Credit card voucher – best use of remaining half?

[NorthernLass]

Morning all. I have an unused half of a Virgin companion/upgrade voucher, having used the first half for MCO-MAN in January. Ideally I would like to use the rest of the voucher before it expires so this would probably need to be for MAN-JFK next March/April, returning on one of the BA day flights. I’d love to try UC but think this is going to cost a disproportionate amount of points as I am only Virgin Red status?
Which way should I use the voucher to get best value out of it, I am still pretty new to VS? TIA.

[AL]

The “value” question is the hardest to answer.

Let’s suggest that the LHR Clubhouse is worth £75/visit based on comparable lounges in comparable airports. Whilst I love the Clubhouse, swapping your vouchers for access to it is probably not the best value.

The question then becomes, ultimately, whether you value cash or points more. To get to Upper with the voucher, you can start in Premium and upgrade with the voucher, paying around £200-£700 in surcharges, on top of the £750-£1000 you’ve already paid for the Premium ticket. This means you’re looking at anywhere from £1000-£17000 for an Upper return ticket, which is definitely a marked discount versus the cash prices for these tickets.

Used as a companion voucher, you’ll be getting what is effectively a cash discount on a return journey. In your case, you could ‘top up’ the journey with cash to complete a full TP-earning trip on VS for two – a percentage of the total trip using the voucher (as a half voucher is only valid for one way), and the remainder in cash. This is probably, I would imagine, your best value, especially as you’re getting TPs, too.

But, “best value” is subjective, unfortunately.

[NorthernLass]

Thanks for the response @AL. It’s only half a voucher though, so it’s going to be a one way journey so presumably a points booking is the only option given the cash price of single tickets.
I’m trying to decide whether the best use is upgrade or 2/1.5 for 1?

[marks7389]

NorthernLass wrote:

Thanks for the response @AL. It’s only half a voucher though, so it’s going to be a one way journey so presumably a points booking is the only option given the cash price of single tickets.
I’m trying to decide whether the best use is upgrade or 2/1.5 for 1?

Of the three we’ve redeemed so far all have been for upgrade (to UC). That was two vouchers (for two) on one trip and one voucher one way combined with Virgin’s 50% points deal in late 2020 for a second trip.

On many routes if you’re Red status then even if you want to do a return UC trip for two with one voucher using it for upgrade on one of the tickets, or one way for both, can work out better than 2for1.5.

For PE travel though, if there are at least two travelling, the 2for1 is probably going to be better.

We’re now Silver due to tier points earned across the two redemption trips, though it’s unlikely we’ll be in a position to benefit from the UC 2for1 anyway as not planning a further booking before it expires.

@Anna, if you had another voucher you could upgrade three of you one way. I still wonder if you could have used it to save some further points for the third ticket on your return from MCO.

[NorthernLass]

Thanks – I know, but it’s academic now! You live and learn with these things. It’s just going to be 2 of us on a short break which NYC ticks the boxes for, so I’m looking to use the rest of the Virgin voucher so it doesn’t go to waste, but it’s not the end of the world if it does as we’ll have another 2 by the end of this year. It feels like a lot of points to have to pay the extra for UC so maybe PE is the way to go – especially as getting lounge access at MAN is nothing to write home about! If there was a Clubhouse, it might be a different matter.