Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership for Indians – CardExpert

Flying Membership is the frequent flyer program of Virgin Atlantic, which is a member of “Sky Staff”. Flying membership is a well-liked program amongst small set of Indians particularly with these flying to London and connecting to European nations.

In case you’re new right here, do take a look at the Intro to airmiles article to get began. Right here’s every little thing you must know concerning the Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Membership loyalty program as an Indian,

Overview

Flying Membership just lately moved to dynamic award system with elevated award availability however often at a better level requirement based mostly on demand, route & season.

Nonetheless, the cheaper ones are nonetheless obtainable as saver reward seats with availability nearly as good as earlier than.

Why Flying Membership?

Most common household (or) enterprise travellers choose taking direct flight to the vacation spot with none cease overs.

That is the place Flying Membership comes helpful, particularly when travelling from Bombay/Delhi/Bangalore to London. I personally see travellers choose with this selection, particularly for London as even the final minute availability (1~2 weeks) is fairly good. The return leg nonetheless is pricey due to UK tax.

Apart from that, it’s additionally fairly good for Intra-EU flights as we are able to ebook award seats with their companions.

On high of it, availability of saver fares for a number of passengers are additionally fairly good, as many a occasions you will discover 2+ seats obtainable in economic system.

Membership Tiers

Flying Membership is a 3-tiered membership:

1. Purple
2. Silver
3. Gold

Each time you fly with Virgin Atlantic or its airline companions, you’ll additionally earn Tier Factors. And with three tiers of membership, the upper you go, the extra advantages you’ll get pleasure from.

There isn’t any main candy spot with the advantages on larger tiers therefore higher to disregard.

Intro to SkyTeam

SkyTeam is one of many world’s three main airline alliances. Based in June 2000, SkyTeam was the final of the three alliances to be shaped, the primary two being Star Alliance and Oneworld, respectively. 

Here’s a listing of Sky Staff members:

Taxes & Gas Surcharge

Gas Surcharges are handed on to the redemptions for Virgin Atlantic flights nonetheless they don’t seem to be handed on to a number of the accomplice bookings like Delta.

Miles required are comparatively lesser than different packages however Gas surcharge does add up so much when redeeming for premium cabins.

Incomes Miles

1. American Categorical India: It’s possible you’ll switch factors from Amex at 2:1 within the blocks of 800 MR : 400 miles
2. Marriott Bonvoy: Switch at 3:1 and (get 5k extra on each switch of 60k Marriott Bonvoy factors). As Axis don’t straight switch to Virgin, it’s possible you’ll first switch to Marriott (or to ITC after which to Marriott) after which to Virgin.

In case you want to ebook fast, Amex is the choice for you because it means that you can immediately hyperlink & switch, similar to Marriott Bonvoy.

In case you’re seeking to accumulate Amex MR factors, Amex Gold Cost & Amex MRCC will assist with small month-to-month milestones however should you don’t have time for that and wish miles fast, then Amex Platinum Cost is maybe the one choice.

Other than Amex, Axis Magnus Burgundy is maybe the one different card that may assist you get Virgin factors via Marriott Route as talked about above.

Whereas its not quite common, virgin does come out with switch bonus occasionally when transferring factors from bank cards.

Be aware: Accor transfers solely to Virgin Australia and never Virgin Atlantic. Tough names, watch out!

Redeeming Miles

To be able to seek for award flights, when you login it’s a must to click on on superior search and select “factors”. Listed here are the sequence of pages you’ll undergo.

Be aware: Virgin up to date the interface just lately however appears to be like largely related.

So should you take a look at it intently, you’ll discover a new time period referred to as “Higher Class” which is the Virgin’s means of calling “Enterprise Class”.

Together with it, you’d additionally discover that taxes improve with the category of cabin. That is unhappy to see, because it makes enterprise class a expensive affair even with decrease miles requirement.

Peak Season: Be aware that Virgin has peak season dates & charges where-in you’ll want to spend so much extra factors for the seats, often 2X the common factors charge.

Ideally, it’s a typical sense to keep away from these dates until you’re sitting on lot’s of miles.

Apart from that, Virgin additionally has a device referred to as Reward Seat Checker which is able to assist one to have a chook’s eye view of the award availability for your complete month.

It’s much like the month-to-month calendar view on United Mileage Plus, however right here it’s bit higher because it reveals cabin sensible availability.

The one flipside with this device is that you would be able to solely examine award availability for flights both to or from UK.

Companion Redemptions

Virgin Atlantic has launched a brand new Sky Staff award chart. Award prices are distance based mostly and one-way prices could be discovered on their web site.

Companion Airways bookable on-line: Delta, KLM, Air France, China Airways, Korean Air, Center East Airways, Xiamen Air.

ITA Airways and China Japanese redemptions shall be obtainable for redemptions by late 2023.

Redemption Concepts

India to UK

In normal season, you’ll want as little as 10,000 factors for an Financial system Basic a technique flight to London, and in peak season you’ll want 20000 factors in Financial system.

We’ve seen London route already above, however right here’s yet one more with Air France.

Intra-Europe

Virgin provides wonderful availability for intra-Europe flights, because of its partnerships with Air France, KLM, SAS, and others. In my expertise, KLM has significantly good availability, whereas Air France tends to have the least.

I flew the above sector in Enterprise Class on KLM just lately, primarily to expertise the KLM lounge, which wasn’t actually thrilling anyway.

In any other case, economic system (normal) is enough normally, because it additionally comes with check-in baggage.

India to Europe

Whereas the supply to London on Virgin is nice due to the direct flight from India, the supply with their companions to EU usually are not that nice.

India to USA

Redemptions to US are fairly costly on premium cabins and doesn’t make sense to any.

Cease Overs

Flying Membership doesn’t permit Cease Overs. Flying Membership costs one-way awards at half of the award chart value for many companions. As Flying Membership costs for every flight phase individually, you may construct in a stopover in a connecting metropolis.

Nonetheless, it is probably not value the additional mileage price to ebook an award with a connection or stopover.

Cancellation Payment

Date Change: It’s possible you’ll amend your journey date, route or class of service previous to journey for an modification payment of £30 for adjustments to worldwide flights originating within the UK, US$50 for adjustments to worldwide flights originating within the US or native foreign money equal of US$50 for adjustments to flights originating in every other area.

Cancellation: If for any motive a flight Reward is cancelled by the Member exterior 24 hours of the outbound flight, 100% of the Virgin Factors shall be re-credited to the Member’s account.

A cancellation payment of £30 for adjustments to flights originating within the UK, US$50 for adjustments to flights originating within the US or native foreign money equal of US$50 for adjustments to flights originating in every other area will apply.

Toddler Ticket

Whereas most airways cost 10% of income fare on worldwide routes, Virgin Atlantic costs a flat charge based mostly on companions. They cost a small quantity of miles for infants, as under:

• 1000 miles on Financial system
• 2000 miles on Premium Financial system
• 5000 miles on Higher Class (enterprise)

There’s enormous saving right here and for illustration right here is the miles required with Toddler from Bombay to London for numerous cabins

To incorporate toddler all you want is so as to add beneath “Lap Infants” whereas selecting the variety of passenger. It’s an excellent easy course of. Want all air-miles comply with Virgin for this matter.

Issues to notice

Household Pooling

Virgin Atlantic has launched family accounts for all members which was beforehand restricted just for highest tier members. This permits Flying Membership members registered on the identical handle to pool their factors right into a single account.

Nonetheless, the prevailing factors stability (earlier than becoming a member of the pool) doesn’t get routinely pooled. So it’s higher to simply switch the factors by paying the payment normally.

Pals & Household

You may ebook flights to your family and friends utilizing your Virgin Atlantic account. Nonetheless, since Virgin Atlantic is sort of strict and infrequently verifies accounts with passengers throughout boarding, it’s higher to switch miles to your pals (for a small payment of £10 per switch) and allow them to ebook utilizing their very own accounts.

There have additionally been reviews of some accounts being suspended when reserving for buddies. To maintain issues easy, it’s advisable to ebook for your self or quick members of the family to keep away from issues throughout an audit.

Award Ticket maintain

Flying Membership means that you can have a maintain of 24 hours on award stock for Virgin Atlantic flights. For this you’ll must name the Virgin’s buyer care.

Different Redemption Choices

What else can I do with my Virgin Atlantic factors in addition to flights? This wouldn’t be a whole information to Virgin Atlantic if we additionally didn’t share a number of the extra distinctive redemptions of Flying Membership factors.

• Convert factors to resorts: Members could change their factors with Hilton Honors (2:3 ratio) or IHG Rewards Membership (1:1 ratio).
• Scorching air balloon rides: Redeem 30,000 factors per individual for a scorching air balloon experience over the English countryside (U.Ok. members solely).
• Chauffeur service to or from the airport: When flying on Virgin Atlantic, you may ebook chauffeur service to or from the airport utilizing factors.
• Sir Richard Branson Non-public Retreats: Ebook stays at unique resorts in Morocco, Switzerland, Kenya or South Africa.
• Fly into house: Members with two million factors earned on Virgin Atlantic flights can enter a drawing to redeem factors for a visit into house on Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Flight Expertise

Puneet traveled on Virgin in 2019 and tried their Higher Class on A340. The bottom expertise at Heathrow was fairly good as they’d a devoted check-in facility for higher class passengers. All higher class passenger get entry to their signature lounge at Heathrow terminal-3 referred to as Membership Home.

In contrast to a lot of the different lounges nothing right here is self-serve aside from bread, pastries, chilly objects and many others. One can order from the menu and it is going to be served scorching to you similar to the American Categorical Lounge in Mumbai.

Talking of the product, Cabin was organized in a 1-1-1 herringbone configuration with the centre and lefthand seats going through one another till Row 7 and the righthand and centre seats going through one another from there to the again of the cabin.

The privateness was first rate, however I didn’t just like the arduous product particularly in comparison with the likes of SQ and different Center Japanese airways.

Assist

• India:  +91-124-4693030 (9:15 am to five:15 pm)
• UK: 0344 209 2722

They’ve a chat assist with dwell agent & I just lately had to make use of it for a motive. It took about 5 minutes to get linked to an agent however as soon as linked the agent was in a position to assist rapidly with my question.

Bottomline

Whereas Virgin is already widespread for its direct connection to London from India, we obtained extra alternatives now to redeem on many companions without having to name the assist line.

Whereas Virgin Atlantic is already widespread for its direct connections to London from India, there at the moment are extra alternatives to redeem miles on numerous companions without having to name the assist line.

From an Indian perspective, the long run success of Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer program relies on their skill so as to add SkyTeam companions to their on-line reserving system. With out this, their route choices stay fairly restricted in comparison with the foremost gamers within the business.

That mentioned, contemplating the massive variety of vacationers flying to the UK from India, it will be nice to see extra banking switch companions in India. 

Have you ever redeemed your miles on Virgin? Be happy to share your expertise within the feedback under.