Save 25,000 miles as Virgin Atlantic launches an Upper Class reward sale from Manchester

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• shd says:

  4 Jul4 July 05:58

  Can you get a connection from mainland Europe to London or Manchester, to avoid paying APD on an ex-UK VS miles redemption?

  • TripRep says:

    4 Jul4 July 17:25

    I’d like to know this too, there’s the potential option of INV with FlyBE.

    Would be nice if Virgin could advise if it’s possible.

• barnaby100 says:

  4 Jul4 July 06:08

  Unless you are very short of miles I would use the extra 20,000 to go from LHR. The Manchester ground experience is dire and the LHR is excellent (drive through check in, dedicated scanning lane, great lounge). I flew from Manchester last year to Boston and whilst I would fly back into Manchester again I would never fly out of their again with Virgin. The airport is really dated with limited facilities and the shared lounge they use is dire, overcrowded, inedible food, limited alcohol choice. 30 minute queue to check in – in upper class. The Virgin UC ground experience at LHR is what makes it worth while over other airlines.

  • Johnny Tabasco says:

    4 Jul4 July 07:14

    Overall I’d agree about the ground experience at LHR though I’d have to point out the last couple of times I’ve used the Clubhouse it’s been so busy it hasn’t been quite as special as previous visits. In May we could only find 3 seats together upstairs, hardly the end of the world but it was clear there were loads of people kicking off about wait times for food and drink etc

    • Clive says:

      4 Jul4 July 12:23

      There is usually so little UC redemption availability to USA from London, it might be a case of MAN or nothing…

  • Ah says:

    5 Jul5 July 08:21

    big trade off….
    20,000 miles to use V UC lounge.

  • stron says:

    19 Jul19 July 00:28

    Book MAN then call up to change to LHR – I did this and managed to keep the discount. I have the necessary points ready but they didn’t get taken. Definitely worth a try if you want to fly from LHR. Worst case you’ll lose the GBP30 change fee if they charge you the milage upcharge.

• barnaby100 says:

  4 Jul4 July 06:11

  To add. We only paid £998 to fly UC from Manchester to Boston at Easter last year. it was less than £1300 with the full car service at each end etc

• Idrive says:

  4 Jul4 July 07:35

  What about Miles Booster bonus, haven’t heard in a while?

• Mark says:

  4 Jul4 July 08:54

  Hi Rob

  I have the 30% uplift email, my wife doesn’t. We have similar miles balance and are both Silver!!!

• Alan says:

  4 Jul4 July 09:10

  Nice, I thought 85k was decent value for my BOS trip too! Just be aware some non-refurbished planes on this route with 4 rather than 3 across in UC (see Rob’s recent article).

  Also worth remembering there’s a train station at Manchester Airport – I managed to get a one way from there to Edinburgh for £13, cheaper than a taxi from my house in Edinburgh to Edinburgh Airport!

• John says:

  4 Jul4 July 11:37

  Last month I booked an u/c redemption to JFK from Manchester in September for 95k miles. The sale price was 70k miles, so I spoke to reservations with a view to cancelling my 95k flight and rebooking the 70k version (£30 fee applies for cancellations). The agent decided not to cancel and rebook, but instead just charge me a £30 fee and credit my account with 25k miles. Im sure even Rob would agree that 0.12p/mile is a no brainer 🙂

  • Alan says:

    4 Jul4 July 11:40

    Excellent result – I really like when CS staff can make sensible and pragmatic decisions like that 🙂

• stron says:

  19 Jul19 July 00:25

  Not sure if it is a system wide glitch or if I just got lucky, but I made a booking from Manchester to NYC then subsequently called up and changed to it LHR – NYC and they didn’t take any more miles from my account.

  I got a confirmation email saying that I’d been charged the full LHR redemption points fare, but my account balance didn’t get impacted.

  Obviously you pay the GBP30 change fee, but that’s not a bad price to pay in order to save 12,500 miles (mine was a one way redemption, so not sure if it will work on returns and all destinations). GBP30 for a saving of 25,000 miles is obviously even better!

  Good luck!

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