What SkyTeam benefits do you now get as a Virgin Flying Club Gold member?

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• riku says:

  5 Mar5 March 05:29

  >>Lounge access for you and a guest when flying with any SkyTeam airline

  It is only in conjunction with an international flight. The conditions for lounge access by status card holders are different for SkyTeam compared to One World/Star Alliance.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    5 Mar5 March 06:44

    I think the international flight rule is mainly for US domestics because airlines in the US don’t like giving lounge access on status on domestics and would rather sell lounge memberships. I know back when I had FB status I could access the lounge on KLM domestics (they used to exist back then) and AF domestics. Of course this may have changed now.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      5 Mar5 March 08:25

      Sky Team Elite Plus and an Amex Plat largely sort this out as it’s the Delta Sky Clubs that are the main problem. I’ve found the food offerings really substantial on my last few Sky Club visits. The switch from breakfast to lunch around 11.00 was quite a production with different types of soups, cold items with actual interesting ingredients and impressive looking filled sandwich rolls.

      • Anders says:

        5 Mar5 March 12:26

        In my brief stint as Skyteam elite plus (through an old Alitalia status match) I was denied entry to a Garuda Indonesia lounge prior to a domestic flight. You also don’t get access to contract lounges via status, so if you’re flying from somewhere that doesn’t have a skyteam lounge, even if the airline puts its business class passengers in a contract lounge, they’re under no obligation to do the same for elites. All of which has made me a very loyal oneworld flyer even if BA is always a mixed experience…

    • Marcw says:

      5 Mar5 March 14:43

      Nope – it’s SkyTeam policy. No lounge access on domestic itineraries.

• Steven Ford says:

  5 Mar5 March 07:19

  “ flashing your Virgin Gold card at the lounge or check-in should do the trick”…Rhys, have VS FC started to issue these again?? I’m gold and was told they stopped issuing along with the printed baggage tags.

  • Littlefish says:

    5 Mar5 March 10:22

    Confirmed – I’m VS Gold and have never got a Gold Card; called-up and even the ability to print one off my Flying Club account has gone. Cue, having Skyclubs phoning up Virgin to confirm my Gold status (some accept me showing my laptop logged into VS account).
    Having my VS number in the booking doesn’t necessarily translate to status coming up correctly, on non-VS operated flights.

  • AL says:

    5 Mar5 March 13:09

    They don’t issue any paraphernalia any more, so I think this could probably do with a re-word, to be honest. Any card that does exist will have expired by now.

  • Rhys says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:13

    No, but you have a digital one.

• r* says:

  5 Mar5 March 07:42

  Im not sure the benefits with sky team elite plus are fixed between all airlines.

  Each airline appears to decide which benefits they give, I didnt get free seat selection on AF premium econ with elite plus.

• Peter says:

  5 Mar5 March 10:21

  ITA status is still not working with most skyteam airlines and it has been over a year

  • JDB says:

    5 Mar5 March 14:19

    ITA status works great with Aeroméxico and Aerolíneas Argentinas.

• David says:

  5 Mar5 March 10:35

  Not for all HFP readers. But Virgin Gold is a Centurion benefit. This makes short haul travel from the UK much more interesting if you don’t have BA status.

  • Mike Hunt says:

    5 Mar5 March 12:29

    David I doff my cap to your Centurion status

• TimT says:

  5 Mar5 March 21:31

  Shame that the IT issue still hasn’t been fixed so that my VS Gold status is correctly provided to KLM/AF – they can only see me as silver so I don’t get the benefits. Been like this for months

  • Greg says:

    6 Mar6 March 02:33

    Me too! Virgin did not believe me when I told them the delta crew welcomed me on board as a silver member.. “but you are showing up as Gold in our system”. Now that we just moved from London to New York I wanted to get this sorted 🙁

    • TimT says:

      6 Mar6 March 16:53

      I tried, spoke with a virgin who whilst they acknowledged that this was a known problem said their system was correct and blamed KLM. Of course when I spoke with KLM they blamed Virgin. Virgin couldn’t offer any solutions – I even suggested changing of membership number in the hope that would then flow thru correctly but they wouldn’t . All they could offer was to show my membership card, except they don’t issue them anymore and that doesn’t help with seat reservations etc. All in I wasn’t very impressed and as the customer I feel that they don’t care

• Joe says:

  6 Mar6 March 11:04

  Hi
  I’m virgin gold and informed by Air France I only need to book basic flight as seat bags and priority is complementary
  However when booking online I’m still being asked to pay for seat and bags
  Can anyone advise please

  • TimT says:

    6 Mar6 March 16:54

    I suspect you have the same issue as me in that your gold level isn’t being passed to AF correctly so you aren’t being seen by them as a sky priority member. It’s a know issue with no solution apparently

• Lee says:

  6 Mar6 March 16:12

  Simple question: What benefits does elite status provide that a premium cabin ticket does not? (Let’s say that one only flies on points — so, point earn rate is off the table.) The only benefit of which I’m aware is the ability to open up award inventory. Other than that . . .

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