BA97

Got targetted mail yesterday about this launch on 3rd July. On further investigation this appears a bit disappointing versus the BA card. More info at http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb...card/index.jsp.

Black Card

• £115 annual fee
• 2 miles for every £1 spent
• 4 miles for every £1 spent direct with VS
• 6,000 bonus miles upon first spend
• Companion reward flight on £7500 spend
• Premium Economy upgrade on Y redemption sector with every £5000 spend (up to 2 a year)

White Card

• No annual fee
• 1 mile for every £1 spent
• 2 miles for every £1 spent direct with VS
• 3,000 bonus miles upon first spend
• Companion reward flight on £15000 spend
• Premium Economy upgrade on Y redemption sector with every £10000 spend (up to 2 a year)

Existing vs New Customers

I've received attractive bonus offers as an existing VS Mastercard holder (which I intend to take):

• 5,000 mile bonus to transfer to the White AMEX
• 2 miles/pound (3 with VS spend) on the first £10000 until 31 July 07

Interesting Points

• £115 annual fee is clearly targetted to be £5 less than BA's fee
• Black card does accrue miles faster than the BA Prem Plus card (2/4 vs. 1.5/3)
• As is par for the course, detail is a bit lacking in T&Cs but it appears that the companion rewards are a bit pants - "Please note, discounted flights are not classed as qualifying flights". Presumably this means no redemption bookings, and maybe only full fare.
• PE upgrades look nice, effectively it's a saving on PE redemptions (10,000+ miles-per-sector cheaper to redeem in Y rather than PE). Great if their definition of a "flight" include SYD.

Also got 2,000 bonus miles for my birthday yesterday

Raffles

An interesting move by MBNA / Amex. To be honest, BA must wipe the floor with the FF community as far as affinity credit cards go, with the BMI card appealing to a minority who a) take a lot of *A flights or b) who have worked out how good the redemptions are or c) refuse to pay a fee for the card.

I can see a lot of people getting the VS card for the sign-up bonus and the ability to top-up your VS account easily, but how many will use it as their main card?

AFAIK, the old card required a full-fare flight before you qualified for the free companion ticket. This is pretty useless, obviously, and seems to have been carried over to the new card. The Y to PE upgrade sounds interesting for modest mileage earners, but again the devil may be in the detail - perhaps you need availability in Y and W, for example, a la MFU's.

More Champagne Sir?

:-: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :-:

oh and check out this link on the Amex board..

Lewis

dsf

No bonus miles for my birthday last week

Beany

I am an existing VS Mastercard holder, got sent a info pack through the post a few days back. If I transfer to the new VS Black card I get an additional offer for being an existing VS Mastercard holder.

This includes:

4 miles for every £1 spend until 31 July 2007
6 miles for every £1 spend with VS/VH until July 2007
10,000 miles with first spend

Good job I delayed booking my J return to Sydney

Raffles

As I mentioned on the Amex board, the obvious thing to do here is to book a fully flexible VS flight in July 2007 up to max of your credit limit, and then cancel the flight in August 2007 for a full refund. The refund would go through at the points rate prevailing at the time, so you would make a profit of 2 miles per £1.

krug

Also a good pointer to start out with the white card and then cancel and re-apply for the black card. Double bonus sign up miles.

Beany

:-: ^ Never thought of it like that, thanks Raffles

BA97

Not sure if 6,000 VS miles are worth £115...

Tits McGhee

I was offered 10,000 miles on first spend.......

Interesting.

I try and put most of my spending on my BA Amex and VS Mast so I can earn miles - almost got enough now for a return in VS Upper to Vegas or a one-way to Sydney in Upper (which I'll likely opt for).

This is the only way I'll have of flying VS Upper, for if I could affort to pay cash, I'd go BA J all the time!!!!

jaguarpig

You had to be Au to get the bonus 2100 miles and the personalised card.

KenJohn

Belated Birthday Greetings! Hope you had a good one.