Virgin Atlantic
 

Will HP still be partnered with Virgin Atlantic after the merger?
I am thinking of booking (using points) two upper class seats for next July.

All they've said is, essentially that they hope there will be no more changes in partnerships. Personally, given that Virgin is not part of any alliance I suspect it's among the safest, but you never know.

You don't say whether you're planning on booking with miles or cash. If miles, I'd book soon either way, as those tickets are hard to come by via HP. If you're paying for the tickets and are concerned about earning miles into HP, I'd wait a couple of weeks. I'd expect the partner details to be available along with the rest of the new program details within the next couple of weeks.

LOTS of new stuff coming out after Day One. I was briefed on ALL this today (for 2 hours!)--including Elite levels, comp upgrades, etc. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to share as of yet but VS is safe.

You are such a tease!
 

Dear Snokums, can you at least tell us when Day One will be officially- that way we can at least know when to expect to hear all this new information. Since you seem excited about what you heard during these 2 hours, I assume we will as well... ;)

Day One for MY department is actually this Saturday. Day One for the company is Tuesday, September 27. Lots of changes for Elite members (great for Platinum members!) and lots of policy changes, not all good though! Stay tuned.

Thanks!
 

I guess we will find out soon enough!

What department is that? :)

... oh, and when are we slated to start hearing some of these things?

Damm with 87 segments after this week.. I need to get to 90 now :) (Since it is Platinum... Hmmmmm dang flights) :D

Yes, do tell snokums925. Isn't it against the TOS to tease us like this. ;)

I called the Plat FF line tonight to find out if they knew when we would find out more details.

The woman I spoke with told me Day One is October 1. September 27 is just the day they will announce the merger (whatever that means). She also said that is the day that the new rules/benefits will be announced and the day they (at FF) will be briefed on the new info.

Not sure what to think of what she said. Anyone able to shed an light on this??

Day One
 

Day One is actually tomorrow, September 27. When the BK judge approved the US plan on September 16th there is a mandatory 10 day waiting period. That period ends today, hence tomorrow is Day One. Now, are all the policies going to change tomorrow...no way. There are too many changes coming up regarding ticketing rules, restrictions, etc. to take effect that quickly.
You will start to see some co-branding on the websites and 5.5 million emails will be sent tomorrow with a link to a splash Q and A page that should answer most of your Elite and other questions.
OK, sorry to tease you all but I just don't feel right blabbing this info out...yet. Sorry gang!

Ok, so here is a place where I think the new US (or old HP for that matter) really dropped the ball.

I am one of their top fliers (I would guess) and I can't even get a straight answer as to what the rules are for upgrade on my flight on Wednesday (the 28th) let alone my flight on Saturday (the 1st). I get an answer from a company employee here that Day One is tomorrow (which goes along with what the AZ republic said) but when I call the Platinum line, I get a totally different answer.

I am not asking anyone to tell me anything before they are supposed to, but this is just wrong that we have to wait until some undetermined (at least that is the feeling from my end) time to find out what is going on.

If Day One is tomorrow I understand that everything can't be switched over by that time. However, the order of upgrade for FF is one that the must be. There is just no way around that as the two companies have different systems. We should have been informed about this a minimum of a week ahead of time. If we are switching to 7 days to be the same as the CP's then perhaps I should already have the upgrade, or at least be able to do it as of tomorrow.

At this point I have really tried to stay out of any judgments on the changes they have/will make. I am not even commenting in any way about what the new elite benefits will be. I just don't think they are treating us with any respect in this matter, which is really disappointing. First they seem to be putting off giving us any information at all until the very last minute, and then even in that case they won't even tell us when we will receive information. How tough would it be to at least say that they will announce all the details on September 27? To me that is the very least they could have done, rather than leave us hanging, but they couldn't even do this.

I have been having faith in Doug that he can get this whole thing done and make a go of it. Is a little timely communication too much to ask?

Jennifer

Jennifer, these upcoming flights this week--are they being flown on US metal? That would make sense your cause of concern. The switchover part I think is unclear and your upcoming flights would be a good example it seems. HP should have planned (or maybe they have and we don't know) in advance what to do about these crossover flights, meaning if infact HP decides to also consider you a CP now, they should have also extended you a 7 day clearing window, and both your flights should have cleared (or at least tried to) upgrades by now.

Will be interesting to see what happens.

Ian

I, too, think they could be handling the communication aspect of this much better. How hard would it be to have announced something like this? "If all goes as expected, the merger will be final on Sept. 27. Frequent-flyer-wise, nothing will be any different in either program until Oct. 10 (or whatever future date), so elite members don't need to be concerned about anything on Sept. 27. On that day, you can go to our website to learn the important details about how things will be changing in the coming weeks and months."

I can appreciate that the merger isn't legally final until the 10-day waiting period has passed and that they wouldn't want to announce plans in the event a problem arises, however small the possibility. That's prudent. But why attach all of this to a mysterious "Day One" when nobody knows what will or won't actually be happening on that day -- whatever day that actually is?

This "Day One" confusion could definitely have been avoided. I hope this is not a glimpse of what's to come. :(

Well, it's really not a big deal. Virgin Atlantic requires way too many miles for its Upper Class, which is really Business Class. For the same amount of miles, I would rather fly First Class on a 3-class B744 on Singapore Airlines, e.g. JFK-FRA and then FRA to LHR with Lufthansa.