Virgin Atlantic (VS) Flying Club points redemptions on ANA (NH) - Master thread
Mar 7, 2023, 4:21 pm
#361
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Aurora, CO
Programs: Statusless and proud
Posts: 7,582
The availability was probably an accident on NH's part, NH almost never make 4-6 F seats available as awards.
If NH now demands more cash from VS for an award redemption, VS needs to charge more miles to make it profitable to them. Even at whatever historical reimbursement levels are, VS probably wasn't making much if any money on NH F awards given how low the mileage rates were, but historically very few F awards would have been booked so they may have just ignored it / missed it. When your entire call center is backed up with multi-hour holds for people looking to book NH F awards, you might revisit whether such a sweet spot award redemption is something you want to offer. If I had to guess, most people booking NH F through VS are not actually loyal VS flyers (in the sense of putting a lot of personal or corporate cash spend with the airline) but credit card points transfer flyers who rarely if ever pay cash fares on VS, so there's not much loss to them in terms of customer loyalty by losing that business (and the award redemptions by themselves likely weren't making any money)
If NH now demands more cash from VS for an award redemption, VS needs to charge more miles to make it profitable to them. Even at whatever historical reimbursement levels are, VS probably wasn't making much if any money on NH F awards given how low the mileage rates were, but historically very few F awards would have been booked so they may have just ignored it / missed it. When your entire call center is backed up with multi-hour holds for people looking to book NH F awards, you might revisit whether such a sweet spot award redemption is something you want to offer. If I had to guess, most people booking NH F through VS are not actually loyal VS flyers (in the sense of putting a lot of personal or corporate cash spend with the airline) but credit card points transfer flyers who rarely if ever pay cash fares on VS, so there's not much loss to them in terms of customer loyalty by losing that business (and the award redemptions by themselves likely weren't making any money)
Mar 7, 2023, 5:03 pm
#363
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 262
I don't disagree with anything you wrote here. I just meant that the fact that NH might not be happy about the seats redeemed, well, that's not VS' fault. They can of course charge VS more for those same seats and then VS can in turn pass along the fee to the customer in the form of extra miles.
Mar 8, 2023, 8:08 pm
#365
Join Date: Nov 2019
Posts: 14
Within the past two days, EF has alerted me 4-5 times about new J openings exactly 21 days out from departure for NRT>LAX and NRT>SFO. I released a couple of LAX seats for 3/29 a couple hours ago in case anyone wants to nab them and they are still available. Taxes/fees $437 USD/person.
Mar 8, 2023, 8:57 pm
#366
Join Date: Jun 2022
Location: LAX, SNA
Programs: B6 M4, AA Plat Pro, WoH Globalist, IHG Diamond Amb, MB Titanium, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 1,551
Within the past two days, EF has alerted me 4-5 times about new J openings exactly 21 days out from departure for NRT>LAX and NRT>SFO. I released a couple of LAX seats for 3/29 a couple hours ago in case anyone wants to nab them and they are still available. Taxes/fees $437 USD/person.
Mar 9, 2023, 12:03 am
#367
Join Date: Nov 2019
Posts: 14
Sorry, 431 in taxes/fees one way per person. Also just looked at my EF notifications; both HND and NRT J openings actually appeared so its not specific to one airport. I was going off of memory when I last commented and missed a few details. Would recommend anyone interested in these to set notifications for NRT/HND departures on each of the days that you can travel.
Mar 9, 2023, 4:14 pm
#368
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 45
Aware that this is a VS-related thread for NH redemptions. However, having seen references throughout this thread to NH award redemptions via Aeroplan, I thought I would provide a data point for some last minute NH F redemption I was able to secure today.
Originally booked an itinerary on NH 111 (ORD-HND) in J. Last night I was tinkering around looking at award tickets and sure enough saw a F award seat available for the day after my scheduled departure. This morning, I proceeded to check every so often on the off chance a F seat would open up on my scheduled flight. Well, lo and behold one F seat popped up for my flight. Was able to change my itinerary and upgrade to F. All that to say, NH does appear to be releasing some F t-2/3 days out from departure. However, I am unsure if the same applies to VS flying club members. I was able to see it on UA's booking portal.
Originally booked an itinerary on NH 111 (ORD-HND) in J. Last night I was tinkering around looking at award tickets and sure enough saw a F award seat available for the day after my scheduled departure. This morning, I proceeded to check every so often on the off chance a F seat would open up on my scheduled flight. Well, lo and behold one F seat popped up for my flight. Was able to change my itinerary and upgrade to F. All that to say, NH does appear to be releasing some F t-2/3 days out from departure. However, I am unsure if the same applies to VS flying club members. I was able to see it on UA's booking portal.
Mar 10, 2023, 1:59 pm
#371
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 27
https://thepointsguy.com/news/virgin...a-devaluation/
The first class ticket redemption has increased all across the board. The further you are, the most expensive it will cost. Though some of these travel sites still state that it's still better value than other programs despite the increase. I was thinking of just signing up for one of those award alert websites as it's too tedious to check everyday. I know people here use expertflyer.com. There was a paid one I saw yesterday but I haven't used it myself. Does anyone know if Thrifytravler premium is worth the cost?
https://thriftytraveler.com/premium/
The first class ticket redemption has increased all across the board. The further you are, the most expensive it will cost. Though some of these travel sites still state that it's still better value than other programs despite the increase. I was thinking of just signing up for one of those award alert websites as it's too tedious to check everyday. I know people here use expertflyer.com. There was a paid one I saw yesterday but I haven't used it myself. Does anyone know if Thrifytravler premium is worth the cost?
https://thriftytraveler.com/premium/
Mar 12, 2023, 11:32 pm
#374
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Tokyo
Posts: 1,634
Data Point:
EF alert pinged me with an opening in F HNL-NRT (a388) a day prior to my current return (77w), which works better for me.
Called in and the rep assured me 2x that there would be no extra fees/miles/etc. other than the $50 admin fee for the change.
Put it through and they had trouble getting it to "reissue" so they had to send it off to some other dept. high priority to get the admin fee finalized but assured me it will not be a problem. Both VS and NH already reflect the new date and I was able to reselect my seat on NH's site.
So I guess good news that existing F reservations aren't requiring more miles to shift dates? (maybe this was expected but I was worried it might fall under the new price)
EF alert pinged me with an opening in F HNL-NRT (a388) a day prior to my current return (77w), which works better for me.
Called in and the rep assured me 2x that there would be no extra fees/miles/etc. other than the $50 admin fee for the change.
Put it through and they had trouble getting it to "reissue" so they had to send it off to some other dept. high priority to get the admin fee finalized but assured me it will not be a problem. Both VS and NH already reflect the new date and I was able to reselect my seat on NH's site.
So I guess good news that existing F reservations aren't requiring more miles to shift dates? (maybe this was expected but I was worried it might fall under the new price)
Mar 17, 2023, 9:11 pm
#375
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Canada
Programs: Alaska,AC,Avios,
Posts: 330
Data Point:
EF alert pinged me with an opening in F HNL-NRT (a388) a day prior to my current return (77w), which works better for me.
Called in and the rep assured me 2x that there would be no extra fees/miles/etc. other than the $50 admin fee for the change.
Put it through and they had trouble getting it to "reissue" so they had to send it off to some other dept. high priority to get the admin fee finalized but assured me it will not be a problem. Both VS and NH already reflect the new date and I was able to reselect my seat on NH's site.
So I guess good news that existing F reservations aren't requiring more miles to shift dates? (maybe this was expected but I was worried it might fall under the new price)
EF alert pinged me with an opening in F HNL-NRT (a388) a day prior to my current return (77w), which works better for me.
Called in and the rep assured me 2x that there would be no extra fees/miles/etc. other than the $50 admin fee for the change.
Put it through and they had trouble getting it to "reissue" so they had to send it off to some other dept. high priority to get the admin fee finalized but assured me it will not be a problem. Both VS and NH already reflect the new date and I was able to reselect my seat on NH's site.
So I guess good news that existing F reservations aren't requiring more miles to shift dates? (maybe this was expected but I was worried it might fall under the new price)
and the same date will I have to pay as per the new award chart?