“Is it better to collect Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles via Clubcard?”

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• Danielle says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:11

  Thanks for this, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve set my target too high as I’m not sure Im going to reach my points target in time for the trip to America in July!

  Do you know if I can convert my point from virgin to Avois via clubcard or is it too late?

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:49

    You cannot transfer back from Virgin to Clubcard. If you already have some Virgin miles, best uses of them (apart from possibly a one-way to Chicago) would be a UK domestic (London to Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen) for 7500 miles, a £50 Virgin voucher for 12,500 miles or 20,000 Hilton points for 10,000 Virgin miles.

• Arabmoney says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:58

  another thing to note is virgin allows you to transfer to Hilton at 1:2; assuming a 50% transfer bonus is going on you could get a 1:7.5 points transfer from Clubcard to Virgin. If you manage to collect around 10k tesco clubcard points in a year that would be 75k hilton points which could be a couple nights in a category 7 hotel (off peak after devaluation) or more if you use a cash a points booking.

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:23

    Yes, before the devaluation I thought this may not be a bad deal … not sure if it still is. However, this is only because I tend to redeem for high-end places, and 80,000 points for the Conrad New York or a similar Hilton hotel is crazy, especially when (for eg) the InterContinental Times Square is only 50,000 Priority Club points. And (whilst these are obviously different loyalty schemes) the points have historically been worth the same and – until PC pulled out – had the same same exchange rate from Amex of 1:2.

    Put another way – I used to value Hilton at £5 per 1000. A £1 Tesco voucher would be 375 Virgin (with a 50% conversion bonus) and so 750 Hilton points. Those 750 were worth £3.75 using my valuation, so 375% bonus on the face value of the Tesco voucher. A great deal.

    Post devaluation, top-end Hilton properties only get you £3 per 1000 points I reckon (that Conrad New York room is probably £250 on average) so a £1 Tesco voucher is only getting you (even with a 50% Virgin bonus) £2.25 of Hilton stay. 225% of face value is not great for Tesco Clubcard vouchers … I’d be better off using them in Pizza Express!

    • Arabmoney says:

      29 Mar29 March 19:35

      you can get the conrad new york for 28000 + $125 using points and money which is a significantly better deal

      • Rob says:

        30 Mar30 March 03:17

        Actually, that isn’t bad at all. Perhaps some hotels will fight back against ludicrous category changes by doing good cash and points deals? If the room is £250 then that is over 0.5p per Hilton point, which was as good as it ever got. I would go back for 28k + $125.

• onlysuites says:

  28 Mar28 March 11:17

  Virgin redemption’s YQ’s are worse then even BA’s. Tried a two leg one recently and the Taxes were $1,100

• Rob says:

  28 Mar28 March 17:32

  Someone told me that the domestic redemptions have a £30 taxes cap, to match BA. Is this written down anywhere? I can’t find it.

  • Rob says:

    29 Mar29 March 04:22

    Thanks a lot. I will do a proper post on this after Easter.

• Thunderbirds says:

  28 Mar28 March 19:34

  As someone with a stack of Avios (BA Executive Club) and Flying Miles I would, on balance, recommend Avios (though you don’t say whether your partner is with http://www.avios.com or BAEC). One thing worth doing is to watch out for the Flying Club reward flight sales, these are often very good. I think there was one last year where you could pick up a Premium Economy flight for the same Flying Club Miles as an Economy flight. You should check the Virgin web-site (and this one) regularly!

• tom says:

  28 Mar28 March 22:52

  Regarding pure seat comfort (without the lounge, food , crew service e.t.c. ) which one is better , BA club world or VIRGIN upper class ? Which seat would be better for a night flight from ny?

  • Rob says:

    29 Mar29 March 04:18

    Not that simple! How tall are you and are you travelling alone? These are key issues.

    It is also aircraft dependant. Upstairs on a BA 747 is like flying in a private plane, downstairs on a B777 in Club World is a bit like sleeping in a church hall after your village has been flooded out. Virgin is also rolling out a new version of its seat on its latest deliveries.

    Both are fully flat, and both are light years ahead of, say, the Lufthansa sloping seat. I would be happy to fly either.

    • tom says:

      29 Mar29 March 12:52

      Thanks! So as I don’t know which aircraft I’ll get with BA I’ll go for the VIRGIN. unless the the CITY only business flight is definitely better than upper class virgin? Then I’ll aim for that one

      • Rob says:

        29 Mar29 March 15:51

        You will know, ba.com shows the aircraft if you click on the flight number during the booking process.

        Yes, LCY to NYC better than Club World and Upper Class.

        • tom says:

          29 Mar29 March 16:44

          Thanks

• tom says:

  29 Mar29 March 01:06

  How do I get in to that forum?

  • Rob says:

    29 Mar29 March 04:21

    I think there is a time delay after registration, no idea how long. They want to keep new deals ‘within the circle’ for a while after they have been posted. It was brought in for good reason a few years ago.

    • tom says:

      29 Mar29 March 12:49

      What a shame , will need to wait a while.. meanwhile you’ll have to bring to good stuff from there… what I did see there in the headings, is about tesco giving double CC POINTS for AMEX cards , is that still relevant?

      • Arabmoney says:

        29 Mar29 March 12:53

        it takes about 2 days after registration to get approved

        • tom says:

          29 Mar29 March 12:53

          Thanks !

      • Rob says:

        29 Mar29 March 15:50

        Some people have got a voucher in the Easter mailing for double BASE points on next shop when using Amex. Not hugely exciting.

• Andy S says:

  29 Mar29 March 10:25

  For me it has to be Avios as they can be used on European flights. Only a few weeks ago a flew from LHR to BUD in club europe for £35 plus 13500 avios. Excellent value with a nice lounge at LHR T3 and very good service on board.

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