A painful change to Virgin Atlantic’s policy on infant redemption tickets

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• Terence Bartlett says:

  23 Dec23 December 07:15

  Virgin are still all over the place with their newly launched website.Previously a husband and wife separate membership with separate Flying Club Memberships could share the same Email Address
  Not any longer? Separate Email Addresses now required for each member.In our case a duplication of effort ,double junk mail from subsidiaries,and increased security risks presenting hackers with two opportunities in stead of one . It’s time Virgin Atlantic introduced DELTA to previous best practise of its own and not adopt the dictates of DELTA. The letters of which in baggage terms represent “Didn’t Even Leave The Airport? As for the other changes Rob has pointed out Is a definite downgrade by Virgin of its service and a stealth tax on young children

  • th real harry says:

    23 Dec23 December 07:40

    Couldn’t you just use an alias of the first email address then everything would arrive in the same inbox?

  • John says:

    23 Dec23 December 10:17

    put the email addresses as terencebartlett@head4points.com and terencebartlett+wife@head4points.com and they will go to the same place.

  • FraukeE says:

    24 Dec24 December 07:42

    Since the recent changes I’ve given up with Virgin. With more than 10 years of being a happy customer, all the feeling of loyalty I had has been destroyed in such a short time. I will not be flying them again except to use up my existing air miles, which to date has been a struggle. I have found it hard to use them to upgrades (none available) and I repeated a holiday (through Virgin holidays) to requalify for Silver, only to find they changed the point system. They down graded the points just before I flew so I would no longer requalify for Silver! I normally fly Premiun Economy, but they have cut down on flight crew on the flights too, and it’s noticeable that the crew are struggling to cope even with simple issues.

  • Ben says:

    27 Dec27 December 11:36

    You’ve picked the one change which is absolutely sensible.

• th real harry says:

  23 Dec23 December 07:36

  For anybody struggling to access their Virgin a/c – don’t make multiple attempts getting it wrong as it’s 3 strikes & you’re out – you have to phone Virgin to sort it out. Simply re-set your password which is a straightforward if long-winded method.

  • Zander says:

    23 Dec23 December 10:50

    I discovered this despite having the correct password, still not been able to get it sorted though thanks to Virgin’s CS being jam packed each time I call!

    • Rob says:

      23 Dec23 December 11:32

      Took me 25 minutes to get the phone answered last week ….

• Neil says:

  23 Dec23 December 07:47

  If a one-way is £5000 and a return £1700, why not just book the return but not turn up for the return leg?

  “Hi Virgin, we’re not going to make it today – we’ve decided to stay on a few more days. Yes, I understand my ticket was not flexible or refundable, thank you”.

  • th real harry says:

    23 Dec23 December 08:02

    Because you read the small print & are scared of getting billed the difference?

    Pretty much unknown for airlines to chase individuals – but they have been known to chase travel agencies for the difference.

  • Brian says:

    23 Dec23 December 08:26

    Because you’d need to book a return for the adult, too, meaning an extra 40,000 miles or whatever it is now.

    • Neil says:

      23 Dec23 December 09:24

      Doh – obviously had not had any coffee when writing that!

• Emma says:

  23 Dec23 December 07:58

  I recently travelled two redemption flights in Upper Class with a 6 month old. I was charged 10% of the MILES amount and not the cash value of the ticket. Taxes on infants had also been scrapped. I did travel on Virgin America (first class) during the same trip & I was charged 10% of the cash value. I hope they get their policies clarified soon because this would make a big differences to me when considering a trip in Feb 2017.

  • mark2 says:

    23 Dec23 December 08:43

    Virgin America is now part of Alaska Airlines, so policies will be aligned to Alaska probably.

  • Andy says:

    23 Dec23 December 23:26

    Domestic flights within the US are free for infants, where exactly did you go…

• Steve R says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:07

  I was on Virgin’s “new site” & they asked me to rate it .

  Got the bit, why did you give it this score – reply, because I couldn’t give anything lower than zero

• Boi says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:31

  OT but virgin related,
  Hubby recently traveled on virgin and a wheel on our expensive suitcase was knocked off. The suitcase has 10 year warranty. This was only second time it was used (bought in July). Where should I claim-virgin or manufacturer?

  • Louise says:

    23 Dec23 December 08:45

    Normally you should claim suitcase damage in the baggage hall

    • Lady London says:

      23 Dec23 December 22:37

      It’ better if you do, but often it’s in the airline it’s and c’s that you can contact them up to 7 days after the flight.

  • TCI says:

    23 Dec23 December 17:40

    Both. Manufacturer for defective product. Virgin for defective service. Both will be subject to any standard exclusions in the small print though.

    And you shouldn’t be over-compensated; i.e. if you recover from one, you should discontinue your claim against the other.

  • Jonathan says:

    24 Dec24 December 09:16

    Suitcase manufacturer warranty won’t cover airport baggage control. The airlines from my experience are pretty good and in the case of emirates at least had a third party pick the suitcase up for repair. Upon not having the parts, they simply replaced the item for an equivalent better brand

• aliks says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:41

  Regarding Virgin redemptions. It looks like the best value for money is to upgrade a premium economy ticket to upper class.

  What is the process for actually booking a return flight on a popular route?

  My research suggests I need to be online at midnight (UTC) 331 days before I want to fly, waiting for reward seats to be released. Then:

  1. Buy a one way X fare Premium Economy seat for the outbound leg
  2. Phone up Virgin Flying Club and request an upgrade to Upper Class
  3. Wait a couple of weeks until the return flights become available, then book repeat the process for the return leg.

  Can anyone confirm or point out pitfalls?

  • VS says:

    23 Dec23 December 14:54

    If I understand your plan: buy two one way cash tickets and use points to upgrade… main issue is likely to be cost.

    For example, assuming you wanted to fly LHR-JFK on 4/11/17 and back 11/11/17, two one-way premium economy tickets would cost £1770.67 (Booking class W) + $2,225 (Booking class S); a return ticket would be £1529 (Booking class S both ways).

    If you’re very time constrained, doing a T-33x booking and splitting into one-way segments works great for pure points redemptions.

    If you have some flexibility, flying to most destinations (major exception HKG), you are likely to be able to still find an upgrade booking even if you have to wait a couple of weeks after release. If unlucky, more seats also seem to appear over time, so being eagle eyed can pay off.

    • Aliks says:

      23 Dec23 December 16:19

      OK thanks for the advice. I do have the flexibility, so I guess its fingers crossed!

  • Con says:

    7 Jan7 January 19:51

    Classes explained…

    Economy lowest fare booking classes:
    O, N, V, X, U, M, B, E

    Economy higher fare or Flexible booking classes:
    R, L, Y, although mostly just Y is most flexible.

    Premium economy lowest fare booking classes:
    K, H

    Premium economy higher fare or Flexible booking classes: S, W

    Upper class lowest fare booking classes:
    Z, I ( I and above include chauffeur driven car)

    Upper class higher fare or Flexible classes:
    C, D, J although all relatively Flexible, J is the most

    Reward booking classes:
    Economy T
    Premium P
    Upper class G

    Lowest class that can be purchased with revenue to upgrade with miles is:
    Economy X
    Premium K

• ThinkSquare says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:52

  Best comment on this subject (from a letter in Business Traveller):

  “If you can afford to take a child in business class, you can afford a nanny to take them in economy”

  ;o)

  • Rob says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:04

    When they come with us, which is rarely, the nanny gets a J ticket too. We are fair like that.

    • John says:

      23 Dec23 December 10:19

      Good on you Rob. Compare to this:

      http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=23519&stc=1&d=1482223519

      • Rob says:

        23 Dec23 December 10:31

        Oh dear!

        • Peter K says:

          23 Dec23 December 12:40

          Oh dear indeed!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.