Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - Using VS miles on partner flight
sktnyc
Jul 27, 12, 5:05 pm
Hi,
I now have 45,000 miles from the BofA credit card offer.
Looks like quite a few people transfer their miles to Hilton points. I don't want to that. As I don't mind staying in cheap hotels, I prefer to use the miles for flights.
I don't want to use the miles for Virgin flight, since I have to pay lot of $ in tax and fees.
Can any one tell me which partner airlines I can easily book with? Economy class will do. SFO to New Zealand on Air NZ, SFO to Tokyo on ANA, SFO to Hawaii on Hawaiian?
I am guessing I don't have enough miles to use (even one way) on Malaysia, Singapore, or South African airlines?
Thanks.
aarif1
Jul 30, 12, 8:29 am
Hi,
I now have 45,000 miles from the BofA credit card offer.
Looks like quite a few people transfer their miles to Hilton points. I don't want to that. As I don't mind staying in cheap hotels, I prefer to use the miles for flights.
I don't want to use the miles for Virgin flight, since I have to pay lot of $ in tax and fees.
Can any one tell me which partner airlines I can easily book with? Economy class will do. SFO to New Zealand on Air NZ, SFO to Tokyo on ANA, SFO to Hawaii on Hawaiian?
I am guessing I don't have enough miles to use (even one way) on Malaysia, Singapore, or South African airlines?
Thanks.
If you change your location on the Virgin Atlantic website from U.S and Canada to UK, you'll be able to see the redemption tables for airlines.
Many of VS's partners don't allow one-way awards. You do have enough for a flight to Hawaii on Hawaiian, or one-way to Tokyo (if one-way is allowed on ANA).
Not sure about the actual booking experience, fees, etc.
audisfo
Jan 28, 13, 1:29 am
Did anybody have the experiences redeeming the VS miles onto ANA flights? If I am able to find the ANA flight award inventory on United or Aeroplan website, does it mean I can redeem the VS miles to get the ANA award spaces I need?
craigthemif
Jan 28, 13, 1:54 am
1 way won't be allowed on ANA. (it's not even allowed on ANA's own programme)
I suspect the mileage-based redemption levels work like ANA's own programme. You don't have to fly return, but you do have to return to the country of origin. So, in theory you could try to book a TYO-SFO, then add a ICN-TYO or something short like that (a flight you will conveniently "miss") to keep the total mileage as low as possible.
1 ways aren't allowed on any VS partners. Personally I would try to earn another 5000 miles and use 50000 to upgrade a return economy flight to London to Upper Class.
If you insist on economy, you're limited to the domestic stuff like US Airways (for a few more months), Hawaiian and Virgin America. Delta presumably will be coming some time in 2013/14...
audisfo
Jan 28, 13, 2:11 am
Yes, I do understand 1 way is not allowed on ANA. I am actually looking at round trip on business class from SFO to HKG for example. It falls into the 95000 VS miles redemption onto ANA flights for business class round trips from SFO to the Asia cities via Tokyo where ANA services many destinations so it will open up the opportunities for many people to redeem VS miles into ANA flights to Asia on premium cabin. But I just don't know if anybody has the experiences redeeming the VS miles onto ANA flights in the past.
craigthemif
Jan 28, 13, 3:47 am
Sorry, didn't notice that you bumped an older thread. Was responding to the OP.
In theory if ANA provide award availability to its *A partners it will do the same for VS, but haven't done it myself.