Bits: Virgin cooling off period for buying miles, €29 Vueling sale, Cathay business sale

News in brief:

Virgin introduces a cooling off period when buying miles

Virgin Flying Club is currently offering a targeted 30% bonus when you buy miles.  You should have received an email about this if you are included, but you can try speculatively logging in here if you are not sure or are opted out of receiving marketing emails.

Virgin has quietly brought in a ‘cooling off’ period when you buy miles.  I’m not sure if this is a brand new feature but I had never seen it mentioned before, either by the airline or by readers.

According to the terms and conditions:

Members will have the right to cancel any purchase of miles for up to 7 days after the date of purchase, provided that none of the purchased miles have been redeemed. If any of the purchased miles have been redeemed then members will not be entitled to a refund for any of the purchased miles including those that have not been redeemed. Once the 7 day cooling off period has expired, any miles purchased and received by members are non-refundable and non-transferable, except as expressly permitted by the terms and conditions of Flying Club.

This is likely to be a positive move for Virgin.  If you see a reward seat available but don’t have the miles, you now have no risk if you choose to purchase the rest.  If the reward seat has gone by the time the miles turn up, you can simply ask for a refund.

The Virgin ‘buy miles’ page is here if you want to double-check if you are targeted.

€29.99 Vueling sale launched

Vueling, BA’s sister airline, has launched a €29.99 sale (including booking fees and card charges) which runs until 10th July.

It is valid for departures between 17th July and 22nd December.

Details can be found on the Vueling site here.

Vueling currently flies from Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and London Luton / Gatwick / Heathrow.  Routes vary but there is usually a predominance towards Spain, especially their Barcelona hub, and Italy.

Vueling is due to be launching its own Avios programme any month soon.  Until then, you cannot earn Avios points unless you book via the Iberia or British Airways websites onto a codeshare flight – and those will always cost more than booking directly with Vueling.

Cathay Pacific launches a business class sale

Whilst Vueling won’t give you any Avios, Cathay Pacific will, as it is a member of the oneworld alliance.  You will also earn British Airways tier points when you fly with them.

Cathay has just launched a new sale.  You can find details of economy offers on their website.

For business class, there are deals from both Manchester and London.  Cathay Pacific has a very high quality business class product – see the business class seat pictured above – and at these prices it becomes decent value.

Offers include (all flights are via Hong Kong):

• London / Manchester to Bangkok / Phuket – £1,999
• London / Manchester to Singapore – £2,399
• London / Manchester to Seoul – £2,429
• London / Manchester to Tokyo – £2,409

You need to book by 31st July for travel between:

• 1st October 2017 to 31st December 2017
• 16th February 2018 to 28th March 2018
• 9th April 2018 to 31st May 2018