777 global mile hound

Appreciate the helpful comments but thats not the direction I am traveling in
Good to see some seats in any direction

For 2 Seats JFK to LHR in all of February 2012 there were 0 Seats through much of March. From Newark
which isn’t my preference had some scarce seats if one is willing to overnight before departure the next morning or arise at 3:00 AM and drive there with traffic to make the only available flight.

As for the rest I suppose it’s subjective
However the word on the street( I have no recent experience) is that Virgin Food service is severely lacking when compared to other premium carriers
On my last flight on AA in first they did much better than BA though there were no soups
And I prefer the British and their superior service skills and professional personable style.

Has it improved since this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...nt-letter.html

slinky09

Oh please don't drag that letter out again !!!

VS food is pretty good and recently better. BA does have better wines though however if you take a look at some trip reports on v-flyer dot com you'll see a lot of positive comments lately.

OK yes, sorry, got the direction wrong, just did a dummy booking online with VS and for two UC redemptions:

New York to LHR available on 2, 5, 6, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, 26, 27 Feb
LHR to New York available on 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 23, 27

All there, right now - where are you actually checking availability on ???

KVS

As was discussed earlier on, only EWR flights have reasonable UC Award Availability -- there is not much available ex-JFK:

[KVS Availability Tool 7.0.7/Diamond - Shares: Awards/VS]

[KVS Availability Tool 7.0.7/Diamond - Shares: Awards/VS]

777 global mile hound

Departure dates: New York/JFK to London Heathrow
Very kind of you for caring

Only one day has opened up according to Virgin's site since all of my checking and calling.
That's a big improvement from none
They must have been reading our posts or someone cancelled!
Available only 20 February 2013 at 7:40 AM
My original date options were 14,15, or 16
Online answer no. Called and they confirmed no seats for 2 in the month of February unless looking for some select single seats
The nice agent did suggest we fly separately on different days of the month however that is not a reasonable option for us
Booked the 16th on BA with the ability to cancel for $40.00

My apologies for digging that old letter out of the kitty litter but the meal still haunts me as does the baked pea mustard dessert
Hopefully that caterer has found a new career that makes them happy
And I'm fine with a ham club push comes to shove even at Subway!

Incidentally both these letters still comes up at travel industry marketing conferences as does the Hilton one with the power point presentation "Yours is a terrible Hotel"
Early on my professors would always say there is no such thing as bad publicity as long as they are talking about you

777 global mile hound

How about a KVS school for dummies?
I'll be your first sign up or I'll pay you to walk me through it
I'm sure its pretty easy once you are accustomed to using the site

slinky09

You won't want to pay for KVS for VS redemption availability and I don't know why they keep posting - it's way expensive for something you can get free on the VS web site.

I do see you comment about EWR being inconvenient - betya more options open up in the coming period!

777 global mile hound

Thanks for the kind feedback and thoughts.I admire the folks here in this forum who are helpful and polite like you.Can't say that about every airline forum
Not mentioning any names to further flame proof myself

I would be willing and happy to pay for any service if it was user and graphic friendly to have one tool that saw all award/most availability.
Do see a value rather then looking at sites one by one like Qantas and others where the system is so poor to see inventory.
I'm a big fan of AAs website for seeing available seats.
Despise the smoke and mirrors of United's website especially with their poorly clarified transparent mixed cabins as to which of the flights are economy.
It's highly misleading IMHO intentional to deceive

Won't be in New York City and the flight out of EWR leaves at 8:00 AM in the morning.We wil be at Hyatt Long Island hotel in Hauppauge,New York
I spent my whole life in New York before moving West and I would venture a 3:00 AM departure from the hotel would not make us particularly happy
Nor the traffic not limited to the Belt Parkway frequently a parking lot and certainly no pleasure on a cold frigid winter morning
Added to that the general challenge of February weather possibilities in New York.Ice, snow, freezing cold and even a blizzard!

KVS

We would be pleased to provide a walk-through, so that you can [finally ] redeem your KVS Tool Gift Certificate -- please send a note via http://Contact.KVSTool.com/

littlefish

Popping in from the BA forum up-the-road.
Interesting thread, and highlights VS availability in UC is perhaps not as strong as is occasionally its made out to be on the BA board .
So so marginal for me whether to collect 200,000 rainy day VS miles, or 100,000 for most one-ways (2 travellers). No use if can't redeem 'em .
Is PE reward space relatively reliable? PE >> WT+ so I suppose doable at a stretch 1-way.

Now the KVS discussion caught my eye. Very insightful.
How do I get KVS to show 2 seat availability for a chosen month (VS and/or BA ?) ... wow!
I'm a Diamond and never saw that feature. Will save me hours, if I can only find how to set it up.

Now, if only VS had a 2f1 (Y doesn't count)

lhrsfo

I'm popping in from the UA thread and have found this to be interesting. All the problems at UA have made me look more closely at VS (or Virgin America) miles, or BA (or AA) miles - being the only other airlines on my principal route.

However, as bad as UA has become, it does seem that redemption options are still somewhat better. Whilst Business is very difficult to get, First is fairly easy (and not much more expensive) and there's always the option of paying double miles for any seat.

777 global mile hound

Thanks for this helpful information and post
Can you share what routes/brands/partners for example you find First Class reasonably easy to redeem on?
United once was the only airline I would fly on revenue earn and redeem with.
Today while the program is more interesting than Delta or US air by far its still a must avoid in my book.
I see the greedy Continental folks as destroying a legendary program that once was the Gold standard. Not that it wasn't already in serious decline before they got their hands on it.
Unless Virgin Atlantic gets worse I'd venture to say I'd still use their program over United. Having said that I'm back with BA,AA and Alaska
For friends and family a dabble in Southwest who on a rainy day allows free baggage and no cancellation penalties for non elites and the flying public
which in today’s program of excessive fees for anything is a breath of fresh air even if I dislike the brand and won't fly on it myself.

KVS

Please see our reply in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgi...l#post19438027 Master Thread.

littlefish

thank you.
(Wish BA could do it too )