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Good morning from Virgin’s Beach Club at Bimini. @Northern Lass you were right about the marmalade cocktails in the Concorde Lounge, so delicious I had a few! @strickers I loved GCM, wish I would have had more time there. I enjoyed having a swim at the Seven Mile Beach. @Freckles I have enjoyed my first ever cruise. As a solo sailor, you can join in as much or little as you like. There are specific meet ups for solo sailors, if that appeals. For me, it’s been quite liberating pleasing myself rather than accommodating the wishes of my OH and teenage daughter. The food has been good, and that’s coming from a fussy vegetarian.

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Thank you, Northern Lass and Strickers. I will try a marmalade cocktail next. And my cruise stops at GCM. I’ve never been before, looking forward to it. My only previous trip to the Caribbean was to Barbados. I will post about my cruise stops.

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Northern Lass, I’m off to Miami. My upgrade voucher expires today, so thought it would be a shame to let it go to waste. So, last week I just looked for anywhere warm with reward seat availability, and here I am. I’ve booked a VV Western Caribbean cruise. OH couldn’t get time off work so it’s a solo cruise. I asked again at LHR about the availability of an upgrade. And even though it showed red, the CS staff called through to someone to double check, and I’ve managed to upgrade to First. I’ve always wanted to try it. Currently in the Concorde Lounge having yet another breakfast.

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Good morning from Manchester airport. And an unexpectedly pleasant start it was too. I’m using my Barclays upgrade voucher to fly BA long haul for the first time. Check in staff confirmed BA used the Escape Lounge. After previous bad experiences at the Escape Lounge, I wasn’t even going to bother to go. But not liking the uncomfortable wooden benches at Manchester I thought it worth going the lounge, just for a comfier seat. At the lounge check in I was given a card that confirmed it was the Escape Lounge but then I was directed to what looked like a 1903 overflow/expansion area. And from here I could order toast and eggs made to order so I was a happy girl. Northern Lass will appreciate the difference between mouldy bread, and eggs made to order, with toast! The only thing that would have made it better, is if I could gave upgraded to First. I checked last night and there was one seat available in First. The check in agent advised it was still available and he would have sold it to me for £549, which I thought reasonable for a 10 hour flight, and having never flown First, and wanting to try it. But unfortunately he told me it was ‘red’ on the traffic light system. So, although currently unallocated he couldn’t sell it to me because it was probably reserved for staff or a passenger entitled to an upgrade. Ah well, at least I got my toast. It’s the small things! Next stop will be to try my first BA lounge at T5.

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I think the 400 maximum was just for the holiday points (so the 400 maximum tier points related to a £10,000 spend) and you would earn additional tier points for the flights themselves. However, as far as I’m aware that offer was for holidays booked before March 2025. The 20 points per £500 spend ceased then. Instead the offer was that the lead booker would get 200 bonus tier points if the package holiday included Virgin operated flights and the spend was over £4,000. So, if you booked a package after March 2025 for three nights or more with Virgin operated flights, I think you’ll get double tier points on the flights. So, for UC flexible flights (J,C,D,I) included in a Virgin Holiday package, you’ll get 200 tier points doubled to 400 each way, so 800 tier points in total. You won’t qualify for the 200 bonus tier points because the holiday cost less than £4,000. You’ll also get Virgin flying club points in addition to the tier points.

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The SkyTeam page I found said that gold members on AF and KLM can use the 1903 lounge (or possibly Escape if with children)?

Northern Lass, that’s what I was hoping for and tried for. I didn’t have any children with me. I was just travelling with my sister. The person at the lounge check in was adamant that my gold Virgin status only gave me 1903 access if I was flying on Virgin metal. She said it didn’t matter that KLM was in the same group, it had to be Virgin. If I’d found information on the Sky Team page to contradict what she told me, I would have tried harder. To be honest, I did try the Escape lounge for 5 minutes. I walked out again after I found mould on the bread roll and the member of staff just shrugged. I only wanted a piece of toast for breakfast but they don’t even have that in the Escape lounge.

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I am Virgin gold. I flew business class on KLM on a VS codeshare to Amsterdam last week. I hoped to be able to use the 1903 lounge at Manchester which IMO is preferable to the Escape Lounge. However, I was advised that I could only access the lounge, using my gold status if I was on Virgin metal. It was irrelevant that my flight started with VS. I was offered the Escape Lounge for flying business with KLM but decided not to bother. Hopefully, with your status and flying on Virgin metal you should be okay accessing the 1903 Lounge. I flew back from LAX and used the Delta One lounge which I liked. The fast track security was a good perk. We were through in one minute. Only 2 of us, outnumbered by the 5 staff.

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I have booked a holiday with Virgin Holidays which included UC VS flights. I booked online and as suggested above the flights were in the Z bucket, so I received 100 tier points doubled up to 200 for both the outbound and inbound. I received the 200 bonus tier points for the £4k spend the day after arriving home. In fact, the 200 bonus points appeared in my Flying Club account before the tier points for the inbound flights. The £4k spend is the total holiday cost, not per person. Make sure your Flying Club number is linked to the holiday before travel to make sure you get the 200 bonus points. I didn’t know the bucket when I booked online so I think the suggestion above to do it over the phone is a good one because then you should know the bucket prior to booking and you’ll know if it costs much more to book a higher bucket seat.

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Thank you all for the sound advice, much appreciated.

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Thanks for the replies. They were told that the reason for both cancellations was ‘operational reasons’. So, not circumstances outside of their control. As NL said, I imagine the operational reasons are linked to reports that EI may pull out of Manchester.

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Like others have said, I’d happily swap a G or K seat for one in A, even if I were travelling with someone. I don’t mind the 787 seat if I’m in row A because at least then you have some privacy. However, I really dislike the lack of privacy in rows G and K, so don’t think I’d swap an A seat for a G or K one. So, I think you’d probably have more chance of someone swapping with you if you offer up the A seat. You would then have the option of your companion taking the adjacent G seat or even sitting opposite you in the K seat. Hopefully, you’ll find someone who will swap with you. Good luck.

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Thank you. I just tried checking my activity in the Virgin Red App, which I hadn’t realised I could do until you mentioned it, and found it goes back over 4 years for me. It shows me all my Virgin Flying Club Points activity but it doesn’t show me the amount of Tier Points I received, like it used to in the Flying Club activity page. But it should be useful in helping me estimate from the Virgin Points awarded the class I flew in, to work out the probable TPs awarded. Thanks again. Strangely, the last few times I’ve logged into my Flying Club account it hasn’t used 2FA, when it has previously, so maybe there are some changes in the background?

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When I log into the Virgin Money credit card app I can access the Rewards Lounge directly from the summary screen or from the Rewards Lounge tile accessed by clicking on the 3 dots for more options, like Rob said. It tells you your current spend, how much more you need to spend to earn a voucher and when your anniversary date is because you can only earn one voucher per year. I have the Rewards+ card. I assume you have the free card because you’ve mentioned needing to spend £20k to earn a voucher but I would expect the Rewards Lounge to show the same info whether for the free card or the fee card? Once you’ve earned a voucher you’ll see it in your Flying Club account activity.

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Or you could spend £8k on the holiday and fly Economy Delight each way. ED gets you 50 tier points each way, the same as Premium, and usually isn’t that much more expensive than Economy.

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I stayed one night at Radisdon Red in Liverpool. I activated the discount booster and paid £70 for the cheapest room category. I got early check-in, offered late check out, discount voucher for food/drinks, upgraded to a Suite with a view of St George’s Hall, which is their highest category room and was being offered at £400+ on their website for the day in question. There is no lounge. The person on reception was very welcoming and made a fuss of my VIP status. The only negative for me was the bathroom. I just don’t like bathrooms with glass all around.

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I’ve just flown these flights. When I checked my e-tickets as suggested by JDB, both showed only an economy baggage allowance. I called Virgin and I was informed this is because my original booking was economy for both and I had upgraded the LHR to MIA leg with points. They pointed out that it was an error and that my Virgin ticket should show the baggage allowance for the upgraded cabin. The operator said that Virgin have a reciprocal agreement with BA that they will allow the same baggage allowance as on the other flight because it was a through ticket. They advised if BA did not agree to this as my e-ticket only showed economy that I should pay for the extra suitcase and email Virgin for a reimbursement. At MAN the BA check in staff stated I could only check in one bag for free, as per my ticket. I said that was fine, I’d pay for the additional case and get a reimbursement from Virgin because I’d been told there was an existing agreement between BA and Virgin. The operator had a quick chat with his manager and then let me check in the extra bag for free. Both bags were checked in to the final destination and I received 2 paper boarding passes. When I entered the club lounge at LHR the check in staff didn’t like what she referred to as the ‘flimsy’ paper boarding pass issued by BA and offered to print me a card one instead.

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I booked 3 return MAN to MCO reward flights yesterday. Luckily, for me they were for September so both outbound and inbound were available to book. I asked the operator about the ts & cs, wanting to make sure that because I was booking them under the ‘old rules’ these would still apply if I had to cancel them. He confirmed if I cancelled them over 24 hours before flights were due, I would be refunded my voucher, points and fees/taxes, and just have to pay the £30 cancellation fee per person. However, he was keen to point out that if I wanted to amend the date, although the amendment fee would be £30, the points required for the new date would be subject to dynamic pricing so extra points would probably be required to change the date. I’m not sure what would happen in your situation though? If inbound only available once new rules in place? I booked now due to forthcoming changes. In fact, I’m now also contemplating booking a MAN to JFK return before 30th October because I can only see the points required increasing, except for a small amount of saver seats which will probably be difficult to get and won’t be guaranteed. It cost me 165,000 points for 2 UC returns, 95k plus a CC and 70k for a UC/PE return (only 2 UCs were available on the inbound).

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Thanks all. I think I now have a clearer understanding on what I can use the card for without it being considered a cash-like transaction, much appreciated.

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Thanks, MF176. Well, I made the payment on my card and no fee has been added.

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Thanks, Wenby. I just called Virgin CC and asked the question. The answer I got was it depends on how the merchant treats the transaction. If they treat it as cash I would be charged a fee and if they don’t then I won’t. They suggested I call the water company and ask how they treat payments. They said that a merchant can even treat a purchase of goods as cash if they wanted, and then Virgin would charge a fee. So, I’m still confused.

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Thanks for the response. Is your PE booking a reward booking or cash? I think you can upgrade a reward seat with points and earn the tier points of the upgraded seat but I’m not sure if you can do it with an original cash booking that’s upgraded with points. But I think I may ask on Livechat like you did to see if I get the same response as I did on the phone.

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Thanks, JDB.

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Mine appeared within 5 days of meeting the target spend, and three weeks before I received my statement, which was not what I was told by the helpline. It just appeared as a line when I logged into my flying club account, I think. I’m happy it arrived quickly. I used it immediately to bag a couple of reward seats in the August holidays.

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Thanks for confirming AL. I’ll give them a call. It’s worth a go.

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Hi Gary, yes you can use your voucher to book the outbound before the inbound is available. They will charge you fees for a single at this point. Tell the operator that you are using half your voucher and you will use the other half once the inbound is available. I did this and once the inbound was available they added it and recalculated the fees so that I paid the fees for a return plus a £35 amendment fee. I was happy with this result and didn’t question the amendment fee but reading this forum I’ve seen that BA don’t charge this fee if you’re unable to do it yourself online. I’m not sure whether VA also waives the amendment fee if you explain that the outbound wasn’t available when you booked the inbound? They didn’t for me but I never thought to ask the question.