[Aliks]

I called Virgin today to check availability in November. They seemed to be showing only 1 business class ticket each day, without having to call up Saudia. In fact the lady said she could not call Saudia to check, and also confirmed that redemptions would not be possible online.

Does anyone have any recent experience?

[Aliks]

Thanks all – in conclusion the holiday company has relented and is accepting COP Colombian Pesos in payment.

[Aliks]

Hi JDB
Thanks for the fast response.

On wise.com, when entering the recipient details, ACH and Wire ask for “routing numbers”, SWIFT looked most promising, but gave an error message “country not supported for USD”

I spoke at length with wise.com helpdesk, and, after consulting with their management, they confirmed that wise.com could not currently do this type of transaction.

Can Western Union deliver dollars outside the US?

[Aliks]

BA Flyer – the problem is that there are several categories of redemption on the Krisflyer web site. I couldnt remember exactly how I managed to redeem the points so I was not sure what I was looking for . .
BBetter’s pointer to the milelion site helped me to remember that the Shard hotel was actually a Shangri-la which is a Singapore Airlines partner

Aseftel’s pointer to Pelago.com is interesting, but living in London we can’t see much attraction.

Looks like another trip to the Shard . . . . . . .

Thx all and hopefully the info will be useful to others with the same Krisflyer orphan points in future.

[Aliks]

Maybe I should write to BA for clarification??

[Aliks]

I booked my 241 outbound leg for London to Sydney but could not get availability for the return leg on the day I wanted. I ended up booking the return leg with Qatar flying Melbourne to London (sadly no caviar)

So in theory I could use the remaining bit of voucher for an open jaws return flight from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) as part of a separate holiday.

The trouble is, I want to visit Malaysia in March 2026. The flight I want is just inside the 2 year deadline for the 241, but I now have already flown the outbound leg to Sydney.

The BA call centre are telling me my voucher is now closed because the outbound leg has been flown, however I cannot find anything in the terms and conditions that states this restriction. I can understand that BA’s system cannot easily process my request, but are they right to say my voucher is now dead and buried??

[Aliks]

I managed to book Air France CDG-LAD (Luanda in Angola) using Virgin points, but I am having trouble booking my return flight.

On the Virgin website, my search often just gets an error message, but sometimes it does find availability.

It appears that AF is only releasing availability to Virgin every month or so, and then only for a couple of months in advance of the flight date. So today, the latest I can get Virgin to show any information is up to 20th June.

The reward flight booking is very unreliable as it will usually throw out an error for any and all dates, but after a couple of retries it may find an available flight.

Does anyone know if this behaviour is normal for the CDG-LAD route?

[Aliks]

Yes, I also received that bad news today. Time to look for a new card for overseas earnings

[Aliks]

The upgrade offer popped up on my Gold card for the first time this morning. Interesting. But a couple of questions:

If I apply successfully will I be able to confirm immediately that I get the 80K bonus if I meet the spend?

and if for some reason I find I am not eligible can I immediately cancel and get the full £650 refunded?

If I apply today and get accepted, do I get the 2024 dining credits as well as 2025?

[Aliks]

Ah Ok I found the article again – its only for Airlink BA codeshares, and of course only if booked on the same PNR.

[Aliks]

Yes I remember that about BA, but I did have some hope from a HeadforPoints article saying that some Airlink destinations planned to interlink with BA.

[Aliks]

I’m looking at Paris to Antananarivo (TNR) in Madagasacar in October 2025. Air France fly the route most days, and the long haul chart suggests a business class return will be 122,000 Virgin points plus Taxes and Fees.

However, when I look online I can see available return redemptions through to Jun 29th 2025 for 193,000 plus EUR 627

So 2 questions:

1. If I call Virgin will they be asking for 122k points or 193k?
2. How far in advance are redemptions released – is it really only 9 months before takeoff?

[Aliks]

And interestingly Qatar is only offering Virgin Australia redemptions for CBR-BNE albeit for crazy taxes ie 6K + 101.24 AUD

[Aliks]

Note that AA is showing the flight I want for 10k pts so there must be some redemption availability

[Aliks]

I’m getting the same problem when trying to redeem avios on BA for March 2025 Qantas flights in Australia. eg Canberra (CBR) – Brisbane (BNE) is showing no direct flights available with avios.

Is this because the flights are listed as “Alliance Airlines” – even though Qantas bought 100% of Alliance a few years ago??

Or just that Qantas is not releasing redemption flights?

[Aliks]

Oh well, even less reason to fret about the Skyteam Elite Plus benefits.

[Aliks]

Virgin gold status gives you top level status in Skyteam, so all you need is a ticker for a flight on a skyteam aeroplane departing Paris

[Aliks]

I can’t believe the manufactured spend crowd haven’t pitched in to this thread.!!

Surely someone out there must have advice on what can be stripped out of a lounge with when armed with a decent set of screwdrivers and a swag bag. So long as you don’t wear a striped shirt and an eye mask, you should be fine . . .

[Aliks]

I spent an an hour on the phone with HSBC today, trying to register a complaint. The agent kept insisting iPass was a known problem and they were investigating possible alternatives. He wanted to raise and close the complaint immediately on this basis

I impressed on him that the complaint was about having no iPass for the last 6 months and he finally caved in. He claimed £50 was the maximum he could offer, so I accepted but reesrved the right to complain again if they didnt come up with some offer by September.

[Aliks]

OK Thanks all!

And JDB, yes, I checked and the annual fee has not been charged asyet.

[Aliks]

From a recent status match I will be promoted to Virgin Gold early in December. My wife has a voucher that I would like to use to upgrade myself to upper class on a Virgin flight in mid January next year.

Am I correct in thinking that my future Gold status will not make any difference to such an upgrade?

[Aliks]

Stop Press: Miraculously the missing 40k points arrived in my account this morning!

I called the HSBC Premier helpline and they confirmed iPass was dead, and agreed to check up on compensation.

Watch this space.

[Aliks]

After a few years gap, in Jan this year, I got the World Elite Mastercard again. It didn’t take long to spend £2k to earn the first 40k points bonus, but the points have not appeared in my account.

I called HSBC to complain but the lady on the helpdesk didn’t seem to know anything and she just promised to investigate.

At the same time I complained about the breakdown of the iPass contract, and again she just promised to investigate.

Has anyone else had similar problems recently, and any success in fixing them?

[Aliks]

I booked the outbound flight LHR-SYD with my 241, but decided to fly back with Qatar. So this leaves me with an unused 241 return flight which I can now use to book an open jaws flight back to Heathrow.

LHR-SYD is 10000+ miles so I believe I can fly back from pretty much any destination served by BA metal.

My question is: When does my unused 241 return voucher expire? ie by when do I have to book the flight, and by when do I have to fly the flight?

[Aliks]

OK understood. They got the 5th freedom rights for St Vincent and Grenada in June 2023, but nothing yet for nassau/bahamas