Is Virgin Atlantic planning to move to 1-2-1 seating in Upper Class?

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• Matthew says:

  7 Nov7 November 10:57

  OT so apologies –

  Looking to fly J from LON to CMB on 23/24 Nov, rtn ~8 Dec. No attractive cash deals or redemptiona found. Would appreciate any thoughts. OW preferred. Happy to look at ex-EU.

  • Anon says:

    7 Nov7 November 11:27

    If you’re going for the 3rd test on the basis of two days worth of mildly encouraging England performances….

    Sri Lankan Airlines is One World and usually do good deals from Paris (they also fly out of London I think). Quality is around BA level and tbh I prefer them to BA.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    7 Nov7 November 19:28

    If you’re feeling lucky, Sri Lankan offer a bid to upgrade feature. They only have two cabins, so book in economy and then put in a bid and cross your fingers.

    Worst case scenario, I did UL economy to CMB and was quite impressed (especially by the catering).

• Russ says:

  7 Nov7 November 10:59

  I wonder if expert flyer’s missed off a door roughly around seats 7-8 dividing the premium cabin into two sections? Perhaps room for a small bar in the middle.

• Alex Sm says:

  7 Nov7 November 11:08

  OT – An interesting development re BA. Some of you may remember my saga from the summer when my partner and I were denied boarding for our flight from LIS to LHR because BA claimed we were ‘late’ (as 8 or 9 other passengers which is an unusually big number for such a flight, plus now I know that a pax is not officially ‘checked-in’ for their flight until they clear security, according to BA).

  At the time, BA plainly refused to compensate in any way for any possible shortcomings from their side. To my great surprise, this morning they emailed me out of the blue (if you pardon the pun) and offered 2,000 Avios to each of usas a token of compensation. This doesn’t cover those £230 which we we forced to pay for a TAP Portugal replacement flight but still.

  I guess they are now trying to review this type of case to win back customer loyalty after the data breach incidents. Or just a coincidence? Views?

  • David says:

    7 Nov7 November 11:39

    I’d say 2k avios isn’t anything to get excited about. I don’t know the details of the situation, but if BA was actually at fault then a 2k apology doesn’t come close to what it cost you. If it wasn’t BA’s fault, then it’s nice of them, but still wouldn’t make much of a splash in my avios pond.

    • LewisB says:

      7 Nov7 November 12:26

      Considering BA send me 2018 avios for my birthday a few weeks ago out of the blue I wouldn’t consider it much of an apology.

      • Alex Sm says:

        7 Nov7 November 12:35

        Hm… I had my birthday in October and got nothing… Was it a targeted deal? Or are you a lifetime Gold or something like that?
        I remember, Aeroflot and some other airlines used to post 1000 miles or so automatically on my birthday EVERY YEAR but this has stopped some time ago.

        • Rob says:

          7 Nov7 November 13:10

          It’s my birthday today and I got nowt!

      • LewisB says:

        7 Nov7 November 13:10

        Must be targeted as I’m only a blue member currently. I haven’t paid for a cash BA fare in about 4-5 years but I currently have almost 200k avios in my account.

      • LewisB says:

        7 Nov7 November 13:21

        Pen-blwydd hapus, Rob!

      • Alex Sm says:

        7 Nov7 November 14:52

        @Rob happy birthday! and thanks a lot for tons of useful stuff you share with us with your work – hope it will be rewarded in all possible ways (incl Avios)!

    • Alex Sm says:

      7 Nov7 November 12:32

      It’s difficult to say – it was not a straightforward situation and legally, perhaps, they were covered. But this is not as important as timing. So, the thingy happened in June, then I had a lot of wriggling with the customer service in July with emails to and fro. Then it went quiet for three months and this morning – boom – I had an email. To be honest, I have already written it off and let it go. So, it was a pleasant surprise.
      Also, even 4000 Avios is not nothing, especially in these times of BA austerity. It’s about 7% of ourcurrent household pool which was significantly depleted by our recent 2-4-1 flight in First to Singapore. Also, it is an equivalent of the Avios which you would get from 8 lowest economy return flights from LHR to LIS which is not bad either.
      So, I am on a positive side now though my trust in BA is still low…

      • paulm says:

        7 Nov7 November 12:47

        I got the birthday bonus recently, it is targeted and I am a blue! I guess it’s an incentive for me to give them some business as I rarely book with them

      • Alex Sm says:

        7 Nov7 November 14:53

        Argh – I dropped to Blue last spring but I am regular (unfortunately) customer of theirs so no reward for that…

  • Anna says:

    7 Nov7 November 16:04

    On the subject of BA oddities, I noticed today that on my BA holidays booking for MAN-LHR-FCO, I’ve been offered free seat selection for the domestic legs! It’s not much use to me as OH and child on separate award bookings haven’t got the same offer, but maybe BA are handing out little treats (or their IT has gone haywire again!)

• Simon says:

  7 Nov7 November 11:17

  O/T I got an email from AMEX using the shop small as a carrot to refer someone and get an enhanced bonus. My wife has the gold charge card currently. Does anyone know if I can refer her for the BA Amex (probably the free one) and get the bonus?

  TIA

  • Voltron says:

    7 Nov7 November 12:32

    Yes you will get the bonus if you refer your wife , amount depends on which card you give the referral from i.e. gold referral link will get you 9,000 MR points

    • Simon says:

      7 Nov7 November 12:36

      thanks, will give it a go
      S

• Omar says:

  7 Nov7 November 11:29

  Virgin Australia already has a 1-2-1 config for their domestic A330s, the Super Diamond platform from B/E Aerospace. Presumably this would find its away on the A350.

  • Genghis says:

    7 Nov7 November 12:38

    V different ownership structures

• Nadeshka says:

  7 Nov7 November 11:44

  I had the email and 2 out of 3 on the card just now.
  A supplementary had all 3.
  Also a £5 off £10 paperchase spend, they never used to take amex so this is a welcome development!

  • RussellH says:

    7 Nov7 November 14:50

    No e-mail from Amex, but WH Smith was on my PRG and the other two on BA Blue yesterday. Signed up for all three.

    But I notice that the **detailed** Ts+Cs (need to click on a link to see them) specifically excludes purchases of Gift Cards and Vouchers.
    Do Amex actually see any details of what you have bought, apart from airline bookings?

• Stuart says:

  7 Nov7 November 11:45

  Had all three of those offers on the card on Monday, yet didn’t receive any email at all. Perhaps they have gone already?

• johnny_c-l says:

  7 Nov7 November 12:05

  Same for me, not there when I’m on the Amex website, will try and ask through livechat.

  Good that Paperchase now take Amex, I had always avoided them for that reason.

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