Virgin flying club - Finally- Choice of Fare Classes on www.virgin-atlantic.com

Hi,

Finally it has hapened,

On www.virgin-atlantic.com (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com) tonight I saw the following fare classes;

Economy ( Lowest)
Economy ( Flexible)
PE(lowest)
PE( flex)
UC(lowest)
UC(flexible)
and an option to display the lowest fare available if you are flexible on dates.
(eg UC lowest fare to SFO in May c£2000)
Plus currently the online booking discount is £20 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

It has taken a while (too long in my opinion)
but it nice to see those options. Well done VS!!

Regards
TBS

[This message has been edited by The _Banking_Scot (edited 02-11-2003).]

[This message has been edited by The _Banking_Scot (edited 02-11-2003).]

Now about them lurkers http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Richard

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The _Banking_Scot:
Hi,

Finally it has hapened,

On www.virign-atlantic.com (http://www.virign-atlantic.com) tonight I saw the following fare classes;

</font>


Just a correction on the link:

www.virgin-atlantic.com (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com)

Hi,

Ooops!!

Thanks for correcting that zrs70 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I have now corrected the link in my post

In too much of a hurry before my 5 mile run!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Apologies for any confusion.

Regards

TBS

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RichardMannion:
Now about them lurkers http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif</font>

Actually, comme toujours, its because BA made the same change to Fare Explorer about a fortnight ago... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

dnw

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The _Banking_Scot:
In too much of a hurry before my 5 mile run!! </font>

... do you get 5 miles for this? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dnw:
Actually, comme toujours, its because BA made the same change to Fare Explorer about a fortnight ago... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

dnw</font>

er, yes, but BA are still using 'Premier Economy' in Fare Explorer rather than the absurd World Traveller Plus years after VS introduced Premium Economy.

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 02-12-2003).]

I thought I beetter brign this topic back to the top so the guys and girls at Virgin's Crawley Marketing office can have another chance to read this and disgest it.

We know that if you book online at the Virign Website you get a discount. But only on the 2 tickets choices it shows.

I'm trying to book to go away for the Esater weekend, so I look online and theres a cool fare or so I thought. Just about to book and I think, I better check to make sure it earns tier points and miles. Website says nothing to say otherewise. Oh no, it doesn't its an N fare to the East Coast. So we all know which is the next fare that is up that will earn mile sna Tier points - thats right its an X fare. But those clever people int he fare revenue dept aren't that stupid. There are no X fares available, next lowest avail is a Q fare which is obvioulsy about £50-60 higher. Well points are points, so I try an book online to get the discount. Not possible as the systemi sshowing the N fares, if I want the lowest fare that earns miles and Tier points, then I have to phone and then they won't give the discount. Now that is not clever at all. I did a quick search and sure enough found a consolidated Q fare on Expedia for the price I would pay n the Virgin Website with the discount if the website showed it. Way to go Virgin, you try and help them by booking direct with them and look what happens.

So:-
a) Back to the drawing board for the website, as its now great for Upper and Premium flights but not for Economy.
b) For the sake of the £10 discount, Virgin have managed to annoy a GOld customer and cost themselves some revenue and commission as Expedia wil get the commission.
c) Again I learned how little some Gold Agents know about fare codes and how to treat Frequent Flyers.

Don't get me wrong I'll still be flying VS, but its just sad state of affairs.

I spoke to some cool American chick in Marketing (again a nightmare, Gold Frontline refused to put me through so I calle dthem direct with the number I have in my address book for them), she is the Flying Club Programme Manager. I spoke at great length about this and a few other points regarding Flying Club. It seems as if they have a very long list of things to do the website and program changes but only a limited amount of money and resource in which to do it. At least she had a sense of humour!

And just to prove a point and show how one of their lines of thought is out of whack, what would you think if Virgin had a proper lurker online (like Starwood do in their forum on FlyerTalk). Virgin seem to think this is a bad idea.....

Maybe they should read these:-
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/vacations/2001/2001-02-06-lurker-bistrav.htm

The FlyerTalk reference here - http://www.buzzmetrics.com/research_tip_10great.shtml

http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/wong_r/b118/presentation/webcommunities.htm

http://www.designscout.com/dezine/dschoolMAY01.html

http://www.eurhotecgazette.com/news/4009067.2000325.htm

Thanks,
Richard

P.S. I'll forward this topic to the marketing team so that they do read it.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RichardMannion:
what would you think if Virgin had a proper lurker online (like Starwood do in their forum on FlyerTalk)</font>

I would think it was money better spent elsewhere, there are far too few people on this board to warrant it. You may as well call him/her 'Richards VS concierge' http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif