Match your Flying Club Gold status to the new Virgin Voyages Sailing Club

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• Roger says:

  7 Sep7 September 06:29

  Any non US routes or fifth freedom flight possibilities with UNITED?
  I tried to look up including for code share to other destinations but couldn’t find any.

  • Rhys says:

    7 Sep7 September 08:10

    Not from London

• Jonathan says:

  7 Sep7 September 06:42

  I see Virgin Voyages matches with the Wings level VS Flying Club – not heard of this before but see on google that it’s for the top 250 flyers and benefits include fully refundable flights on all paid tickets regardless of class, access to reward inventory beyond usual and guess club passes. Wonder how much you need to spend to qualify? https://gemmaarmstrongdesign.com/wings

  • lumma says:

    7 Sep7 September 07:18

    I’m not sure that naff badge is something to show off about for that website.

    • Mike Hunt says:

      7 Sep7 September 09:03

      Pretty sure Gemma Armstrong also designed the new virgin credit cards as well

• Roz says:

  7 Sep7 September 06:52

  Ah will just miss out on a planned trip to Chicago for October 2023 on this deal then!

• pureshtuyot says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:02

  Once in the United UK site, I allows you took from/to anywhere (I haven’t actually checked everywhere), and does not redirect you and will charge you in Pounds. In the Forum, someone posted that he was credited for a flight not departing the UK

  • Rhys says:

    7 Sep7 September 08:11

    In reality, I’m not sure how Amex would know if you book a flight originating in the UK or not.

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      7 Sep7 September 08:38

      The routing is literally sent with the transaction (level 3 reporting?) and can be seen on your statement.

      Amex could choose to use this information.

      • Panda Mick says:

        7 Sep7 September 09:20

        Even when I worked at BT over 12 years ago, the flight details would appear on the AMEX statement. Thought this was super helpful 🙂

    • Rob says:

      7 Sep7 September 10:01

      The only thing that matters is where the charge is made, since Amex is looking for credit card charges coded with whatever merchant code is allocated to the UK website. The issue is whether, at some point in the payment process, United swaps you to a different national website if your flight is not from the UK.

      • Callum says:

        7 Sep7 September 10:41

        If they decide to check the flights booked and discover you were not flying from the UK, you wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if they took back the credit.

        I agree it’s unlikely they’ll bother to do that, but I’m sure you’re not going to personally guarantee the credit for anyone who tries it, so I wouldn’t personally make such a strong claim that it doesn’t matter.

• avstar says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:14

  “After carefully reviewing your application, we’re thrilled to welcome you aboard and offer you our Match and Sea More offer. We took a deeper dive into your booking and found that you booked with a free or heavily discounted voyage fare. Unfortunately, these bookings are not eligible for our 2022 Deep Blue Perks.”

  This status match is essentially useless for people making redemption bookings (i.e the 95k/115k virgin points bookings)

• Andrew J says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:26

  If the Virgin programme is anything like Cunard’s, it’s lifetime status that you retain and keep building upon, which makes sense as unlike flights most people are likely to only take one or two cruises a year so would never achieve status otherwise.

• AJA says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:52

  Shepherd’s Bush Green is the large triangular green just south of Westfield Shepherd’s Bush. The tube station is at the eastern tip. A search on Google maps shows the hotel is actually facing the green on the western side. It looks like it is on a redeveloped site that used to contain a major post office and a big Barclays bank branch. Pretty convenient for Westfield and the central line and overground.

  • Rob says:

    7 Sep7 September 10:03

    Oh that … I do know it then, I picked up my son from the Pizza Express there a few weeks ago. There is a huge Ibis hotel in the same building.

    • Tom says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:23

      The Pizza express/Ibis is in the shopping center opposite the central line, This is going to be at the other end of the Green, next to the Dorset Hotel, with the 02 Shepherd Bush Empire, the other side.

    • Bagoly says:

      7 Sep7 September 17:50

      And a Dorsett hotel next door.
      I wonder whether the target market is people visiting nearby residents – to have a spare room is extremely expensive, so it makes sense to do as Rob does – put friends and family up in nearby hotels.

  • Bagoly says:

    7 Sep7 September 17:45

    And Shepherd’s Bush Market (Circle line) is closer, just to the west.

• Mirp says:

  7 Sep7 September 08:13

  Has anyone tried premium economy on United?

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    7 Sep7 September 08:21

    Flown recently.

    Not much different than BA. Maybe sightly better food atm. Sweeter juice etc.

    • Mirp says:

      7 Sep7 September 09:27

      Thanks. Is seat also similar to BA? I’m considering day time flight to East Coast US.

      • stevenhp1987 says:

        7 Sep7 September 09:37

        I’d say the seats were comparable, if not better, than BA Premium. I have not flown BA Premium for a few years now though.

        One good thing is you can pay £29 each way for United lounge access with Premium too. I hadn’t been to the United lounge in T2 for a few years and it’s the same as I remember it (plenty of choice of complimentary cocktails).

        • Mirp says:

          7 Sep7 September 18:09

          Thank you. Good tip about the lounge I thought I would be limited to Priority Pass or wherever I can get in with Amex Platinum.

    • Prins Pol says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:36

      I’d say food on United (and other US carriers) is repulsive, so if it’s any better than BA, it just shows how low BA has fallen.

  • Andrew. says:

    7 Sep7 September 09:17

    It’s been a while, but my starting position is that regular economy on United is a far superior product to regular BA economy.

    When you’re in the cheap seats, it’s the little things that matter. The 330ml cans of Sprite instead of 150ml. Full sized Magnum ice creams…

    • Callum says:

      7 Sep7 September 10:45

      Whereas I don’t really tell much difference at all between them.

      Though a few times I’ve (accidently, presumably) been able to choose economy plus seating when on a standard economy ticket – those seats are significantly better than BA economy!

    • merlin90 says:

      7 Sep7 September 19:55

      But I don’t think you get spirits for free on UA in Y whereas you would on BA (won’t be a concern for everyone, I understand).

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