Virgin Miles - benefits apart from early seat selection?

[skindogg]

I usually always travel with Virgin but I never book direct with Virgin - usually with Skyscanner and one of their partners or similar comparison websites.

I've accumulated 37000 Virgin Miles over the past couple of years - not a lot I know - but they seem useless as I do not book with Virgin Direct. It's still more expensive to use my miles to book with Virgin Direct than to book with another website.

So for a casual holiday once per year what's the point in Virgin Miles and showing loyalty?

A virgin card gives you free seat selection 72 hours in advance isn't that correct? Are there any other benefits as I cannot see any for at least ten years!

[ianc]

Originally Posted by skindogg

It's still more expensive to use my miles to book with Virgin Direct than to book with another website.

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Sorry, I can't see how this is the case. With 25,000 miles you can get an off-peak return economy Rewards flight to MCO for £235 - I don't see how a third party can do a direct flight that cheap. Alternatively, 36,000 miles are worth a discount of £216 if you go for Miles+Money (3,000=£18). Again, I don't believe other websites are that much cheaper than Virgin. I was lucky in November, as there were Fare Code O tickets available for both my April and Sept flights for £406 each - which would have come down to only £190 had I used 36,000 miles on Miles+Money instead of just Money. Surely those discounts are worth having?

[g1970]

I knocked around £70 off my flights with 15,000 miles. The same flight was showing £50 cheaper via Skyscanner, so theres a slight saving to be made if you've accumulated enough miles.

[Stevelovesfl]

I'm suprised you still earn miles by booking non-direct as hotels you don't.

How about some Virgin wine, you have £150 to spend?

[THE WIZARD]

Car hire when you get there ? Wine by the case? Experience Days? Checkout their website to see what you can spend their miles on that you might prefer.

[Robsie71]

Originally Posted by THE WIZARD

Car hire when you get there ? Wine by the case? Experience Days? Checkout their website to see what you can spend their miles on that you might prefer.

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ive read you can only earn miles for experience days not spend on them - is that not the case?

[skindogg]

Originally Posted by THE WIZARD

Car hire when you get there ? Wine by the case? Experience Days? Checkout their website to see what you can spend their miles on that you might prefer.

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Ahh will check it out Thank You

[dave]

Obviously I think it depends on when you want to go. Unless your finding really good bargains on third party sites you will save money using them.
I'm at about 53000 miles each so can't wait to spend them next time. Based on some New York flights I was checking for example I was using 35000 miles to save about £260 on a return PE flight based on the full cash ticket price.