 30.

Ahh my bad!!
I didn’t realise the table included the 30%.
Ah well, that would still get one way UC saver reward seat priced at 29k.

The Reward Seat Availability checker has been updated to show the prices on each day at a glance;

https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/r ... &year=2025

https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/r ... ght-finder

Something key we've all glossed over here (myself included) is the changes to the earning side of things.

Points earned formula is now: miles flown * booking class % * 30% for silver/60% for gold.

Are these new earning rates now applicable to all bookings regardless of when the booking was made; i.e. not just for bookings made after Oct 30th?

I have a weird scenario where I need to change the return flight of a points booking I did in the last sale so it's really cheap for premium as it stands.

Unfortunately it's looking like I will need to cancel and re-book where the points jumps from ~33k to ~250k.

Will this flag somewhere and potentially get cancelled if I simply book a stand alone return flight separate to this and not take the original return flight?

I've got flights booked to MCO next March that cost 118,700 points + £1940 taxes for two, using a CC voucher to reduce the points (I'm red).

I've just looked at what it would be in this new world and it's showing a points total of 154,000 + £1780 taxes. Going by the new CC voucher rules, I could use that to reduce the points by 75,000 making it 79,000 + £1780 taxes.

Have I read this right? Is it therefore worth me cancelling and rebooking (I assume the voucher will be credited back to my account straight away to allow that)? Also, is the cancellation fee that applies what it was at the time of booking (£30 each if I remember correctly)?

Brave the phone lines and be our guinea pig.

I’d guess the old cancellation fee would be honoured and everything would credit back immediately. Please just make sure you’re talking to a competent member of the team though before the start cancelling your bookings.

The cleaner way to do this, and if you have another voucher and enough points, is to secure that first, then call and cancel your original booking.

Unortunately I've had to wait for my credit card statement date cut off as I didn't want to put another large amount on the card while waiting for VS to refund the original booking (my experience of the refund time last year when they cancelled our flights makes me wary). Now that date has passed, the points cost has gone up. What last week would have been 79,000 points (after taking off 75,000 for the CC voucher) would now be 122,000 after using the voucher. As that's now an increase over my current booking, I don't think it's worth it to save £100 in taxes (£160 saving minus the 2x£30 cancellation fees).

Finally got through to the foreign call centre after 3 days of trying. Agent was very confused about using points and upgrade voucher. Would anyone know a number that would get me to an agent in the UK ?
Also is their a way of viewing the seat plan prior to booking, I know you could but can’t find it now ?
Thanks.

[mitchja]

The only away to see seat maps before booking now is by using the DL website.

I’m gutted! And yep, the hold booking site doesn’t work for me anymore in CH… grrrrr! Is there a way to see a monthly view on the new site or is that just now on the reward seat checker website?

Ridiculous that we can’t see the seat map now… unless you use the app but then you have to manually search each day.
Why are they making it even worse for people

I've found that if you search for a multi-city booking you can still get to the seat map before booking.

Finally got through to the foreign call centre after 3 days of trying. Agent was very confused about using points and upgrade voucher. Would anyone know a number that would get me to an agent in the UK ?
Also is their a way of viewing the seat plan prior to booking, I know you could but can’t find it now ?
Thanks.

Got through to Cardiff this morning and a very helpful agent. Booked Cape Town return in Feb in Upper. Cant wait to try upper and the clubhouse.
Any tips for best seats on left side of upper please ?

Hi all, toying with the idea of a last minute Vegas trip, but points prices for upcoming flights are through the roof. Under the old system I'd keep an eye out for extra reward seats coming up in the days before a flight - has anyone noticed anything similar under the new system with 'cheaper' points prices coming up on flights with empty seats in the days before departure?

I've found that if you search for a multi-city booking you can still get to the seat map before booking.

Yes and if you select multi city you can then change to one way and then see the flexible calendar! Good work around

it seems, that on EDI-MCO there aren't any saver seats available (i've checked lots of dates in 2025) and they also don't seem to come online on the day of launch as a saver.

It makes it an easy decision for me for our October 2025 flight to not fly Out with Virgin from Edinburgh

It makes it an easy decision for me for our October 2025 flight to not fly Out with Virgin from Edinburgh

Agree, that along with some unbelievable cash prices doesn't help.

David

I notice that the 2xOne Way miles flight fees being cheaper than 1 x Round-Trip loophole has ended.
There was a significant difference before, at least in USA>LHR flights.

Its basically the same price now, so may as well buy a Round trip, right?

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/11/11/virgin-flying-club-dynamic-pricing-analysis/

Some intresting analysis, I didn't want to just have a knee jerk reaction and say I'm switching to BA. But with the devaulation of the CC voucher (I'm only red) I can't see why I would stay. I agree that sliver and gold should get better vaule for the voucher to pay for a credit card and have to spend £10000 to get 75000 points doesnt seem worth it to me, espically when the majority of UC flights now look like 600000 points, with better deals mixed in. Unless I'm missing something, happy to be corrected.

There is something really wrong with their software

LHR - MCO 13th Jan returning 20th Jan in Upper

£3096 cash fare or 700.000 miles plus £1023

LHR - MCO 14th Jan returning 21st Jan in Upper

£3096 cash fare or 171,000 plus £1023

Same cash price but a difference of 529,000 miles

Come on Virgin, get this sorted before it causes some real damage to your business.

David

They really do need to sort it out, because there are issues.

LHR-JFK one way UC on 21.05.2024.
2 flights at 29k.
The rest are 350,000k… for flights that are not full. Yesterday, they were all between 29k and 75k…
and cash fares are all Z bucked (cheapest)

So please tell me if I’m being stupid or dense! The new system says clearly that there will be saver seats on every flight. It also says that all flights can be paid in points and that the cost will depend on season and route, with low season being the cheapest. So why does their own website show the following Maximum Saver reward seat prices

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/e ... seats.html

Huge disconnect between their own pages. The low season dates for the Caribbean should be the cheapest but are horrendously expensive. Nothing under 150k in PE and 250-350k in UC. But if I want to go in the middle of the high season it’s as cheap as 17k! And this was updated on 30 Oct. Come on VA, get a grip!

If I’m being dumb, please excuse me. Incredibly frustrated

I don’t understand how taxes are worked out now

I Just upgraded from premium to upper Man to Mco Sept and Mco to Man Oct = £1465 for all 5 passengers
But when I initial checked the cost for Man to Mco before the return was available and this came out at £1190 for all 5 passengers
Not complaining but it doesn’t make much sense