Does Economy Delight earn more points than Premium?

[NorthernLass]

I’ve just done a couple of searches to see how many Virgin points are earned for cash bookings and both showed significantly more for flying in Economy Delight than Premium Economy. Is this correct, and if so, why?

[PJJ]

Hi Anna. I’ve noticed that in the past too. If I remember correctly it’s over 10k points but only about £100 more, so £70.00 worth of points more, bigger seat etc. I do believe Rob done an article about it, however, it was probably 2 to 3 years ago.

[NorthernLass]

Surely Premium Economy is a higher cabin than Economy Delight though? This is what’s confusing me. I’ll see if I can find the article, thanks.

[The Savage Squirrel]

Yes it’s 150% of base miles flown on econ’ delight but only 100% on (non-flex) PE. It’s not even that far short of Upper Class two cabins higher which earns 200%!

Just a little factor to look at when assessing price differentials I guess. Wouldn’t change my thinking too much as my opinion is that the quality jump from econ’ to the PE cabin is far bigger for Virgin than BA.

[NorthernLass]

Thanks – I wonder why that is? I was considering booking PE flights for next summer and using the cc voucher to upgrade the 2 outbound seats to UC, thinking that the miles earned on PE would offset the 50% miles you need for the upgrade for red status members but that wouldn’t quite be the case. Really keen to start flying with VS because of the direct routes from MAN but it’s quite complicated as a newbie! I’m starting to understand why a couple of friends of mine who collect Virgin miles don’t seem to have a clue what to do with them 😂

[NorthernLass]

Though just looking again at the HFP guide to the Virgin card, it looks as though you might only need to pay the 50% points if you’re using the voucher as a 241, not if you’re upgrading? It is really confusing!

[The Savage Squirrel]

NorthernLass wrote:

Thanks – I wonder why that is? I was considering booking PE flights for next summer and using the cc voucher to upgrade the 2 outbound seats to UC, thinking that the miles earned on PE would offset the 50% miles you need for the upgrade for red status members but that wouldn’t quite be the case. Really keen to start flying with VS because of the direct routes from MAN but it’s quite complicated as a newbie! I’m starting to understand why a couple of friends of mine who collect Virgin miles don’t seem to have a clue what to do with them 😂

+1 to complexity and lack of availability. Ended up shipping a load of Virgin points to Hilton which loses a fair chunk of value, but at least is something I can always use easily – which is a form of adding back value, I guess.
Particularly for an East coast flight outbound, but probably even Vegas, I would have said honestly don’t bother unless prices are attractive, as Virgin PE is enough comfort for anyone normal on a leisure day flight, you get to use UC checkin facilities, and MAN’s lounge options were basically pants anyway – so there was almost no benefit. HfP news on when their Clubhouse might open is so scanty I’m not even sure it’s still going to happen (to be fair this most likely means there isn’t any news to publish) but that might shift the equation significantly. It also might explain the strange points-earning tiers, as basically PE is a bit TOO attractive vs UC from Manchester and probably cannibalises its business.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2019/09/30/virgin-atlantic-opening-a-clubhouse-at-manchester/