You can now redeem Virgin Atlantic miles again for Necker Island holidays

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

• Roger says:

  4 Nov4 November 06:33

  OT- Amex Travel

  1. Is there any price match or low price guarantee by Amex Travel?
  2. Is there any known discount code that can be used on Amex Travel?

  • Roger says:

    4 Nov4 November 07:11

    Info. for others trying to use Amex Travel £200 off £600 offer to book experience.
    Please check Travel Republic, prices have been consistently cheaper (easy 10-20%) compared to Amex Travel (Viator/TripAdvisor agent).

    • Brian says:

      4 Nov4 November 08:50

      Booking direct with the airlines always seems to be much cheaper too – I’ve been trying to use the Amex offer and the statement credit is cancelled out by the much higher cost of the same price compared to booking direct.

      • Jonathan says:

        4 Nov4 November 09:17

        It’s just a shame that with BA, the price promise only works on flights operated by themselves only, even if they sell you an Iberia or AA flight for example in your flight package (and someone else has the same ticket, only cheaper) they’ll reject a price guarantee claim

  • Pid says:

    4 Nov4 November 08:49

    Just checked for a BA flight and Amex is about £80 more expensive for the same two tickets.

    • John says:

      4 Nov4 November 09:26

      Amex Travel doesn’t offer BA HBO tickets afaik

      • Brian says:

        4 Nov4 November 14:11

        It seems to. You can look at the fare details and the cheapest version is HBO. Still significantly more expensive than BA direct.

    • Russ says:

      4 Nov4 November 11:53

      Some you win some you lose, you’d still be in line for a £120 refund. Not as good granted, but playing the percentages is part and parcel of this glorious hobby of ours.

    • Imbruce says:

      4 Nov4 November 17:32

      I booked two tickets to Sydney last year to fly out 21/12 with the other half returning on New Years Day with me coming back 12/01. The Amex travel call centre it was £1350 on Cathay, with BA online was £1830 each.
      Whether it was cheaper because I have the platinum card or not I didn’t think to ask the guy who booked the tickets. I did use some membership rewards points to bring the price down further but they didn’t take all of the points, so I was happy about that.

• Ishan says:

  4 Nov4 November 07:01

  A real shame to see Bilbao go from two flights a day from LHR to a single very early start at LGW that doesn’t appeal if you live on the wrong side of London. Luckily we have a trip booked in March.

  On the other hand, Valencia becomes a possible weekend break destination for me.

• Neil Donoghue says:

  4 Nov4 November 07:19

  1.2 million points!! Now to convince the other half that is a worthwhile use of our points! Lol

• TripRep says:

  4 Nov4 November 07:27

  “On that basis, 1.2 million Virgin Flying Club miles is a very good deal – you’re getting over 2.2p per mile”

  Isn’t it this kind of logic that yourself & Genghis usyally frown upon when I have made cheap redemption bookings at the last minute when room rate was high? If you can buy miles for a lower cash rate then surely the cash price is less relevant?
  https://headforpoints.com/2018/06/09/get-30-bonus-buy-virgin-miles-good-deal/

  I’d wager a better value use of virgin miles is a stay at the Conrad Maldives Rangali, ~500k VS miles converted to HH would get you enough for 10 nights (excl. travel)

  • Sandgrounder says:

    4 Nov4 November 08:26

    But which would get the best reaction from the hairdresser? ‘Conrad Maldives Rangali’ vs ‘Richard Branson’s private island’- no contest!

    • TripRep says:

      4 Nov4 November 10:46

      Lol, thankfully I don’t need a hairdresser nor would I be interested in impressing one.. :p

  • Genghis says:

    4 Nov4 November 08:56

    I agree. IMO the whole assigning value to points is only good if you would pay that or for an alternative. Necker would be a good redemption but, for me anyway, not good value as I’d never pay that kind of money.

    • Ziggy says:

      4 Nov4 November 10:59

      But isn’t the whole point of collecting miles and points to book flights and hotels that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to book (or be willing to book)?

      If you believe that Virgin Miles are worth 0.75p (for example) because that’s what you would be happy to pay for them if that offer ever came along and if you usually find yourself using Virgin miles for bookings where the value achieved is under 2.0p/mile, then isn’t a redemption at 2.2p mile a decent one (especially if it’s for an experience you would never otherwise have)?

      • Callum says:

        4 Nov4 November 11:07

        For you maybe, for me no.

        Miles are about saving money on things I actually would pay for (i.e. genuinely want and would therefore appreciate).

      • Steve says:

        4 Nov4 November 11:26

        I guess, generally, there are two main types of miles collectors, saving money vs making ‘aspirational’ redemptions. I fall under the latter category, as I would never pay cash for business/first, unless it was a sale, non-BA (most probably ex-EU) fare. When I use Avios, say to save on a one-way cash fare from NYC to LON by making a avios + cash WT+ redemption, I look at my points balance and think I have just dropped my balance from being able to cover say 4 F flights to now only being able to redeem 3 F and 1 Y. I cant help but get a small feeling of buyers remorse even though I have redeemed at my minimum target of 2p/avios.

      • Russ says:

        4 Nov4 November 12:00

        @Steve. I suggest there maybe at least three, the saving money type who want to save at properties they’d normally frequent, the aspirational type who saves points for top tier hotels, then the in the middle type who started looking to save money on hotel stays then drifted towards saving for asprational hotels.Probably a fourth type to.

        • Rob says:

          4 Nov4 November 12:54

          Basically, it depends on what you would normally pay.

          Most people, for eg, will pay for economy but would never pay for business. This means that they don’t ACTUALLY get (say) 1p per point on a business class redemption because they would never pay that.

          Now, I WOULD pay cash for business class tickets. I’ve never paid more than £1750 for one, but I have done it. I once paid £5,200 for 4 x Business Class tickets to the Middle East for the whole family (and cancelled a redemption to do so, since cash was better value). This means that I make a REAL saving when I use miles.

          Similarly, I regularly pay £250 for 5-star hotels so when I base my HFP hotel point valuations on that it IS real money. If I had to go somewhere tomorrow with no good chain properties but an excellent five-star at £250, I’d pay it (assuming of course I’d be in the hotel for much of the time). The sort of person who would never pay more than £49 for a hotel room is not going to get the same real saving from a free InterContinental night as me.

          Put simply …. the wealthier you are, the more real value you get from miles & points because the more REAL money you save. This partly accounts for the HFP reader demographics.

      • Genghis says:

        4 Nov4 November 14:08

        To add to what’s already been said:

        “If you believe that Virgin Miles are worth 0.75p (for example) because that’s what you would be happy to pay for them if that offer ever came along and if you usually find yourself using Virgin miles for bookings where the value achieved is under 2.0p/mile, then isn’t a redemption at 2.2p mile a decent one (especially if it’s for an experience you would never otherwise have)?

        So if you’d buy at 0.75p, you’re still paying £9,000 for Necker. Yes, cheaper than the cash price but I would never pay £9k. I’m just not that rich!

        If, however, you get your VS miles through churns and you save up, you can pick up virgin miles for serious fractions of a penny. Necker may then be something that appeals as an aspirational redemption, but I wouldn’t assign a value to that so you can say that you got 2.2p per mile.

      • Andrew says:

        5 Nov5 November 09:13

        It’s all a balance and what the comparison is.

        I was in Scotland at the weekend, it was a short notice visit. The only LHR-EDI cash fares available were “business” flights at £640 return. There were Avios Business tickets available at 15,500 + £50 return.

        Do I claim a redemption at 3.8p per Avios as that is what I would have to pay if I flew?

        Or do I accept that there is no way I would have flown at that price and the offset is a £160 train fare – making it 0.7p per Avios?

        Maybe drive it? £100 in fuel making it 0.3p per Avios?

• Anna says:

  4 Nov4 November 07:57

  OT – HH. I booked 4 nights at a HGI near Rome via BA holidays. Thinking it was worth a try I emailed the hotel, stating that my booking was with BA but asking if we would receive free breakfast as HH gold. The answer has come back that we will! Is this likely to be a mistake and can I hold them to it if not? Rome is an expensive city and may be even more so by the time we go (next April!)

  • Matt says:

    4 Nov4 November 08:53

    Have you checked that the BA holiday package doesn’t include breakfast – most of these packages normally do.

    Also, it may be worth asking HGI to add your HH number to the reservation. They most likely won’t, but if they do you’ll get stay and night credits, plus your benefits, so always worth a try

    • Anna says:

      4 Nov4 November 09:01

      Package is room only (schoolgirl error, forgot to double check????).

      They’ve added my HH number to the booking with no quibble so looks as though we’ll be ok!

      • John says:

        4 Nov4 November 09:28

        Points is still a maybe but should get stay cred

      • Anna says:

        4 Nov4 November 11:04

        I’m only bothered about breakfast!

  • Tom Cook says:

    4 Nov4 November 09:05

    I’ve had a different experience – my other half gets points paid into an account which you can use for the usual white goods, yet we use it for hotels….avios to fly, her points to stay. We’r back in NYC this xmas, and as the hotel has to be booked through a Rep, and in her name, Hilton are refusing to honour my status. Obviously this is NYC so not bothered about breakfast but room upgrade and late checkout would be nice!

    • Anna says:

      4 Nov4 November 11:11

      I think it varies a lot. We had status recognised at the Hilton at MAN airport (another BA booking) but at Reagan National Airport they were unbelievably churlish with us even on a direct booking and tried to charge us for 3 breakfasts (including tip!) until I made them change it to just one child’s breakfast.

      I think Rob has said before that everyone in America has status so you are less likely to be treated well during US stays! (That said we were in fact treated really well at the Embassy Suites at MIA and got a whole raft of perks not even ticked on the list!)

  • Russ says:

    4 Nov4 November 12:32

    As a last resort or, perhaps for the love of travelling or, to save shed loads of money over a bank holiday weekend (you can put your own spin on this!) and given we don’t know how many are in your party and, if your staying close enough to an airport lounge to make this financially viable and (there’s a lot of ‘ands’), the lounge’s are accessible to you without a J or higher ticket and, ……..there’s lots of other boxes I haven’t mentioned that you’d need to tick, then, there is a breakfast, lunch, dinner alternative for £20 and £27 but you’ll need to do your research to make sure it’s viable:

    Good Friday 19th April FCO-BRU £20 Ryan Air one way p.p.
    Bank Holiday Monday 22nd April FCO-BRI £27 Ryan Air one way p.p.

• Nelson says:

  4 Nov4 November 08:00

  OT – HH. Slight Hi-jack. Sorry Anna 😉
  Is it possible to transfer HH points between accounts (different name, same address) free of charge? If yes how long it takes?

  • Jane says:

    4 Nov4 November 08:22

    Done this twice recently. One transfer took around 4 hours, the other 24.

  • John says:

    4 Nov4 November 09:29

    Yes but it’s called pooling, not transfer, and it works more like pulling than pushing

• Craig says:

  4 Nov4 November 08:19

  No Paypal offer on any of our 8 Primary/Supp cards.

• Simon says:

  4 Nov4 November 08:20

  Rob, Virgin Reward + is Mastercard, not Amex.

  • Anna says:

    4 Nov4 November 09:02

    None on ours either ????

  • EwanG says:

    4 Nov4 November 10:48

    Yes I noticed this too. Suspect this is a copy and paste error from the previous article and will be corrected!

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