Virgin offering extra bonuses to Reward and Reward+ cardholders when booking flights

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• paulm says:

  14 Sep14 September 16:55

  If only they could come up with a simple way of upgrading from the free card to the paid version!

  • James says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:12

    +1 its both infuriating and farcical. They know people want to do this, and indeed do so in a very laborious and time costly way. You’d think they’d get a proper system sorted by now… or allow people to hold both cards as you were able to with MBNA.

• KK says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:00

  No need to travel anytime soon so don’t really want to spend £500 on a VS flight on holiday but might in in the next 12-24 months hopefully. Wondering if you would still get the upgrade voucher on a cancelled flight? If so then what flights would be most likely to be cancelled?

• Mo says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:01

  To clarify, do you have to pay with your Virgin Rewards + Credit Card to get the 6x miles and the upgrade voucher too? Or could you get one/both when paying with an Amex?

  Also, do people know if paying the taxes on a reward booking would count as the £500 spend/would you earn 6x miles on this?

  • Rob says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:21

    My gut feeling is that, yes, it would count.

• Helen says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:59

  A couple of questions
  1. Can I upgrade to the Reward+ Card? If I then cancel does the fee get pro-rated?
  2. If I book a PE return ticket to JNB in March (c £1k) I will get a voucher which would enable me to upgrade to Upper Class?

  • Rob says:

    14 Sep14 September 18:39

    1. Not easily. You need to (and I kid you not):

    * cancel the free card
    * make a fresh application for Reward+
    * wait for the rejection, as you’ve had a card in the previous 6 months
    * call them and get the rejection manually overridden because you’re upgrading

    No pro-rata refund.

    2. Yes, as long as there is an Upper Class reward seat showing, since the upgrade books into reward space

• letBAgonesbe says:

  14 Sep14 September 18:47

  Honest question.
  Is anybody booking VA trips these days?

  I can see that VA is throwing in everything they have got to entice new bookings, but still, I don’t have the confidence that they will survive.

  • Dezbez says:

    14 Sep14 September 19:31

    Yes, we’re looking at Seattle in Aug 21, mainly as positioning to get into Canada. I’m quite bullish about it, OH decidedly less so, but I think she’s happy to go along with us booking something on the basis it’s cancelleable. Excellent rewards availability and all these offers are making it enticing…

  • GaryC says:

    14 Sep14 September 19:59

    I agree with you. I don’t think VA’s financial position is compatible with the timelines on possible vaccines. If (and it’s a big if) any of the promising candidates are proven to be effective in the next 3-6 months, mass production and immunisation will stretch well into 2021 and probably beyond, even in rich countries. Without a vaccine or at least a treatment (the Bradykinin Storm hypothesis and potential treatments is looking interesting), you have to ask yourself what is going to change to markedly improve sentiment w.r.t. longhaul flying.

    • callum says:

      14 Sep14 September 20:25

      “you have to ask yourself what is going to change to markedly improve sentiment w.r.t. longhaul flying.”

      Apathy. A significant number of people are already taking European holidays, as this goes on and becomes “boring”, people will be happier going to riskier and riskier destinations.

    • ChrisW says:

      14 Sep14 September 22:16

      I would agree with this. Surely it will be at least 12 months before the vast majority of people are vaccinated. I don’t think Virgin have enough cash to last 12 months

      • TGLoyalty says:

        14 Sep14 September 22:39

        Mark my non medical words there will be no vaccine until winter 2021 and event then it’ll be the same 65+ / venerable just just like flu jab

        • GaryC says:

          15 Sep15 September 07:18

          You may well be right. The Oxford / Astra Zeneca vaccine is the only one that will be manufactured in any significant quantity this year. This Mckinsey report is extremely interesting, see exhibit 3 for potential timelines https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/on-pins-and-needles-will-covid-19-vaccines-save-the-world

• ChasP says:

  14 Sep14 September 19:56

  Booked a UC trip to Los Angeles 2 weeks ago for next May
  So suppose should cancel (£30 fee) and rebook

  any reason why not ?

  • Mo says:

    14 Sep14 September 20:33

    I’m not sure how it has been for reward bookings but I know Virgin haven’t been great with refunds so cash flow may be an issue?

    If not, I think it’s worth checking if there are other UC redemption seats available, as I don’t know if when you cancel they go back into redemption availability.

    • TripRep says:

      15 Sep15 September 07:58

      See my post below, at least 4 months for a redemption ££ refund, I got the miles back pretty quickly.

• Ron says:

  14 Sep14 September 22:39

  Would the voucher be trigger if you spend over £500 directly with VS, but over the phone?
  (e.g. trying to add a BA INV connection for a premium economy booking…)

  • Ron says:

    14 Sep14 September 22:41

    I am asking since the email I received says the following: ‘If you spend more than £500 between 14 September 2020 and 31 October 2020 with either Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays directly via https://www.virginatlantic.com or https://www.virginholidays.co.uk , you’ll receive an Upgrade Reward voucher that can be used on any Virgin Atlantic operated flight for a round trip’

• Sean says:

  15 Sep15 September 07:54

  No email received here. Is this a targeted offer?

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