LAST DAY: Virgin Atlantic will BEAT your British Airways Executive Club status

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• Paul says:

  14 Feb14 February 07:01

  Aren’t BA bronze and VS silver comparable anyway? Same with BA silver and VS Gold?

  • Rob says:

    14 Feb14 February 07:50

    Apart from the lounge benefit, no. For lounges, yes.

    • Deek says:

      14 Feb14 February 08:25

      They’re a lot more similar than just lounges, with some minor differences they both have:

      – lounge access
      – business check-in
      – fast track security
      – priority boarding
      – free seat selection
      – additional baggage

      • daveinitalia says:

        14 Feb14 February 09:20

        Yes, I think saying Virgin with exceed your status is over the top. It’s currently a match as to most people BA silver is equivalent to VS gold. The regular VS status match is pointless for BA silvers, particularly like most it’s a one time only offer.

      • AL says:

        14 Feb14 February 23:52

        To me, the difference is the lounge. BA just about manage to operate a lounge (and I’m sick and tired of complaining about the flies on the food, the dire toilets, the mice, how warm the place often is…), whereas the Clubhouse is genuinely a relaxing place to be pre-flight.

    • Mark says:

      14 Feb14 February 09:46

      Depends on what benefits you value most, but it is more than just about lounger access.

      When it comes to airport benefits priority check-in*, lounge access and priority boarding VS Silver=BA Bronze and VS Gold=BA Silver. That equivalence is also true for free advance seat selection, albeit in economy only as, unlike BA, VS seat selection in premium economy and business class is free anyway.

      *BA Bronze gets business class check-in, so arguably better that VS Silver which only gets premium economy class check-in.

      When it comes to extra luggage allowance, VS Silver is better than BA Silver, though, with the latter only giving an extra piece in economy whereas the former gives one extra piece regardless of the class of travel. Extra points/miles earning also tips in VS’s favour with VS Silver similar to BA Silver at around 30% extra and VS Gold slightly better that BA Gold at 60% higher. BA also uses revenue based earning unlike VS which is still miles based.

      When it comes to household accounts though, anyone can have those in the BA Exec Club, not just Silver and Gold status holders so BA definitely wins there.

    • marks7389 says:

      14 Feb14 February 09:54

      Depends on what benefits you value most, but it is more than just about lounge access.

      When it comes to airport benefits priority check-in*, fast track security, lounge access and priority boarding VS Silver=BA Bronze and VS Gold=BA Silver. That equivalence is also true for free advance seat selection, albeit in economy only as, unlike BA, VS seat selection in premium economy and business class is free anyway.

      *BA Bronze gets business class check-in, so arguably better that VS Silver which only gets premium economy class check-in.

      When it comes to extra luggage allowance, VS Silver is better than BA Silver, though, with the latter only giving an extra piece in economy whereas the former gives one extra piece regardless of the class of travel. Extra points/miles earning also tips in VS’s favour with VS Silver similar to BA Silver at around 30% extra and VS Gold slightly better that BA Gold at 60% higher. BA also uses revenue based earning unlike VS which is still miles based.

      When it comes to household accounts though, anyone can have those in the BA Exec Club, not just Silver and Gold status holders so BA definitely wins there.

• Noggins says:

  14 Feb14 February 07:11

  It’s worth knowing that uploading a copy of your membership card that only has your initial and surname is not satisfactory. It took me 4 tries to satisfy Virgin. In the end only a screenshot from the BA app would suffice. This screen shows my Christian name on the same screen. Quite a palaver….

  • Rose Hall says:

    26 Feb26 February 12:28

    Yes I’ve had this issue too and sent them screenshots. I’m not sure why I’ve bothered with it really as looking at comments it seems that BA might be better anyway.

• LittleNick says:

  14 Feb14 February 07:43

  Do you know if they’ll run the regular status match offer without the extra uplift after this offer is over? Would like to take part but can’t commit to a new trip right now

  • AL says:

    14 Feb14 February 07:48

    Yes – they have done for quite some time.

  • Rob says:

    14 Feb14 February 07:48

    Yes, it is permanent

    • daveinitalia says:

      14 Feb14 February 09:00

      Have you seen the regular status match requirements? https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/eu/en/flying-club/members/status-match.html They’re insane! For Lufthansa you need to be HON (their equivalent of GGL) to get VS Gold, for United you need to be Premier 1K to get Gold. AA ExpPlat.

      I really think they need to get their status match levels set to reality. Most people will NOT consider BA Silver to be equal to VS Silver because for many lounge is the key thing. The current status match with BA for most would seem like more sensible levels, not a case of exceeding. BA silver is considered the sweet spot in BAEC as it gets you alliance wide lounge access, VS silver isn’t considered a sweet spot.

      Most other status matches recognise BA silver is like gold in most other schemes.

      • newbz says:

        14 Feb14 February 23:18

        I suspect VS folks don’t fully understand how much more difficult it is to get to LH HON, UA 1K etc. compared to VS Gold. But then, I also suspect that while the status match promo can create a bit of a short-term spike in VS bookings, these customers are not sticky. I did a status match a couple of years ago, have had a couple of flights over that time but that’s it – VS’s limited network and aircraft roulette (Rob knows something about it!) mean that I won’t be a regular customer.

        I also did the BMI to BA status match over a decade ago and have been BA Gold since…

  • Gordon says:

    14 Feb14 February 08:05

    Same here.

• Internet179 says:

  14 Feb14 February 07:58

  If my BA status runs out in August but the Virgin flight is only booked for November, will this still work?

  • Mark says:

    14 Feb14 February 08:51

    Yes. Mine runs out in March, but the flight not booked until December. Got the match confirmation email.

• conspicuous-capybara says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:26

  I was rejected because my Gold status expires at the end of the month and my Virgin flight is later in the year. I’d have thought if they target BA specifically for a status match they’d know about soft landings, and that I’d still have Silver at the time of the flight.

  Sure, I can apply once I’m downgraded to Silver but then this offer has expired and I’d just end up with Virgin Silver, which I’m far less fussed about. Oh well.

• Julian says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:12

  Rob,

  You don’t seem to mention those miserable all too heavily earthbound and/or personally only funded air travelling wretches in your readership such as myself who only has humble BA Blue Exec Club Membership but we are actually the vast bulk of BA Exec Club members in numerical terms I’m quite sure, even though we are I expect bottom of the average miles flown per year per customer league as a sub group of BA travellers.

  Is Virgin also offering us any form of status uplift to for instance their Bronze tier if we book a qualifying flight with Virgin by midnight tonight???

  • Rhys says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:14

    Obviously not, otherwise it would be in the article!

  • Mark says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:48

    There is no Virgin Bronze tier!

    • daveinitalia says:

      14 Feb14 February 10:34

      There is, it’s called silver!

      • marks7389 says:

        14 Feb14 February 10:47

        Well I suppose on that basis you could say they’re offering to ‘enhance’ (match) BA Blue… to VS Red! 🙂

• Dominic Barrington says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:23

  Years ago, I think I did a match to VS from Little Red (the long-since departed domestic airline that Virgin attempted to make work). Does that bar me from this status match?

  • daveinitalia says:

    14 Feb14 February 10:35

    It can’t do any harm to try, in theory yes it should bar you from a status match here, but there’s always a possibility that the previous match wasn’t noted on your account.

• john says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:40

  whats the benefit of having status if you are flying in upper class anyway?

  • WorldTraveller says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:56

    The benefit is if you’re flying with economy or premium. This applies to any other carriers in their alliance as well.

    • Track says:

      14 Feb14 February 11:12

      Well, in the USA you don’t get a decent lounge for flying First or Business transcon.

      AA Flagship lounges access is via OW Sapphire/Emerald. These lounges still decent though not as impressive as they were in the first year.

  • marks7389 says:

    14 Feb14 February 10:08

    For us, as we typically fly long haul in business, quite often on redemptions, not much. The ability use the credit card voucher as a 2for1 may be useful (we otherwise use them as PE->UC upgrade vouchers, one each per return trip – despite one of Virgin’s agents insisting to me recently that was a waste of a voucher….), and the ability to set up a household account – though I’m not entirely sure what happens when status lapses back to red and I didn’t bother when we previously earned VS Silver status.

  • Travel Strong says:

    14 Feb14 February 12:24

    Using your voucher as a 241 (not 241.5). That’s about it, if you consistently fly upper anyway.

    • Eoc says:

      14 Feb14 February 13:14

      Agreed so the only meaningful gain is saving 50pct of VS points needed for a 241.5 redemption. if not already VS status.
      For long haul I think thats probably better than using 2 vouchers to U/G a return for a couple.Anyone done the maths?

      • marks7389 says:

        14 Feb14 February 13:39

        Yes. It varies. For the peak date Caribbean, 2 x return in UC, I’ve just booked it would be:

        1. 110K points with two vouchers for upgrade (what we did)
        2. 135K points with one voucher and status (2for1)
        3. 202.5K (!) points with one voucher and no status (2for1.5)

        The agent I spoke when I booked the outbound was trying to persuade me that option 3 was better than option 1, which it wouldn’t even if I needed to book a second trip within the voucher validity period and paid full points for the second trip (270K) having already used both vouchers!

        With status, 2xUC on some routes/dates do work out cheaper as a 2for1 than two upgrades. I seem to recall that is the minority though; otherwise it depends on how many vouchers you have of course and what other uses you have for them before they expire.

        • Eoc says:

          14 Feb14 February 16:42

          Thats great thanks for that.
          In that Jan offer just gone I got the same thing for 88k to Antigua . But now I have this status and one voucher left I was pondering whether to put another £10K into the next year for a second one .Hmmn an Amex MR transfer of 25K is better, then put 10K into Barclaycard or BAPP for a a bigger 241 opportunity. Choices choices 🙂

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