Easy to get Virgin Atlantic to status match BAEC Silver status?

[Ash]

I’ve seen the Virgin form online – just wondering if its a no quibbles match and importantly, quick?

Do they match the same end date as your BAEC silver status?

[Thegasman]

Virgin match Silver to Silver but they’re not remotely equivalent, most importantly there’s no lounge access with Virgin Silver.

Virgin’s default position for a status match is that you have to show a history of flights on a VS route & also buy a cash ticket with them. They give you a year of status initially.

They have previously done matches from BA with no questions asked but that is not current policy.

[Rob]

This isn’t the current deal. The current deal is only that you must have a booked flight (cash) in Upper or Premium. No requirement to show a history of past flights.

Submit your application and it is acknowledged within 2-3 days. Your status is upgraded THE DAY BEFORE YOU FLY.

I did this myself recently.

[WaynedP]

Thanks, very helpful for me.

I think I’ll try to status match my BA Gold with Virgin, but take it on the chin if it fails.

Spoke with a lovely lady at Virgin tonight for nearly 90 minutes while she sorted out two UC return tickets to JNB for my wife and me from a very old 2020 booking that was Covid cancelled several times. Original fares were Prem Economy upgraded for both of us with (long since expired) vouchers. So at least there is an underlying cash element to my ticket to possibly pin a status match on.

I’m amazed that the kind folk at Virgin have rebooked for Feb at no charge whatsoever. Terms said no amendment fee, and for a while during Covid Virgin applied something like a £350 credit to offset any price differential between cancelled and rebooked UC flights, so I was expecting to have to pay something, given that current cash cost of UC return flights in Feb 2023 exceeds £3,700 per pax.

But Virgin haven’t charged me a penny which I think is worth a shout out. Thanks, Sir Richard !

My BA Gold expires 31 Jan several weeks before our Virgin long weekend to South Africa, so that may well kill my chances of a successful status match and I can hardly complain if it did.

Virgin have already outdone themselves on outstanding customer delivery in my books.

[tjob81]

I’m on a very similar position to you, old cancelled covid booking. Did you keep a copy of the terms that applied at the time or did they tell you?

[Ash]

Does it work in reverse? Will BAEC status match Virgin Silver?

[RebeccaLondon]

My silver status expires tomorrow. I saw this thread earlier this morning and applied for status match with virgin immediately as I have a PE flight booked for March. Status match has been confirmed already 🙂 will be applied three days before the flight. Nice.

[RonnieB]

As others have said, Virgin Silver virtually worthless. Now it would be good if you could get a match to Delta.

[yonasl]

Virgin mentions you can keep gold if you get 1000 points.

I am familiar with the TPs table but for VA I am unable to find an easy way to figure out what that involves.

[WaynedP]

tjob81 wrote:

I’m on a very similar position to you, old cancelled covid booking. Did you keep a copy of the terms that applied at the time or did they tell you?

I could probably dig out the T&Cs applying at the time the ticket was purchased around mid 2020.

But to be honest, by the time they were Covid cancelled for the umpteenth time, any original terms had already gone for a ball of chalk.

I know I definitely didn’t buy fully flex because I was desperate to get back to South Africa as soon as possible at the time and had carte blanche from work on compassionate grounds.

Reason it was never used was because I booked BA as well and ended up flying with them in the first week of SA travel restrictions being lifted in December 2020.

When UK imposed travel restrictions in 2021, Virgin cancelled for the last time and I kept the stated T&Cs included in that cancellation email, which I thought were extremely generous : essentially Virgin stated that they would hold it as an open ticket without any change fee until 31 March 2023 which was two years’ flexibility at the time.

There was always the expectation of having to pay any difference in ticket price when re-booking (to allow for potential large jump in price from say off-peak cancellation to peak re-booking).

I think that’s fair enough, and during Covid Virgin actually went further by applying an “up to” amount to offset any price difference. I think it was £350 for UC, which they wouldn’t have felt the need to do if there had been a policy of “absolutely no cost re-booking”.

I can send you those T&Cs or post them here if you need them, but they may not be applicable to your particular circumstances.

The lady on the phone from Virgin informed me of a “value” for each of the tickets, which agreed with the price I paid for the underlying Prem Econ seats at the time, about 2k for both tickets.

I was expecting her to quote me a fare difference of several thousand, possibly reduced by some valuation of the (by now expired) upgrade vouchers I used to upgrade them into G class, but she just told me that she and her manager were going to rebook them to the dates I’d said were my ideal wish list at no charge as long as I didn’t change the destination from JNB (I had asked about CPT instead).

It did take 90 minutes on the phone with her, with several pauses while she consulted her manager and what she called “technical” at one stage.

I really consider it a big win, given that cash prices are over £7,400 for two return tickets, and PE cash tickets are around half of that plus I would need to use additional vouchers & miles to upgrade.

She said tickets would take 5-7 days, but are already showing on the App with 13 digit e-ticket numbers starting 932.

Very generous of them, I think. I’ve booked domestic flights with the “saving” and my wife and I look forward to spending the long weekend of my birthday next year celebrating with Uni chums and their wives somewhere nice in Cape Town.

Hope you enjoy similar success with your rebooking.

[AL]

Ash wrote:

Does it work in reverse? Will BAEC status match Virgin Silver?

No. BAEC rarely runs status matches, unless you happen to be about to do a big corporate deal with them. The two aren’t comparable – BAEC Silver gives you a free day pass to a zoo of your choice, whereas Clubhouse access is for Golds only.

[AL]

yonasl wrote:

Virgin mentions you can keep gold if you get 1000 points. I am familiar with the TPs table but for VA I am unable to find an easy way to figure out what that involves.

Five sectors in full-fare Upper (J, C, D or I) – 200 TPs/sector
Ten sectors in discounted Upper (Z) or in G, so long as you paid points with the YQ in cash – 100 TPs/sector
Ten sectors in full-fare Premium (W or S) – 100 TPs/sector
Twenty sectors in discounted Premium (P), so long as you paid points with the YQ in cash – 50 TPs/sector
Twenty sectors in full-fare Economy (V, L, U, M, Y, B or R) – 50 TPs/sector
Forty sectors in discounted Economy (E, Q, X, N, O or T) – 25 TPs/sector
Forty sectors in discounted Economy (A), so long as you paid points with the YQ in cash – 25 TPs/sector

I have been receiving full TPs for G of late, but that might be a hidden Gold benefit.

You earn TPs on redemptions (as above), but also with other airlines, including DL, KL and AF. That list might widen in the next few months given SkyTeam membership.

[AL]

RonnieB wrote:

As others have said, Virgin Silver virtually worthless. Now it would be good if you could get a match to Delta.

You get a partial match to DL – my VS Gold is recognised by DL, but I have only rarely been successful on the upgrade list. I have got every standby seat I wanted, though. All other benefits, like SkyPriority etc., were given to me. The “challenge” is that DL map VS Gold to DL Gold, (both are SkyTeam Elite Plus), but there are also DL Plats and Diamonds above that, with benefits that the Golds can’t obtain. I toyed with pushing for DL Platinum (because I did enough TPs in 2023 to justify getting it), but because DL status is based on spend, not mileage, I didn’t bother trying as that involves a protracted conversation with the work travel agent.

This should get easier in the next few months, but I suspect DL will always prefer a DL over a VS status holder.

[Jan M]

Anyone know if Virgin would do a status match from AF/KLM Flying Blue, if I bought an upper class ticket? (I know it seems unlikely.) I would love to use the Clubhouse rather than KLM’s depressing Aspire lounge at Heathrow.

[AL]

Jan M wrote:

Anyone know if Virgin would do a status match from AF/KLM Flying Blue, if I bought an upper class ticket? (I know it seems unlikely.) I would love to use the Clubhouse rather than KLM’s depressing Aspire lounge at Heathrow.

The list of airlines they match against is at https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/pk/en/flying-club/members/status-match.html. Flying Blue is excluded, given I suppose the relationship that exists with them through the DL JV.

Even if you did get a match, you’d need to get to Flying Club Gold for Clubhouse access, and access to the Clubhouse is only available to Golds (there used to be a blind eye turned to this rule, but given the rise in Golds on status matching, it’s now being enforced) travelling with VAA. I’m fairly sure @Rob has mentioned that they won’t be allowing KL/AF etc. in to the Clubhouse post-Skyteam launch, too. All in, even if you could get it, it might not be too much use to you.

[conspicuous-capybara]

I have an upcoming flight that was initially a VS Upper flight, but due to a cancellation I changed it to a DL flight. It still has a VS flight number. Any idea if that will still be eligible for a status match?

[AL]

conspicuous-capybara wrote:

I have an upcoming flight that was initially a VS Upper flight, but due to a cancellation I changed it to a DL flight. It still has a VS flight number. Any idea if that will still be eligible for a status match?

You should do, yes.