Can we now use the 75k/150k on as many passengers as we like?

[thewoat]

As per title. Looking to do a cheap Christmas/NY reward run to get to Silver and get that voucher worth 150k with the reasoning being potentially booking up more than 2 people in a future booking. (essentially 4 one way in Upper, 4 in Economy give or take, giving some relatives the enjoyment of upper in again, off peak dates)

Second one… is it use it all on one booking or lose it in terms of that 150k? I’m very much assuming yes here, but double checking.

Thanks

[NorthernLass]

Not sure about the first one – I feel it should be possible in theory but might depend on the agent’s interpretation.

Second one – I think it’s going to have to be used on one booking as they’ve already said there won’t be any more “half” vouchers.

[marks7389]

It’s always been one companion per voucher or an upgrade of a return trip for one person (or two people one-way).

I haven’t seen anything to suggest that’s changed and I certainly wouldn’t assume that it has. The reason for the cap is to prevent upgrades from saver fares to the more expensive dynamically priced fares with no additional points, or for companion tickets on expensive dynamically priced fares with no additional points (with recognition for Silver/Gold members in how far you can push it).

It’s a cap rather than a quota or a target to max out, and people will probably still get better value using it on flights where they don’t need to.

[marks7389]

To confirm this….. The updated Flying Club terms and conditions are here:

https://help.virginatlantic.com/il/en/policies/terms-and-conditions/flying-club-30-october-2024.html

Nothing has changed in respect of how many people you can use each voucher for:

Upgrade reward: Upgrade one person on a return trip or two sectors, or upgrade two people on one flight.
Companion reward: Take one person with you on either a return trip or two sectors.

[Olly]

marks7389 wrote:

It’s always been one companion per voucher or an upgrade of a return trip for one person (or two people one-way).

I haven’t seen anything to suggest that’s changed and I certainly wouldn’t assume that it has. The reason for the cap is to prevent upgrades from saver fares to the more expensive dynamically priced fares with no additional points, or for companion tickets on expensive dynamically priced fares with no additional points (with recognition for Silver/Gold members in how far you can push it).

It’s a cap rather than a quota or a target to max out, and people will probably still get better value using it on flights where they don’t need to.

Those may be what is in the Ts & Cs but this year I used one voucher for four people one way for half the total points required (this was a surprise to me at the time) on a DXB-LHR sector. This was with the old voucher so it remains to be seen if they are as flexible with the new one

[marks7389]

Olly wrote:

Those may be what is in the Ts & Cs but this year I used one voucher for four people one way for half the total points required (this was a surprise to me at the time) on a DXB-LHR sector. This was with the old voucher so it remains to be seen if they are as flexible with the new one

Not that surprising given that you could previously use half a voucher (as it was one-way), so half for one pair of people and the other half for the other pair on the same flight. If they could do that on the same booking previously, it might still work even if not explicitly covered in the terms and conditions.

If it does, @thewoat might be able use one voucher for four one-way in UC on payment of the miles/cash fare for two people. However, assuming only one voucher none of the others would be discounted, nor would the other direction if booked with Virgin.

[Not Long Now...]

As it’s now a voucher worth a certain number of miles, as opposed to a voucher worth a second seat irrelevant of what the cost was, one could imply that you could use it for as many people as you like, the limiting factor being the number of miles, as the total cost to Virgin is the same, in fact one could say that this would encourage larger bookings and so potentially extra revenue for Virgin. Or Virgin agents/IT could ignore all that and impose whatever they feel like on the day…

[marks7389]

Not Long Now… wrote:

As it’s now a voucher worth a certain number of miles, as opposed to a voucher worth a second seat irrelevant of what the cost was, one could imply that you could use it for as many people as you like, the limiting factor being the number of miles, as the total cost to Virgin is the same, in fact one could say that this would encourage larger bookings and so potentially extra revenue for Virgin. Or Virgin agents/IT could ignore all that and impose whatever they feel like on the day…

The points cap is not the only limit though. The terms and conditions clearly set out how the voucher can be used and the restrictions around using it for one companion (on a return trip/two sectors) or one upgrade (on a return trip/two sectors/two people one-way).

Of course Virgin agents/IT could ignore all that and apply more flexibility, but I wouldn’t bank on that happening.

[NorthernLass]

It’s a shame they can’t do something similar to (but infinitely better than) Barclays and let you take 75k/150k points instead!

[marks7389]

If 75K+ Avios were an option with Barclays no-one in their right mind would ever consider the voucher… 😂

[NorthernLass]

I saved 75k avios with my last Barclays voucher and it was only to DXB, it’s possible to do quite bit better with it!

[tomtom135]

Does anyone know if the vouchers are issued as silver/gold/red etc vouchers or does it just depend on what your status is at the time of booking?

In other words, if my voucher is issued when I’m silver but I book after being downgraded to red, am I then restricted to the 75 instead of 100?

[Froggee]

It is the time of booking.

[marks7389]

NorthernLass wrote:

I saved 75k avios with my last Barclays voucher and it was only to DXB, it’s possible to do quite bit better with it!

I kind of did – 110K saving on 2xLHR-KUL one-way, which ended up being LHR-DOH-KUL and half on QR 🙂

But…. if 75k Avios was on the table it still would have made more sense to take that and book directly with QR.