25% of points lost on none used ticket., right????

Hi folks, I need a little advice.

I had a ticket for travel out in Upper Class using points 80,000 I didn't take the flights due to work commitments. Now I was told that if its transfered back to my account as points then I'd loose 25% so it was left on the booking number so that be used for transfer to a new booking. Now my best mate is 40 this year so I thought I'd use it for two economy returns to Vegas.. Upper Class can wait, this means more. He hasn't been out the country in 30 years, so I'm going to treat him via my points, for him to come with me.. I came to book it and was told sorry we can't do it because the booking reference I originally had in 2003 but didn't use, which has been reused with the last reservations made for August 2005. So if I want to use my miles it has to go back into the account and I loose 25%, which means I no longer have enough for the two economy tickets leaving me a bill to pay for one ticket of some £800. I was gutted because I have 66,000 after the 25% is taken off (you see I have some already in the account) and need 80,000 I dont expect to be travelling by Virgin in the next 5 months to raise points so I'm stuffed, I can't let him down so I'll have to end up paying if theres no solution. Anyone know if this is right or have any advice.

Many thanks guys.

K.

[preiffer]

Hi,

While I can understand your frustration, the 25% loss is clearly stated in the Terms & Conditions of Flying Club.

FC will sometimes waive this "penalty" for Gold card holders, but this is discretionary, and they're perfectly entitled to charge it for any cancelation (which is effectively what this is) of the original ticket.

[preiffer]

By way of adding some justification of the charge (and no, I'm not a VS apologist, but on this stance I believe they're correct):

If they had SOLD an Upper Class seat, that's between £2.5k and £6.5k of revenue, based on the type purchased. Overbooking aside, by nature of the fact that a mileage seat was allocated to you, this prevents VS from selling that seat for another £xxxx.

Now, if someone had purchased a Z or D ticket for that same flight and cancelled (or even changed, in the case of the Z/D Apex), they'd have lost 100% of their cash. You only lose 25% of the miles for doing the same - I think that's pretty generous, personally... [:I]

I totally agree with preiffer last statement.

[ChuckC]

stumpy,
Welcome to V-Flyer. We're glad you're here.

I was sorry to see what happened with your points, but Preiffer has it spot on -- the penalty charged by VS to your mileage account is reasonable. Don't feel too badly though, as this kind of thing has happened to all of us at least once.

As for suggestions on how you might proceed, have you considered a Economy or Premium Economy Companion ticket for your friend? For 20,000 miles you can take along your mate to the US in Economy; 30,000 miles buys him a Premium Economy seat (subject to availability, of course).

Just looking at Economy, to obtain a Companion ticket: a) there must be seat availability, which you would confirm with VS; b) you must purchase a qualifying adult fare to the US from the UK (Y, B or L, I believe -- Preiffer, did I get that correct?). The "L" fare ticket on VS LGW-LAS is currently running 472GBP return and the "B" is 517GBP -- and 20,000 miles would come out of your account

Many thanks, I hadn't realised that with regards the companion ticket, its likely though I'd end up with quite a high Econ or PE cost as the flight out is in August.

I do accept what you're all saying that I should be grateful for not loosing the lot, but its difficult to accept the loss when you think you have won the race only to find you now need to run an extra yard or two and your legs have become tied together.

Stumpy. You need 14k miles - right? And you need them in the next 5 months - right? Well there are some ways of earning the miles with out flying. Virgin wines, virgin money credit card, virgin casino (did I miss any of them anyone?) If you do a search there should be some details come up.

[ChuckC]

Originally posted by stumpy_tech
Many thanks, I hadn't realised that with regards the companion ticket, its likely though I'd end up with quite a high Econ or PE cost as the flight out is in August.

The "L" fare for August LGW-LAS is coming up at 740GBP. VS' lowest fare in the market, effective from 1 April is a "Q" at 640GBP. So, one way to think of us is that for 100GBP further, you could get two tickets instead of one (assuming availability, as said earlier).

Also, as Sailor99 has said, there are other ways to earn VS miles. There are a number of great discussion threads on this topic throughout the Forum.

Chuck-

I like sailors idea of the virgin atlantic credit card [i] . it's a great and fast idea of whipping up points in a short space of time.
for the £80 and 2 points per £ card you get a 4000 points bonus on your first purchase so that leaves you on first base already . i suppose it's then can you do that much spending on your card in a short space of time, might be the best £80 you spend in the long run

Just as a warning and I don't mean to further demoralise you [:#]- If you do not book in the next week the cost of a Economy Vegas ticket will be 50k each so you'll actually be quite a way short.

Phil

Phil, Thanks! Yeah I know I only have a week, a week to sell that Kidney, sell my body for pleasure, nahh not even get 500, its worth more in parts.

Seriously thank you all for your advice and comments.


K>

This 25% business needs a little revision, perhaps. I had to cancel 4 reward tickets to Washington 6 months before the flight and lost 25% of the miles. Ok, I felt hard done by because I felt that VS would easily have reused the availability before the flight was due.
Then, last December I had to cancel 7 reward flights to St Lucia just 8 days beforehand. Again, the cancellation penalty was 25% but, boy, did I feel a little guilty as I felt VS would not have been able to reallocate those tickets.
I know it's introducing more complexity, but the penalty for cancellation should bear some resemblance to the time before the flight. In the above example of Washington, I could have just left the cancellation until 7 days before the flight just to be bloody-minded (I'm not like that, though. Oh, yes, you are. Who said that?)