Virgin Reward Seats - Changed

[Moorlandman]

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/0...-club-changes/

Whilst Virgin claims it won’t be based on a fixed points per £ basis, it’s hard to see how dynamic pricing could work without some sort of link between the points price and the cash price.

If pegged anywhere close to 2 points per 1p (as Virgin Red redemptions are) that would be BAD news, reducing the value to 0.5p per point. It would put a New York Upper Class flight, even in a sale, at 200,000 points plus £995 of taxes and charges. Outside sale periods you would be looking at ….. well, who knows.

Virgin have confirmed that there will be no minimum or maximum cap on pricing, simply that the price will be determined algorithmically, based on supply and demand, as cash tickets are.

Based on what we saw when Delta (which owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, remember) moved to dynamic award pricing, redemptions could get toppy indeed and extend into the hundreds of thousands of points for some flights. Delta’s standard reward price for return transatlantic flights is 750,000 SkyMiles in business class.


The removal of guaranteed low-price redemption availability is disappointing and means you are unlikely to be able to get good reward deals when cash prices are sky-high

[Hughseysar]

I am not going to second guess anything . We are due to book our flights for next September on 30th October ! I did laugh when I saw the change date ! I am hoping we will still have enough points for the seats we want but will make the best of it . It may well be easier and possibly cheaper as my dates are considered low season . Everyone is panicking abit and I can understand that if you need peak dates but honestly it my not be as awful as everyone thinks . We all need to take a breath and see what happens … I like the idea there is not the rush to book on release date . £ flights are always loads on release day then usually drop considerably. Logic would suggest the same for points

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by Hughseysar

I am not going to second guess anything . We are due to book our flights for next September on 30th October ! I did laugh when I saw the change date ! I am hoping we will still have enough points for the seats we want but will make the best of it . It may well be easier and possibly cheaper as my dates are considered low season . Everyone is panicking abit and I can understand that if you need peak dates but honestly it my not be as awful as everyone thinks . We all need to take a breath and see what happens … I like the idea there is not the rush to book on release date . £ flights are always loads on release day then usually drop considerably. Logic would suggest the same for points

See more...

There is no way it will be better than it currently is. It will be the same rules as Delta. Expect 250,000 points for upper class at a minimum - Virgin can't offer these seats any less than this without selling them for lower than the cash price and no business is going to do this.

[legallyblonde]

This is all confusing me as I’m really new to the virgin points scheme. We want to go in August 2026 - 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child. I think currently that would be 45,000 miles return for economy. What does everyone think it could change to? Should I be booking and going next year instead or they will be wasted if I can’t realistically save enough lol ya for 2026

[JuneDisney]

We have premium economy seats booked in November using points, and I now have a reward voucher from the credit card plus. Am I right in thinking that you can’t upgrade flights for two people one way to upper class as it stands? The wording for the new forthcoming changes makes me think you can upgrade two people one way with a voucher, but I’m also red tier so not sure if waiting for it will be worth it?

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by legallyblonde

This is all confusing me as I’m really new to the virgin points scheme. We want to go in August 2026 - 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child. I think currently that would be 45,000 miles return for economy. What does everyone think it could change to? Should I be booking and going next year instead or they will be wasted if I can’t realistically save enough lol ya for 2026

See more...

Based on the limited information provided by Virgin, it suggests they will offer some 'saver' fares which are the same price/points as now but all the other seats will be priced based on demand. So in theory, you might still get 4 seats at 45,000 points + fees but most likely it will be 100,000 points + fees based on an average cash price of £1k pp in August.

[Loot2309]

Whilst in all probability they may be right I found that head for points article to be overly negative considering they don't know any details.

A lot of guessing and conjecture, we will have to wait and see.

[mrsbenny]

I have just bought 2 reward flights and need another two but don’t have enough points yet! I will just have to wait and see. Nothing I can do about it. Just have to hope they aren’t wanting loads more points as might be cheaper buying the other 2 flights. I’m going to have to see what the 30th October brings.

[sha9]

Thankfully my flights are released prior to this change. If this doesn’t result in a positive change then I’ll be ditching the VA credit card going forward.

[Softy]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

because you can get them for 6000 points based on some of the posts I have seen plus the £250 fee. Still half the cost of paying from Manchester these days sadly even in January.

See more...

From 6k each way, so 12k return.