Jan 2006 promotions?

We've had 20K miles, humungous boxes of chocolates, Sony eye toys and so on for travelling in Upper Class over the last couple of years, but we seem to have gone a long time now without a big promotion for pax travelling in J. I wonder whether matching BA's triple miles (rather than the two sectors that were offered initially) used up all their marketing budget for the year?

Anyway, Virgin are probably thinking of New Year promotions now, and must want to lead the pack in their quest for new business, especially in W and J. So my question is: What would v-flyers like to see as the next promo? More miles, more toys, more chocolates, more discounts, or something new? And which classes? Should they just focus on J, or would some tidbits for W be in order?

For my part, I would love to see triple miles return, but I suspect the cost to the airline was very high. I'd still like to see a miles promotion though, perhaps back to the 20K miles per return, but extended to cover Z fares (which are likely to be the only route that I'll pick up any UC travel next year!)

You never know, VS might be searching for inspiration even as we speak!

Best wishes

David

[Nottingham Nick]

Hadn't thought about the lack of promotions, but you have made a good point, David.

I assume with all of the hoop-la about the new UC Suites, they haven't felt the need to have any give-aways. It was also commented on a few weeks ago that there has also been a relative paucity of gold card events.

Maybe the J class loads are sufficient at the moment

Given the choice of promotions, I would like to see a temporary reduction in the number of TPs required to attain (and keep) gold [8D].
Failing that, then any mileage bonuses would be great... IMHO, they can keep the toys and chocolates.

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
I would like to see a temporary reduction in the number of TPs required to attain (and keep) gold [8D]

Agreed, I also wouldn't mind having something like "Everytime you fly in UC until the ??/??/???? you will automatically be entered into our draw for 150,000 miles." That would be cool [8D].

mileage promos are always good!

some more AU events too would be welcomed

I was furtunate to achieve gold the last time they lowered the TP's
Still I flew from Boston in Z to get it (so they did get more £££ out of me)

Thanks for the responses, guys.

Nick - I think you're right, and the increase in premium traffic described on the VS site here might well mean they're in no rush to start more expensive promotions. I guess there will be little choice in the New Year though, simply 'cos it's the sluggish season and everyone else will be doing something to maintain or increase their share.

I quite like the idea of a miles lottery, but I think VS would have to be quite generous if it was to have an impact. One prize of even a few hundred thousand miles over a couple of months would make the chances of winning ludicrously small, and probably wouldn't affect many people's travel plans. But how about a double-strand like this:

Travel in J, D (or Z, please ) between 1 Jan and 31 Mar (or whenever), and VS will add 10K miles to the normal UC miles AND VS also enter all those who register in a weekly lottery for 20 prizes of 100K miles, results to be published every 7 days on the VS site
If they did something like this it would cost VS far less than something like the triple miles promotion, while being attractive enough in terms of the chance of winning to influence travel plans. It could also be extended, with reduced miles, to W and even Y and work there as well. And marketing it would be a doddle: "We're giving away hundreds (or thousands?) of UC round trips ......". They could also vary the prizes to, say, 5 of 100K miles and another 30 prizes of 50K miles each week, or tie tier points into the prizes.

Any thoughts?

Best wishes

David

How about a draw on every flight along the same lines - open to all UC pax - maybe excluding Op-ups

100k miles to the winner - or maybe 80k and 20k (e.g. Free UC return)

They could announce the result on-board

Personally I think a similar draw in PE (free PE return) and Y (free Y return) would be kind of cool but and then the announcement could be plane wide.

Not too sure why VS would want to just give everyone additional miles though.

Phil (Buffy)

[preiffer]

Originally posted by DavidM
And marketing it would be a doddle: "We're giving away hundreds (or thousands?) of UC round trips ......"

The key issue here being - why would they?

Loads are good, premium fares have managed to slowly (stealthily ) creep up and people are still travelling a lot...

... no need for freebies just yet, although it would be interesting to see what the loads are looking like for January at this point.

Originally posted by preiffer
The key issue here being - why would they?

Loads are good, premium fares have managed to slowly (stealthily ) creep up and people are still travelling a lot...

... no need for freebies just yet, although it would be interesting to see what the loads are looking like for January at this point.

I take your point, Paul, and noted VS's rising premium traffic in an earlier post (above). But assuming the depths of winter continue to be the most sluggish 3 months of the year, and given BA's problems now (and its need, therefore, to attract premium pax back in large numbers), I would be surprised if we didn't see the almost ritual display of incentives come Christmas time.

I'm not saying I'd go so far as to eat my hat if there wasn't such a flurry, but I would be surprised if VS aren't already planning something to deliver the "killer promo".

Best wishes

David

[Nottingham Nick]

I agree that the disaffected BA premium pax are ripe for that taking, so would a targetted promotion be a better idea?

Without resorting to any 'dirty tricks' [:I][}:)][}:)], there must be ways of getting the message to these passengers. I remember VS had an UC suite on display in T4 when there weren't too many of them in the fleet.

This may be a good time to repeat that particular promotion. [8D]

Nick

AA regularly do win a million miles promotions - now that's a useful number and it goes to one person rather than spreading the pot around.

Point of marketing is not just to bring sales in quiet periods or when loads are low, but to maintain and enhance the brand in the future. So I would expect continuing activity (and it's happening in the US at the moment as mentioned in other threads). But perhaps with loads high in UC more targeted activity is best - especially to retain some of the people who have switched recently from BA or other carriers. So if it were me I'd find a way of rewarding regulars (nicely but sadly not to much in give aways) but put effort into retaining switchers - like if you're BA silver we'll give you FC gold if you fly x times or something.

Originally posted by DavidM
So my question is: What would v-flyers like to see as the next promo?

25% off a stay at Necker Island [8D]

Of course in would have to be valid for those 2 weeks of the year they don't insist on you renting the entire island

Milliemoo

Guaranteed on board beauty treatments would be appreciated! With the increased UC loads - and with such short flying times on VS12 / VS11, a guaranteed treatment would be a good thing.

Just another thought...

[preiffer]

Seems the BA guys @ FT were disappointed today after the initial rumours of BA's "Biggest Ever Sale".

Other than matching the WTP prices, it looks like VS are already beating these with the Daily Mail ones. Doesn't look like there's anything on the Horizon for discounted J/F this year according to one poster.