Will there be a Black Friday sale?

[FreqTraveler1210]

With the recent changes seen to the Virgin Flying Club, whilst nobody knows for certain, does anybody anticipate there being a sale on like prior years?

Historically I’ve always used the point sale to take my wife on a quick few day break just before Christmas using miles I’ve accrued from work trips, this year I feel like that might not be the case given the recent changes.

[JohnBart]

Im unsure, they’ve been giving away Amex bonuses, credit card bonuses, buy point and gift point bonuses so I think this is their last card to play but they said the saver seats are equivalent to 50% off so not sure if they would discount them further

last year it was 33% off all points needed for flights up to 11 months ahead which would trigger a lot of cancellations and re bookings

[davefl]

Yes there will be, the marketing department has to justify its existence.

[FreqTraveler1210]

JohnBart wrote:

Im unsure, they’ve been giving away Amex bonuses, credit card bonuses, buy point and gift point bonuses so I think this is their last card to play but they said the saver seats are equivalent to 50% off so not sure if they would discount them further

last year it was 33% off all points needed for flights up to 11 months ahead which would trigger a lot of cancellations and re bookings

That makes sense, I might need to start booking my winter vacation a year ahead now with the new changes rather than last minute in the sales!

[FreqTraveler1210]

davefl wrote:

Yes there will be, the marketing department has to justify its existence.

I’m not too sure, would they not still be celebrating from the huge success of this recent massive overhaul? I hope you are right though!

[AL]

Which huge success, @FreqTraveler1210? I’m their target market and strongly associate with the brand, and even I’m effed off with the recent crap.

[phantomchickenz]

Sale from what though? There is no standard price anymore

[FreqTraveler1210]

AL wrote:

Which huge success, @FreqTraveler1210? I’m their target market and strongly associate with the brand, and even I’m effed off with the recent crap.

I’m their target market and have been gold for years as I have historically only elected to fly with them across the Atlantic, however to clarify I was being sarcastic/facetious with my comment.

I was inferring that they might be thinking that this is a massive win for them so they might not need to offer any deals this thanksgiving.

I typically save all my work related points and then use them to take my wife on last minute trips when I get some downtime which I only know a couple of weeks out typically. Under the old scheme I could check out the reward seat tracker and book something last minute for a decent amount of points, now looking at Christmas it’ll be 242k points for economy or just under 1m points for upper class. So whilst I have historically been very lucky to get upper class last minute a few days before flying, this time I’ll be getting economy for the same points.

Which means I’m now looking at alternative airlines to just do a cash ticket purchase and even looking at the BA AMEX. I don’t even have the Virgin CC card as I accrue points through my work Amex to cover 2-3 personal trips a year, but now considering a switch.

[FreqTraveler1210]

phantomchickenz wrote:

Sale from what though? There is no standard price anymore

I guess we’ll find out in 4 weeks if they are going to offer a sale. I hope points related, but it may just be a few £’s off the ticket price.

[AL]

FreqTraveler1210 wrote:

AL wrote:

Which huge success, @FreqTraveler1210? I’m their target market and strongly associate with the brand, and even I’m effed off with the recent crap.

I’m their target market and have been gold for years as I have historically only elected to fly with them across the Atlantic, however to clarify I was being sarcastic/facetious with my comment.

I was inferring that they might be thinking that this is a massive win for them so they might not need to offer any deals this thanksgiving.

I typically save all my work related points and then use them to take my wife on last minute trips when I get some downtime which I only know a couple of weeks out typically. Under the old scheme I could check out the reward seat tracker and book something last minute for a decent amount of points, now looking at Christmas it’ll be 242k points for economy or just under 1m points for upper class. So whilst I have historically been very lucky to get upper class last minute a few days before flying, this time I’ll be getting economy for the same points.

Which means I’m now looking at alternative airlines to just do a cash ticket purchase and even looking at the BA AMEX. I don’t even have the Virgin CC card as I accrue points through my work Amex to cover 2-3 personal trips a year, but now considering a switch.

Gotcha – the caffeine hadn’t kicked in to understand the sarcasm! We’re in similar boats by the sounds of it, then. I’m a smidgen away from lifetime Gold, and this change has really irked me. As a perennially solo traveller, I don’t mind changing aircraft, so my tactic for a period of time will be to find cheap TATL crossings, then do whoever inside. But, yes, a bit of a mess in all, and will be looking at other carriers in future – sadly, that’ll probably mean BA… sigh.

[FreqTraveler1210]

Gotcha – the caffeine hadn’t kicked in to understand the sarcasm! We’re in similar boats by the sounds of it, then. I’m a smidgen away from lifetime Gold, and this change has really irked me. As a perennially solo traveller, I don’t mind changing aircraft, so my tactic for a period of time will be to find cheap TATL crossings, then do whoever inside. But, yes, a bit of a mess in all, and will be looking at other carriers in future – sadly, that’ll probably mean BA… sigh.[/quote]

Completely agree, I wish I had hindsight to utilise the BA Status Match earlier this year. I’m now in the position of do I suck it up for 2 years as I’m at 8 years consecutive Gold and have exceeded the 7.5k Tier Points required. Or just cut my loses and move over to Avios, maybe only do a few flights with Virgin to keep my Gold and move everything else to another airline for the time being.