Can you earn and burn Virgin Flying Club miles on Air France and KLM from 15th January?

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• DarloTraveller says:

  8 Jan8 January 19:00

  Given the atrocious earning on Flying Blue short haul (even as a Gold), it will be interesting to run the numbers on crediting to Flying Club instead.

  The issue with Flying Blue resetting your re-qualifying date for 12 months hence as soon as you hit a status level is especially annoying for me.

  • Harry T says:

    8 Jan8 January 19:16

    Flying Blue just looks horrendous compared to BAEC tbh. I don’t like revenue based systems.

• Henry says:

  8 Jan8 January 19:10

  Just had a quick look around KLMs reward page
  36000 miles for AMS-TOKYO Economy ticket redemption seems high
  British airways are 19000 in comparison.
  Anyone know if Virgin will be using KLMS pricing or will they use something different?

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    8 Jan8 January 19:14

    I suspect Virgin, KLM, and Air France know. I suspect they are not telling. Yet.

    • Shoestring says:

      8 Jan8 January 19:26

      Raffles has said that Virgin have no obligation whatsoever to follow AF/ KLM in their redemption pricing – so we’ll see!

      Given that AF/ KLM are blimmin’ expensive for European SH redemptions compared to BAEC (and I know RFS skews this) – I surely hope Virgin find a way to give better value.

      The problem is that you need 2 flights to get anywhere (apart from Paris or Amsterdam) – ie, Paris & Amsterdam are hubs connecting your first flight from the UK to your destination airport.

      Understandable, therefore, if 2 flights cost more than 1! (Even taking RFS into account)

      • Alex W says:

        8 Jan8 January 19:37

        If they don’t include the connecting flight in the price, the whole thing will be a waste of time.

      • marcw says:

        8 Jan8 January 19:43

        Do you believe Virgin Atlantic is going to subsidise AF/KLM short haul redemptions? I honestly doubt it.

        • Shoestring says:

          8 Jan8 January 19:48

          but what is the inter-airline cost of flights?

          it might not be the same as when (say) there’s a strike and one airline buys you a ticket on a competitor – but we know these prices are pretty low

          key question is how much Virgin are paying AF/ KLM for the redemption flights, surely?

        • marcw says:

          8 Jan8 January 20:12

          Problem are airport taxes + that ridiculous fee (APD). As an example, LHR-AMS, miles + 35.72€. LCY-AMS 69.65€. Now if you include a connection in AMS or CDG you need to add some extra € for the connecting airport tax. Example, LHR-AMS-BCN, 48,62€, from LCY-AMS-BCN, 82.55€; conecting via CDG is a little bit more expensive. Those are literally, taxes (no Fees), which BA subsidises thanks to the long-haul fees they charge on redemptions.

        • Shoestring says:

          8 Jan8 January 20:51

          true

          maybe Virgin will see certain of the AF/ KLM European flights as feeder flights to Virgin LH, and subsidise them (both ways)? I guess this would apply to routes to/ from LHR, Gatwick, Manchester in particular, maybe also Glasgow.

          just a thought!

      • Charlieface says:

        9 Jan9 January 05:37

        But KLM’s main selling point in the UK is that they fly to almost every airport, it was 19 on my last count and Flybe brings it up further. So unless you want to do what Shoestring does and drive cross country just to get to Heathrow, you fly from your local. Which, if you can afford it, is much more convenient. And there is usually lo-co flights from these airports only to bucket-and-spade type places.

        • Paul says:

          9 Jan9 January 07:05

          Exactly – I am just back from RFS flight LHR to LIS and I drove down from NW as I had some Avios to burn. When you add in the cost of fuel, parking, toll road plus service station spend then via AMS from MAN could still be a more appealing option instead using my newly acquired Virgin miles from their recent credit card promotions.

      • Andrew M says:

        9 Jan9 January 11:59

        In the world of cash fares, a flight involving a connection is usually priced lower than a direct flight to make up for the inconvenience so there’s no reason why it needs to cost more miles. I still the free domestic connection that BA used to offer with LH redemptions.

        • Andrew M says:

          9 Jan9 January 14:52

          “miss”

• Matthew Goode says:

  8 Jan8 January 20:37

  Will it be possible to redeem Flying Blue miles for Virgin Atlantic tickets? I have 42,560 Flying Blue miles to use by the end of this year.

  • marcw says:

    8 Jan8 January 20:42

    Yes. Virgin Atlantic flights not yet loaded on the Flying Blue redemption system.

  • Peter K says:

    8 Jan8 January 21:12

    That’s a Goode question! 😁

    If you read the screenshots above you’ll see the answer is yes.

• Harry says:

  8 Jan8 January 21:42

  OT – What is the minimum spend with Addison Lee to trigger the £10 Amex Platinum Credit every month? and when does the £10 credit hit? the next month or a few days after the first qualifying transaction?

  TIA 🙂

  • Lev441 says:

    9 Jan9 January 00:04

    I was wondering this also – I spent on 28/12 and not got anything yet..

  • james says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:04

    Took about a month to come through for me from Nov

  • Dev says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:57

    Harry,

    It used to be that the credit would appear a few days later. For November and December 2019, it appears to have taken longer and at least once, for November, it appeared as two separate credit transactions of £8 & £2, with the latter appearing in early December. Not sure what is going on.

    Minimum spend with Addison Lee is £10 for the credit to trigger.

    • Harry says:

      9 Jan9 January 21:53

      Thanks Dev 🙂

      Assuming £10 cumulative spend

• the_real_a says:

  8 Jan8 January 22:03

  Short haul Flying Blue redemption are pointless when you have loco form the same airport with fares cheaper than the tax component before you ever get to the value of points. Lets hope virgin feel competitive pressure to compete with RFS as Rob alluded to a few weeks back.

• Stuart says:

  8 Jan8 January 22:12

  OT but related.

  Is there a way to prevent Flying Blue Miles expiring without flying?

  • marcw says:

    8 Jan8 January 22:19

    It depends on the miles nature. If miles are proper flying miles, they can only be extended by flying. If miles are partner miles, they can be extended by any activity.

• Max says:

  8 Jan8 January 22:53

  I have both Flying Blue miles and Virgin miles. Presumably no way to merge the two pots?

  • guesswho2000 says:

    9 Jan9 January 01:10

    Indirectly you can, but don’t. You can convert all your VS miles to IHG/Hilton points and then dump them into AF/KL. But that would be a horrendous waste.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 07:11

    No – unless you book one way on FB and one way on VFC …

• Moley says:

  8 Jan8 January 23:10

  My wife flew Monday on a non-codeshare KLM flight. Put Virgin loyalty details in on off chance and has been credited appropriate mikes/points. This is contrary to the Virgin/KLM website which suggest code-shares only at present.

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:19

    Tell me more about these mikes 🙂

    But seriously, were tier points credited as well?

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