atreon72

Dear All,

For many years I have been a loyal Virgin Atlantic flyer and will always use them as first choice even if they are not the cheapest if flights are available.

A couple of years ago I thought it would be good to also align my credit card and started to use the MBNA card. I chose the white card with a view to moving across to the black card if it worked out.

The issue I have is that I feel it is almost impossible to use any rewards you get.

For instance assume you are new to Virgin and start your mileage program when you take out the card.

You spend £25,000 in a single year. This accrues about 25,000 miles in airmiles and you get gifted 2 premium upgrades and a companion seat. How can you use these?

You dont have enough miles to buy a ticket so will need to fund the rest I assume by buying more miles. This itself sounds counterintuitive (i.e is not a reward).

So has anyone ever been able to figure out how you can use the rewards you are gifted each year or is this simply a scheme/loyalty program that has been designed without much thought.

I have asked the customer relations team at Virgin if they have any statistics on what % of rewards they offer actually are ever used but they have not come back to me (and I dont expect them to).

If anyone has any views on how you can optimally use the rewards I would be very keen to hear your thoughts.

Such programs in my view should be regulated. I could have been one of these suckers who spends £140 a year on black membership only to find myself in the same position.

I eagerly await any comments.