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That got your attention – but I do feel pretty thick as I just cannot get my head around Vouchers (I think I now have 2)
I have 400,000+ Points
Looking at a ONE WAY Heathrow to Miami on March 7th 2025 for TWO Adults.
POINTS FARES
Economy Classic = 25,000 points + £427
Premium = 45,000 + £789
Upper = 95,000 + £1248
CASH FARES (COUGH)
Economy Delight = £3837
Premium = £4771
Upper = £13049
What would your suggestions be to get the best VALUE from using a Voucher please?
And, what would your suggestion cost me?
I’d like to be Premium at least
THANK YOU !!!
One-way cash fares are always going to be extortionate, so forget that!
VS redemptions are not great value on US routes, especially one way (I am just starting to realise this). Are you connecting to a cruise?
You don’t say what kind of voucher it is or how you plan to use it! There are various permutations of what you can do with the Virgin credit card voucher, if that’s what is it – your VFC status will have also an impact on this.
If this was me, I would use the voucher as a 241 in PE or to upgrade to UC. Obviously with the upgrade option you pay the UC taxes, etc, but this may well be worth it for the UC experience – others may be able to confirm this!
One-way cash fares are always going to be extortionate, so forget that!
VS redemptions are not great value on US routes, especially one way (I am just starting to realise this). Are you connecting to a cruise?
You don’t say what kind of voucher it is or how you plan to use it! There are various permutations of what you can do with the Virgin credit card voucher, if that’s what is it – your VFC status will have also an impact on this.
Yes its for a Transatlantic Cruise back to Southampton.
We are currently Silver with Virgin (but not for much longer)
I’ve just amended my post above with my preference in this situation, but I think if you’re Silver you don’t have to pay the extra points for a 241 booking – I don’t know if it’s status at the time of booking or flying counts, though.
There’s an HFP article on the voucher and its uses.
https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/05/18/how-to-use-virgin-atlantic-credit-card-vouchers/
Yep I went thru that several times but didnt quite understand the ins and out of going from Delight to UC using a Voucher – it seemed like the cost in points and fees was no different to just booking UC with points to begin with.
I’d usually just phone Virgin and let them do it but my last 2 experiences have been terrible – they even moved our seats on one occassion when we went from Premium to UC and we were on DIFFERENT PLANES !! (not kidding). They corrected it when I noticed half-hour later but I just don’t trust them to be fully competent.
If you are booking 1 way its always going to be crazy cash wise, and ex-USA will also have high surcharges from a reward perspective.
For 2 people you could use 1 voucher to ‘upgrade’ your cabin, so:
1) eco->premium it would be 2x 25k points plus 2x £789 cash (50k points + £1578)
2) premium->upper is 2x 45k points plus 2x £1249 cash (90k points + £2496)Neither is great value IMO but assume you are flying back from a cruise, so 1 way is all you need. Weirdly it would actually be cheaper for the cash element to book an outbound from London and return from the USA using 2 vouchers.
You could also use it as a companion voucher to use as a 241 but this would be 95k points + £2496 if you are silver/gold. If you are just red its 1.5 times the points.
I have 400,000+ Points
YOLO. Use voucher for 2-4-1 in Upper.
If you are doing this as a cruise check what offers your cruise line offers for cash one way fares.
btw 7th March 2025 is right to the limit of the todays booking range and airlines seem to release only their most expensive fares on day 1 of release. Give it a couple of days to a week for the lower fare buckets to be released and those fares might come down but as noted one ways are always going to be expensive.
Given you look to be using points that 95k for the two of you in Upper looks to me to be good value even without using any sort of voucher.
You’re going to have to phone Virgin anyway to use the voucher so you probably need a firm idea of what you want them to do first!
241 in UC is going to cost you extra points unless your Silver status counts at the time of booking, rather than flying. I suspect it might be the former, as of course they don’t know whether you will lose it or not in the interim.
I would use the voucher for whichever option costs the least points for your chosen cabin (no point in wasting them, even though you have loads!), so:
241 in PE
241 in UC
Upgrade from Y to PE
Upgrade from PE to UC@paul-uk You should leverage your silver status here and just go UC – It’ll cost you 45,000 points (as your voucher is a true 2-4-1 as a silver member) plus 2x TFCs (so a total of £1,248, as you’ve already identified). Seatspy shows plenty of availability for March 6th and I assume the flights for the 7th are released overnight today?
If you value your VS points @1p then that’s equivalent to a total cost of £1,698 or £849 pp. I think that’s a pretty decent deal for use of the Upper Class Wing and Clubhouse lounge at Heathrow, followed by UC service to Miami. VS PE is decent but UC is better. Sounds like a good start to your cruise holiday to me 🙂
You’ll still have half your voucher left if it isn’t expiring very soon.
Also, if you have any Amex cards with the Virgin offer on (£250 off £1,500 spend) you may want to consider also using your voucher at the same time (as you’ll need to call Virgin CS) to buy a one-way points flight somewhere that will tip your VS TFCs total spend past £1,500. Perhaps to Tel-Aviv, with PE or UC TFCs one-way being £288 and lots of availability? You’ll get the £250 cashback and can then cancel at a cost of the taxes alone. Don’t tell them I said to do that though!
PS If saving money is THE top priority then just do the PE option instead – £789 + 22.5k points is equivalent to a bargainous £507 per person.
I have 400,000+ Points
YOLO. Use voucher for 2-4-1 in Upper.
Thats what I’m not understanding – how much/points will it cost if I use a voucher
Also, as I’m Silver Status can I book Economy Delight and use a Voucher to go UC?
If so, can I book EC Delight with points/cash and the upgrade?
Then, can I use the 2nd voucher to do the same for my wife?
Its all a little confusing
PS If saving money is THE top priority then just do the PE option instead – £789 + 22.5k points is equivalent to a bargainous £507 per person.
That option would use 1 voucher is that correct?
I have a choice of 2 flights that day – one with Airbus A330-900neo and the other on a Boeing 787-9
If I travelled UC then I believe the Neo is far superior to the 787
However, if I go Premium Economy then the seat width on the 787 is 22″ compared to only 18.5″ on the Neo.
I’m a “wider gentleman” so think the PE on the 787 will be my choice.
I have 400,000+ Points
YOLO. Use voucher for 2-4-1 in Upper.
Thats what I’m not understanding – how much/points will it cost if I use a voucher
Also, as I’m Silver Status can I book Economy Delight and use a Voucher to go UC?
If so, can I book EC Delight with points/cash and the upgrade?
Then, can I use the 2nd voucher to do the same for my wife?
Its all a little confusing
Have you read my post earlier? Ignore the cash element as i got that wrong put the points requirements should be correct as i made a redemption not too long ago.
How many cabins can you upgrade? It’s my understanding that you can only go from Economy to PE or PE to UC, does Rob’s article not cover this?
How many cabins can you upgrade? It’s my understanding that you can only go from Economy to PE or PE to UC, does Rob’s article not cover this?
BA place the restriction; VS do not. You can upgrade from any cabin to any cabin, in any possible way. The only exception is that you cannot upgrade at all from Economy Light (and you’d be stupid to purchase Economy Light, to be honest).
So, you can do Economy Classic to Upper using cash to Premium and then a voucher. Or you could use two vouchers. Or miles and a voucher. The only requirement is that there is award availability in *all* cabins you’ll pass through – so, if you’ve got a cash Economy ticket, you’ll need reward P and reward G to exist on the flight to get to Upper.
How many cabins can you upgrade? It’s my understanding that you can only go from Economy to PE or PE to UC, does Rob’s article not cover this?
BA place the restriction; VS do not. You can upgrade from any cabin to any cabin, in any possible way. The only exception is that you cannot upgrade at all from Economy Light (and you’d be stupid to purchase Economy Light, to be honest).
So, you can do Economy Classic to Upper using cash to Premium and then a voucher. Or you could use two vouchers. Or miles and a voucher. The only requirement is that there is award availability in *all* cabins you’ll pass through – so, if you’ve got a cash Economy ticket, you’ll need reward P and reward G to exist on the flight to get to Upper.
Availability showing in all cabins on both flights that day, so the above would mean the options are:
25,000 points + 2 upgrade vouchers + £1,249
45,000 points + 1 upgrade voucher + £1,249
47,500 points + 1 2-4-1 voucher + £1,249So I would say if you might have another opportunity to use a voucher before it expires then go for 45k + 1 voucher, otherwise go for 25k + both.
Having said that I am pretty sure I tried to do a double upgrade before and was told it’s not possible, so in practice 45k + 1 voucher may be the only option.
I have 400,000+ Points
YOLO. Use voucher for 2-4-1 in Upper.
Thats what I’m not understanding – how much/points will it cost if I use a voucher
Also, as I’m Silver Status can I book Economy Delight and use a Voucher to go UC?
If so, can I book EC Delight with points/cash and the upgrade?
Then, can I use the 2nd voucher to do the same for my wife?
Its all a little confusing
It depends on whether you are using the voucher as a 2-4-1 or an upgrade @paul-uk
As you are silver status the voucher can be used as a true 2-4-1, where you only pay taxes fees and charges for the second passenger but no points. This is usually advantageous versus the second use case, where you upgrade, which involves paying the points from the lower cabin but the TFCs of the higher one. The upgrade route is better where you have no Virgin status, as the voucher then becomes a 2-4-1.5 if you are using it that way and then overall costs become higher than using it as an upgrade.
You only need one voucher to do a return trip as a 2-4-1, hence my comment above that you’d still have ‘half’ a voucher remaining if you only flow one-way using it as a 2-4-1.
If you are going the upgrade route you’d use up one whole voucher on 2 people one-way (in other words, you’d need two vouchers to upgrade two people on a return).
Booked a different cruise so needed a different flight to MIA too.
No UC available so booked 2 x PE for 45,000 and £785 for the two of us.
Did ring call centre but the guy helpfully pointed out the waste of a voucher if we used it as it would only save 22,500 points.
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