virgin atlantic flying club

[martin1]

hi has anyone joined virgins flying club we have just joined and i have got my miles for my miami trip last nov. can anyone explain how it works . and is it liek the supermarket loyalty cards and you have to spend thousands and thousands to get anywhere with it? just curious i have been looking at virgin atlantics website and havent got a clue any help appreciated thanks

[LeonieM]

I'm a Virgin Frequent Flyer - but like you haven't really seen anything for it. You will get 10% discount on holidays booked direct with Virgin Holidays, and you are supposed to get special deals and stuff. Airmiles are stupid - you need tens of thousands to even get across the Atlantic! To put it in perspective, I'll get about 5,000 just for booking 3 Virgin flights. Now, that is more than the number of miles to the US, but it doesn't work mile-for-mile.

There should be a link through Virginholidays.co.uk to get to the Frequent Flyers section. You should also get newsletters via e-mail - well, I do anyway.

If all else fails, try googling 'Virgin Frequent Flyers' and see if that brings up a site for you to look at.

[loobylou]

Yes we have joined the virgin flying club. We booked our hol through virgin holidays and got 10% discount. if you book through virgin atlantic you don't get 10% discount.
You can book upgrades where you buy an economy flight and upgrade with the required miles depending where you are travelling depends on the amount of miles you need. Book miles & money flights where you buy discounted flights with your miles.
If you log onto the virgin atlantic site click on flying club then spend miles, theres a spending miles calculator and upgrade/companion flights to click onto and it will show you how many miles you need for your trip. It's quite hard to explain.

We have also got a virgin american express card that we use for everything and pay it off straight away. You get 1 point for every £1 spent.

Hope my waffle helps you!!!

[loobylou]

The frequent virgin club is different from the flying club. To join the Frequent flyers you a have to be invited to join. Taken from the frequent website.
General Questions about Frequent Virgin Club
How do I join the club?
Membership is by invitation only and is available to any UK household who has travelled with Virgin Holidays at least twice within the last four years, with a cumulative holiday spend of £6,000 or more. The bookings must have been made directly with Virgin Holidays in order to qualify.

How do i remain a member of the club?
When you are invited into the Club your membership is valid for 4 years from the date you booked your last holiday with Virgin Holidays. In order to remain a member you will need to travel again twice within this 4 year period, with a cumulative holiday spend of £6,000 or more.

What is the Flying club?
The Flying club is Virgin Atlantic’s loyalty club (see www.virginatlantic.com for details). This is an air miles based club and works by collecting air miles whenever you fly with Virgin Atlantic and its partners. You can be a member of both loyalty clubs, however you can only use one membership when you make a booking with Virgin Holidays.

We are members of both clubs.
Don't forget to get other members of your family to join and collect their own miles. Plus if you recommend a 'friend' you get bonus miles when they have taken their first flight. I will get three lots of bonus miles when we come back from florida as I refered my hubby, son who's 13 and our friends who are coming with us.

[Catlady]

We belong to the Virgin Club. This year we used our points to upgrade from economy to premium. Hubby used to have a business American Express card which helped us accumalate lots of miles. The deal sounds good but you have to pay the flexible economy rate which was about £600 then use your points to upgrade. I think we saved about £150 each which isn't bad.

[martin1]

how many flights do u need to take in a year to make it worthwhile??

[Catlady]

The points last for three years. If you are going to travel Premium (which we do as Hubby is a big guy and wouldn't be comfy in economy at all) its worth collecting the points. If you are travelling Virgin in May its worth signing up regardless of how many flights you take later.:D

[martin1]

well we have signed up the other day catlady i managed to get my miles frommy flight to miami and back last november. does it take a lot of flights to get a free upgrade?? we normally travel economy , premium is a little expensive but we will do it one day

[spencem]

10,000 miles will get you a one way upgrade from FULL Economy to PE. 30,000 to Upper Class.

You have to have the flexible economy fare though, not the cheapest one you see on their web site. If you call the Flying Club number on the membership card they will sort you out. One thing I have done in the past is to upgrade from cheapest to flexible with cash and then from there to Upper on miles. This was in LA a couple of years back and it cost me less than £50 in cash.

[martin1]

does the miles you get refer to how far in miles u actually fly so if for example i fly 8000 miles thats how many i get to put towards discounts/upgrades etc??

[spencem]

Take a look at this http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/frequentflyer/earnmiles/index.jsp it explains it quite well.

There are also other ways to get miles with other companies and special offers.

[LeonieM]

10,000 miles will get you a one way upgrade from FULL Economy to PE. 30,000 to Upper Class.

Ye Gods! I think my total is about 10,000 from 3 flights!!! It would take a further 6 family holidays before we'd all get an upgrade just one way!

Does rather make you wonder if it's worth it ....

The sad thing is, we'd never be bumped up to PE or 1st because our daughter is autistic and booked in as such to get us priority treatment. I'd really love to fly home PE or higher, because we have never been lucky enough to have a flight empty enough to allow us to spread out on our journeys home. Last time we flew out, the plane was less than half full. We always end up on a fully booked flight home, though.

[DaveHD]

My wife and I joined a few yrs back. I don't think its all its cracked up to be ! Everytime I try to book a flight with my miles its works out you save about 100 pounds for about 4,000 miles ! The thing is we stay with Virgin for the kids sake ! It cost's a bit more but at least they get their own tvs unlike Travel City where the screen is blocked out of view ! :angry:

[davedread@gmail.com]

Ye Gods! I think my total is about 10,000 from 3 flights!!! It would take a further 6 family holidays before we'd all get an upgrade just one way!

Does rather make you wonder if it's worth it ....

The sad thing is, we'd never be bumped up to PE or 1st because our daughter is autistic and booked in as such to get us priority treatment. I'd really love to fly home PE or higher, because we have never been lucky enough to have a flight empty enough to allow us to spread out on our journeys home. Last time we flew out, the plane was less than half full. We always end up on a fully booked flight home, though.

You get 12,000 for a round trip from london - orlando so could upgrade one way every other flight , just make sure every family member joins and dont just join up get someone on here to recommend you that way they will get bonus miles :)

[son2307]

You get 12,000 for a round trip from london - orlando so could upgrade one way every other flight , just make sure every family member joins and dont just join up get someone on here to recommend you that way they will get bonus miles :)

Are you saying that all the members of the family have to join the flying club to benefit fully? At the moment it's only myself who's a member - hubby can join but my boys are only 16 & 10 so how would that work.

I only joined in October 2007 so I have got any miles built up yet as I'm not travelling until July this year - will I get the miles automatically on my return or will I have to claim them from Virgin?

Its all a bit confusing if you ask me.:redconfus:eek:

[spencem]

You should both join then you will both gain the miles. So long as you hand over your membership card at check-in or put the details in yourself if you check in on line then your miles should get added automatically. Hang on to the boarding card stubs though just in case.

[son2307]

I'll get my husband to join as well. One thing though - I haven't received my membership card or anything else come to that, apart from an email confirming my membership number. Virgin said I wouldn't get the card or joining pack until I have travelled.
This means that I won't be able to show it at check in???? Bit of a weird way of doing things if you ask me!