Changes to Virgin Atlantic points & reward seats

[bigandclever]

And I quote ..

Virgin email said:

From 30th October, every seat onboard, on any date, will be available to pay for with Virgin Points, and that goes for upgrades and reward vouchers too. With points prices that vary based on demand, just like money, you'll be able to search for any flight you like and see the cost in points or pounds.

Fine by me. I've got about a million points that I've never been able to redeem because there were never any reward seats available / left. I have no doubt that they will have rejigged the 'cost' of using them, and this "based on demand" sounds very Oasis Live Nation-y, but still .. maybe I can actually get to use them.

[Saleen836]

has been a lot of talk on various groups regarding this, time will tell but most most are expecting points required for a reward seat during peak times will increase dramatically

[alscar]

bigandclever said:

Fine by me. I've got about a million points that I've never been able to redeem because there were never any reward seats available / left. I have no doubt that they will have rejigged the 'cost' of using them, and this "based on demand" sounds very Oasis Live Nation-y, but still .. maybe I can actually get to use them.

Does a million points still get you a week on Necker Island ?

[craig1912]

bigandclever said:

Fine by me. I've got about a million points that I've never been able to redeem because there were never any reward seats available / left. I have no doubt that they will have rejigged the 'cost' of using them, and this "based on demand" sounds very Oasis Live Nation-y, but still .. maybe I can actually get to use them.

Use mine and a companion seat every year. I do book as soon as the flights are released though. I’m hoping I may use less as we don’t tend to travel at peak times.

[cb31]

I had about 75k from 10 years ago, was never able to use them as there were never any flights available. The other day booked an economy ticket to Dubai and used the points, took it from £530 to £130 so finally got something out of them, looks like it was fortuitous timing.

One annoying thing is even with an economy ticket there were £163 worth of taxes included in that £530, ridiculous.

[havoc]

cb31 said:

One annoying thing is even with an economy ticket there were £163 worth of taxes included in that £530, ridiculous.

Not their fault. That's UK taxation on flights. Blame previous governments.

We were going to points-upgrade our seats for next year, but the taxes on top were c.£600 for 4 of us...which felt like a little bit of a stretch at the time, given we were already stretching our budget to go away during school holidays. So we're sticking with economy*.





* Yes, I know...I need to hand my PH card in now as I'm clearly not a powerfully built director and couldn't even dominate a Stannah stair-lift.

[Saleen836]

A lot of people on a FB group obviously do not understand how dynamic pricing works, the new scheme went live today so a LOT of people have logged in to see how many airmiles it will now take to get a reward flight, of course the dynamic pricing system just sees a lot of searches for flights in peak times (school holidays) so ramps up the amount accordingly

[GCH]

Saleen836 said:

A lot of people on a FB group obviously do not understand how dynamic pricing works, the new scheme went live today so a LOT of people have logged in to see how many airmiles it will now take to get a reward flight, of course the dynamic pricing system just sees a lot of searches for flights in peak times (school holidays) so ramps up the amount accordingly

Not strictly accurate... I know how and when virgin release award seats. I pretty much only fly them across the atlantic and back now, after BA screwed with the redemption rates a few years ago and insist on a race to the bottom.
I was on it immediately when it went live (in fact, I was searching late last night here, expecting the new rates to go live at midnight or 1am, or the early hours UK time) searching very off peak times and not close to school holidays, and for flights next week as I had a trip to book. Normally thats not an issue, and virgin open new award seats closer to departure, especially on low loaded flights. They want the taxes and fees instead of an empty seat.

Flights that were yesterday showing (that have low loads) with multiple award seats available - for 10,000 in econ, and 17000 in premium - are 150,000 in econ today, and as high as 240,000 in premium. Thats ONE WAY too. And about as far from peak flights as possible.
So a round trip JFK-LHR-JFK (outbond in econ, back in premium) for two people that would have cost me 54,000 if booked yesterday, would cost 780,000 if booked today.

It is completely and utterly ridiculous and in no way down to just searches.

Edited by GCH on Wednesday 30th October 21:39

[Saleen836]

GCH said:

Saleen836 said:

A lot of people on a FB group obviously do not understand how dynamic pricing works, the new scheme went live today so a LOT of people have logged in to see how many airmiles it will now take to get a reward flight, of course the dynamic pricing system just sees a lot of searches for flights in peak times (school holidays) so ramps up the amount accordingly

Not strictly accurate... I know how and when virgin release award seats. I pretty much only fly them across the atlantic and back now, after BA screwed with the redemption rates a few years ago and insist on a race to the bottom.
I was on it immediately when it went live (in fact, I was searching late last night here, expecting the new rates to go live at midnight or 1am, or the early hours UK time) searching very off peak times and not close to school holidays, and for flights next week as I had a trip to book. Normally thats not an issue, and virgin open new award seats closer to departure, especially on low loaded flights. They want the taxes and fees instead of an empty seat.

Flights that were yesterday showing (that have low loads) with multiple award seats available - for 10,000 in econ, and 17000 in premium - are 150,000 in econ today, and as high as 240,000 in premium. Thats ONE WAY too. And about as far from peak flights as possible.
So a round trip JFK-LHR-JFK (outbond in econ, back in premium) for two people that would have cost me 54,000 if booked yesterday, would cost 780,000 if booked today.

It is completely and utterly ridiculous and in no way down to just searches.

Edited by GCH on Wednesday 30th October 21:39

I agree it is riddiculous, I have seen some screen shots on a FB group where they are showing 1million + air miles needed for an upper class fligh

[havoc]

Saleen836 said:

1million + air miles needed for an upper class fligh

Do you think someone at Virgin has got greedy, or someone's released an algorithm without checking it first / using adult supervision?

Either way I can see it leading to fewer people upgrading, and if frequent travellers feel that their air miles aren't worth anything anymore, then Virgin will lose loyalty.

[jurbie]

I've just checked for flights in mid January and it's quoted me 118,000 points plus £1,000 for two people flying premium both legs Manchester to New York or upper for 140,000 points and £1,500 for both legs which seems a bit more reasonable.