Virgin Atlantic AMEX Card

Virgin Atlantic AMEX Card

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Discussion

okgo

37,860 posts

197 months

Wednesday 15th June 2016
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okgo said:
rich12 said:
I did look at UC inbound but my reason for staying PE is that yes we will just be sleeping (night flight) so don't really want to pay cicra £2k to sleep whereas I know we will really enjoy UC on the way out.
PE is a pile of st, its barely any better than E - I actually laughed out loud at the offer of 'prosecco' and 'priority boarding' I mean, is that IT? All you pay for is a £85p glass of crap and a chance to sit down for ten minutes more. Pathetic.

I would do as you say, make use of the UC on the way out, food, booze, etc - lets be honest, on no plane without a proper cabin (not sure VA have these yet?) are you going to get a 'good' nights sleep, so makes little odds.

DonkeyApple

54,932 posts

168 months

Wednesday 15th June 2016
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craig1912 said:
I use a Halifax Clarity Card- no fees and the exchange rate used doesn't rip you off either
The rate is the VISA rate which interestingly has a spread that is about 100 times wider than the underlying market wink

You can work out their spread here: https://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchang...


craig1912

3,273 posts

111 months

Wednesday 15th June 2016
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DonkeyApple said:
The rate is the VISA rate which interestingly has a spread that is about 100 times wider than the underlying market wink

You can work out their spread here: https://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchang...
It's actually MasterCard which interestingly is generally better than Visa

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2015/0...

and in the overall scheme of things if it doesn't charge a fee and exchange rate is reasonable I'm not going to miss the odd euro

shakotan

10,679 posts

195 months

Wednesday 15th June 2016
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rich12 said:
Hi,

I've been looking into this today and trying to see if it would actually benefit me.

They are currently 'giving' 18,500 miles for signing up (after first purchase) and another 11,500 miles after spending £3k.
I currently have around 10,000 miles and am booked to go to Barbados in August.

What I can't seem to find the answer for is would I be able to use them against an upgrade for Barbados or is that too soon?
It says that I would need 80,000 miles to upgrade to upperclass both ways so would need to do abit of spending but what i'm trying to workout is it a false economy as i'm not a frequent flyer so wouldn't exactly be racking up miles from just flying.

For example, i've seen you can actually buy miles (80,000 = £1200 which is half the price of actually buying upperclass tickets) so surely it's not that simple.

Hope this makes sense!
Got a link to this offer? I can only find the Black card with the first 18,500 miles, not with the additional 11,500 follow-up.

DonkeyApple

54,932 posts

168 months

Wednesday 15th June 2016
quotequote all
craig1912 said:
DonkeyApple said:
The rate is the VISA rate which interestingly has a spread that is about 100 times wider than the underlying market wink

You can work out their spread here: https://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchang...
It's actually MasterCard which interestingly is generally better than Visa

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2015/0...

and in the overall scheme of things if it doesn't charge a fee and exchange rate is reasonable I'm not going to miss the odd euro
Yup just 90 times wider today. Obviously this is all irrelevant if you are just putting a couple of hundred quid in a card but almost no one understands how physical fx is vended or regulated which is why so many threads crop up saying fix is comm free. It's never come free and without getting the two way price (which vendors will work to mask) then no one can easily see the spread and it's the spread that determines what you are really paying in comm. that and the skew from mid.

A credit card followed by a debit card will always be just about the most expensive way to buy currency after a tourist desk but it's a trade off for convenience etc.

rich12

Original Poster:

3,461 posts

153 months

Wednesday 15th June 2016
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shakotan said:
Got a link to this offer? I can only find the Black card with the first 18,500 miles, not with the additional 11,500 follow-up.
My mistake. Somehow I completely missed the 'before 14th July 2014'.

I'm sure it didn't say that but either I miss read it or it literally expired between posting and your post.


Craikeybaby

10,369 posts

224 months

Tuesday 28th June 2016
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I got this card and it has booseted my Virgin Miles, (I used to fly to Japan a lot with them before they canned the Tokyo flight) but as the OP has found out it isn't easy to use the points for upgrades to an existing booking. I had wanted to use them for my honeymoon last year, but it looks like I'll need to use them on another trip in a few years time - they can also be used against Virgin Holidays.