I have been struggling to use my Flying Club Miles
Aug 17, 2019, 8:24 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Birmingham, AL (weekdays) and Atlanta, GA (weekends)
Programs: DL Platinum Medallion
Posts: 590
I have been struggling to use my Flying Club Miles
I got the 25% bonus via Membership Rewards and have 204K miles.
Flights I would ideally use them for:
Business class to South Africa from anywhere in US.
Economy class to Europe from BHM or ATL without crazy fuel charges.
Business class to Australia or New Zealand from anywhere in US.
Well-priced domestic award travel.
I can fly from Birmingham, Alabama or Atlanta, Georgia. Beyond that I need a positioning flight.
It's no secret that the website is wonky but after investing a good bit of time, I'm getting frustrated.
I also travel to South America but it seems VS doesn't.
Flights I would ideally use them for:
Business class to South Africa from anywhere in US.
Economy class to Europe from BHM or ATL without crazy fuel charges.
Business class to Australia or New Zealand from anywhere in US.
Well-priced domestic award travel.
I can fly from Birmingham, Alabama or Atlanta, Georgia. Beyond that I need a positioning flight.
It's no secret that the website is wonky but after investing a good bit of time, I'm getting frustrated.
I also travel to South America but it seems VS doesn't.
Aug 17, 2019, 10:16 pm
#2
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA Gold. UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt (Lifetime Diamond downgraded to Explorist)
Posts: 6,776
Seems you leapt before you looked on this one. 25% bonuses are nice and there are strong points to the VS redemption chart but it has a lot of limitations compare to a traditional alliance airline FF program.
US to Africa you'll be depending on AF & KLM a lot with SA, DL & KQ on a much more limited basis. Do 1-way searches via the native airline programs to saver/low level awards for segments first building a routing and then seeing if VS can book that availability.
Premium redemptions to NZ & Australia are a big want for a lot of people but you have lots of options. DL, VA & NZ are all partners so do the same kinds of searches
US to South America you're restricted to DL awards.
US to Africa you'll be depending on AF & KLM a lot with SA, DL & KQ on a much more limited basis. Do 1-way searches via the native airline programs to saver/low level awards for segments first building a routing and then seeing if VS can book that availability.
Premium redemptions to NZ & Australia are a big want for a lot of people but you have lots of options. DL, VA & NZ are all partners so do the same kinds of searches
US to South America you're restricted to DL awards.
Aug 17, 2019, 10:19 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Birmingham, AL (weekdays) and Atlanta, GA (weekends)
Programs: DL Platinum Medallion
Posts: 590
I have about 700K on Delta, so transferring 160K MRs to Virgin Atlantic was admittedly a calculated risk, but I didn't bet the whole farm. It seemed worth a try based on friends' comments.
Aug 18, 2019, 3:26 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 13,043
Forget about Africa. Forget about Australia. You are more likely to find a unicorn than get there in J with VS miles.
There are some ways to get to Europe on DL without surcharges, but you need to forget about ATL or BHM and position separately to places like DTW, etc. that have direct flights to Europe on DL with saver award space. I've never seen anything out of ATL because people living there are hub captive and DL doesn't seem to need to fill planes.
The best use of 200+K VS miles is to decide that you want to visit Japan in ANA J or F, but again requiring positioning...
