Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - No Virgin miles on Virgin Flights.....

My friend was trying to book a flight on Virgin Atlantic from NY to London. The fare came out to $350 ($330 with on-line discount)... But the fine print said this fare is not eligible for miles!! Why would the fare purchased on their website not be eligible for their miles?? It's not like it's a super cheap fare - these days all carriers are offering that price... so why no miles? He even called and decided to book on the phone as he thought that the on-line discount had something to do with it but no, that fare ($350) is also not eligible for any miles...

Any experiences with this?

It's always been the case that the very cheapest of the economy fares (N class) don't earn miles. Whilst that fare might not seem ridiculously cheap, it'll also depend on the time of year you're flying and the demand for the route which sets the price (Fly out in February - the low season - and you'll probably see a much cheaper N fare).

If miles are important, then you can ask the sales agent to check the price on a Q or X fare - they will be a little more expensive, but it's up to you whether you think it's worth it.

pix.

As a rider to my reply, I'll also state that it's a bit of a dissapointment that the website booking (which is the only way to get the discount) won't let you choose the particular fare class. Ok, this sort of advanced feature may be confusing for the novice - but if they had a checkbox at the start of the booking process which let you turn on the advanced features, it would certainly make me more inclined to book direct with Virgin (and get the discount) rather than use a savvy travel agent.

pix.

This is an ongoing problem, which I thought they were getting round to addressing.

As Pix says, N class fares do not attract miles - neither do some of the megasaver fares (even in PE recently). If you follow one of the 'fare sale' links on the website the T&C clearly state whether points are earned for that particular offer.

If however you put on your dates and ask for the cheapest fares, you are not given any choice about which class of economy you are booked into and you can be booked into N without knowing it until it is too late. This has been debated on the board before.

There appears to be no easy solution. If you use the phone and make sure the agent books you a point earning ticket, you lose the £10 online booking discount.

Thoughts anyone?

Nick

PS Message to Pix - is there a problem on your website at the moment? I have been trying for a day or two to do Galileo checks, but no data is being returned.

But what I find surprising is that some of those flights are code-shared by CO.... If you book on Continental.com you get pretty much the same exact price and you also get CO miles for it.... so the price is not as cheap (compared to the competion) to justify no miles (in my opinion) - Also, I am just wondering, if you book the same flight as a CO ticket and put your virgin flying club number in it, won't you get miles based on their frequent flyer agreements? So how is Virgin profiting if one can just book the same flight as a CO ticket and give CO the money? (and get the Virgin miles for it)......

Also, if you go to http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/calculateMilesEarned.do and use their tool to calculate how many miles you will get From New York - London on economy (M, Q, V, X , N) it comes up as 6916 miles... now is that false information or what? If you actually sit and read the whole thing, it says that certain N class in not eligible for miles... but honestly who is gonna read all that - it's pretty deceptive....

I spoke to Virgin about this abck in APril in regards to the website not showing the fare class - they were meant to be changing it soon so that it did show the fare class.

But then soon is a strange word at Virgin HQ - J suites anyone?

THanks,
Richard

A new website would be nice... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The VS site is REALLY ancient compared to what you can do on the other transatlantic carriers....

Reply to Nick;

Yes, there's a problem with the source data, but I'm working on fixing that asap (ie, today if possible).

pix.

The way I usually work through this problem is to get a fare quote on the VS website then call and ask for fare - I then check what class the ticket is in. If the fare's in a qualifying category and the fares match I book online to get the discount.

Obviously this isn't fool proof!