SKYTEAM LAUNCH: How to spend Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights – costs and process

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

• Andrew J says:

  2 Mar2 March 19:13

  I thought AF wasn’t bookable online, only on the phone?

  • Rob says:

    2 Mar2 March 19:57

    I’ve never managed to successfully get one to ticket online – always crashes at payment page.

    • memesweeper says:

      3 Mar3 March 00:14

      Still the case as of last week.

      Call centre agent confirms still a “known issue” and he would really prefer it was fixed as much as we punters would.

      • memesweeper says:

        3 Mar3 March 00:26

        It would be better if they just stopped it working entirely and told people to phone. How many people search, try, and give up thinking it can’t be done?

      • VSCXFAN says:

        3 Mar3 March 17:34

        All my calls to AF in the UK seem to get re-routed to Flying Blue (whichever option chosen) – whose Virgin Points calculations last week were still based on total distance rather than per sector. They wanted 7,000 + £38 for o/w LIN-CDG-LHR in Y .

    • Jim says:

      3 Mar3 March 02:32

      I have had no problem booking business class seats with AF and KLM – 40 ish segments so far using Virgin points. Also developed good knowledge of CDG after being a BA Gold player for past 15 years. 2G is Schengen and typically Hop. Better than it sounds with good food and champagne on tap and food/booze offering better than BA First. 2F is Schengen and typically AF A220. Better than BA all round. Virgin website is the same as Delta. Both have significant problems. If the seat won’t book – then presume not available. More phantom availability with KLM than AF – an AF seat will typically book. Key bit is to choose ‘Upper Class’ on the Virgin website – why would you choose economy in the first place?!!

      • Jim says:

        3 Mar3 March 02:43

        Also, as I discovered last week, KLM and AF both still offer a snack and complimentary booze in economy. Plus use of the Aspire Plus lounge at Newcastle (I don’t think BA offer this?). I gladly moved from BA Gold to Star Gold. Aegean – to the best of my knowledge – are the only EU Star carrier still offering complimentary booze and food in economy. Also, now having now flown biz in all the European Star/SkyTeam carriers, the KLM/AF offering is only a bit behind Star’s Austrian. And BA is well and truly in the rear view mirror, both biz and economy.

        • Jim says:

          3 Mar3 March 03:15

          A final comment: status matters much less. With Star, yes, if you are gold, you have the Lufty Senator lounges, and the highly under-rated LOT Elite lounge (when it is not water-logged). Apart from that, a biz class redemption or cash ticket is just as good [name just one other Star lounge where Gold is significantly better than biz?] . SkyTeam – a biz class ticket trumps all others. So why bother with SkyTeam status? Absolutely no point at all. OneWorld – arguably the better of the three alliances – but do the gains of maintaining Emerald in general outweigh flying biz? I’d argue the latter. Fly biz with the best carrier and forget about maintaining status. Less costly on the wallet and more pleasurable if BA is avoided (JOKE!)

        • BJ says:

          3 Mar3 March 11:32

          Jim, we’re flying AF shorthaul within Schengen for the first time next month, CDG-BCN in J on an a321 around 18:30 leaving T-2F I think. . Is the lounge worth getting to the airport 2h before departure and if not what food can we expect on board?

        • Jim says:

          3 Mar3 March 12:58

          To BJ: 2F is the new lounge on two floors. Prior to 1830 is peak time and the lounge typically gets very busy. If you are flying biz, you will get nice food on the plane. Suggest you try and select 1A-1F now if you can. Lounge food will be mainly sandwiches, charcuterie, bread, and salad. Good bread, good ham, good butter. Pour yourself champagne. 2G has better food offering in my view, as has a kitchen on site, but 2G is a tiny lounge. Oh one more thing: the bogs in both lounges fit few people in them. 2F at peak time is a problem. Suggest you hold it in and splash out on the plane.

        • BJ says:

          3 Mar3 March 13:22

          Lol @Jim, thanks, probably the most practical tip ever on HfP 🙂 Ok, we’ll pass on lounge in favour of an extra 30-60 minutes in the city and hope for the best with meals onboard. Weirfly we were unable to select a special meal. We took seats in row 2 as we prefer to get bag under seat in front of us. Looks like the usual 3+3 with middle seat blocked.

    • Jim Lovejoy says:

      5 Mar5 March 01:58

      I’ve had AF crash at payment, then went to KLM and got the ticket.
      Worth a try.

• Jatinder says:

  2 Mar2 March 21:42

  On a slightly separate note, good to see that regional routes on Singapore Airlines are now bookable again in Business class 🙂

  • Azza says:

    2 Mar2 March 21:58

    Are they?! Tell us your secret wizard!

    • Jatinder says:

      2 Mar2 March 22:17

      The Virgin Atlantic website no longer has that message about the CAAS restrictions. Called Virgin Atlantic to clarify whether routes are open, the agent said they are. Checked availability in Business class on a route that is not operated by a A380, 777 or A350 – and the seat was available

• louie says:

  2 Mar2 March 23:27

  “you can mix different partners on the same booking online but the call centre agents are encouraged to book each carrier separately to make changes easier to process” – you mean so that when your flight times are changed so that you cannot make the connection they can say “you are on separate tickets, not our problem, go away”?

  The miles cost is very disappointing. 200k miles ONE-WAY LGW – SYD via Jakarta (if that ever happens) v 180k RETURN LHR – SYD via Doha using Avios on QR for example.

  • memesweeper says:

    3 Mar3 March 00:16

    You may find the “married segment” availability very poor too. If connecting in Europe just search for the long haul sector as a redemption. If that shows, then see if the London connection is available, and if the extra miles makes sense.

• Girish Joshi says:

  3 Mar3 March 04:45

  I tried online as well with Virgin to book flights to Dar es Salaam and also Nairobi on Kenya airways but not very successful. Has any one tried on Kenya airways?

  • KP says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:10

    Not sure about virgin but AF/kL website shows KQ availability as they all use the same points currency

• David says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:44

  Regarding those that have successfully booked AF/KLM. I’ve looked serval times now for a AF ticket to TNR ( Madagascar ). Is it correct that they offer NO reward availability through virgin for booking this sector?

• Paul says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:54

  Do we think there’s a chance First on Korean will become bookable in future? Or do they never release availability of this to partner airlines?

• Paul says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:56

  Any clues as to what this may mean for the future of redeeming VS miles on ANA?

  • Rhys says:

    3 Mar3 March 09:05

    Nothing at the moment. Plenty of airlines have non-alliance partners.

• ianM says:

  3 Mar3 March 10:12

  I looked at some Edinburgh to PAris and Amsterdam flights booked through the Virgin website.
  Weirdly the Paris flights all involved a change at AMS and all the Amsterdam flights involved a change at CDG !
  What’s that all about?

  • BJ says:

    3 Mar3 March 11:44

    Direct flights as well as connecting flights have always been available any time I checked. Yesterday Y was still showing at 4k for dates in November.

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