V-Flyer

Hi,would mucho appreciate advice[:X]

I'm looking at booking PE flights for my daughter and I to go to NY for 3 nights on November 29th this year.
I have a 'free' cc companion ticket,I haven't called up but looking at the cheapest flexible PE flights online the price is £1,450 for one seat and I'd use my free companion ticket.

BUT one the MMM fare the same dates,the price for both seats is £1,292 plus 15,000 airmiles.

Is there any point my paying £155 more to have the airmiles for the one flight above and save 15,000 miles??

How does anyone mange to get a bargain on a free companion ticket if it is based on a flexible ie more expensive fare?
Thanks in advance for your knowledge[y]

Originally posted by Kazzie
.
I have a 'free' cc companion ticket,I haven't called up but looking at the cheapest flexible PE flights online the price is £1,450 for one seat and I'd use my free companion ticket.

A you talking about a standby crew companion ticket?

If you are, careful how you do this - you cannot buy a rev ticket on the same flight you are standing by for - it's seen as you making sure there are enough seats on the flight for you to be loaded on.

Hi Kazzie. The value of Companion tickets has been discussed several times on the site, and I think your point about its value being limited by your being forced to buy a semi flexible ticket is valid. But thems the rules....If I were in your shoes I would look at discount non-flex fares as a comparison to the cost of using the companion. If you can move your dates around you may find a bargain. This will show you how valuable a companion really is to you.

If I understand you right your choice for 2 tickets is £1450 and use a companion, or £1292 and use 15k miles.

15,000 miles are worth more than £150, but you do get to keep your companion remember. So the question I think is which is more valuable, 15000 or a companion+£150. No game to me, keep the miles - but do check the numbers yourself as I suggested.

In theory you are also getting more flexibility booking the Companion+flexble fare. However ISTBC but the flexibility would only be on the main fare. I don't think it extends to the companion fare, so how much that flexibility is worth is highly debatable (you are hardly going to leave your daughter behind are you).

Originally posted by Lipstick


A you talking about a standby crew companion ticket?

I think its one of the free companion tickets you get with 1 year of £10 or 12k spend with virgin credit card. I assumed this based on the use of "CC" for credit card in the thread title.

Not only do you save 15,000 miles on the MPM flights you will also earn over 10000 for the companiable fare that you buy. A net saving of 25,000 miles for your £150.

Paul

I think 150GBP is a fair return for 15k miles - it may not be much if you use miles for UC but for Y/PE it is a fair return. Paul is right though and not sure 150GBP is worth the loss of 25k miles though.

Kazzie - you do not mention if you are staying a Saturday night. If so the flexible ticket price you are being quoted on-line is for a W class fare whereas you could save money by checking on availability of S fares which are discounted but still qualify for companion fares. You may well find this gives you a cheaper option as I find that S fares tend to be around 300GBP cheaper than fully flexible.

Phil

P.S. S and W fares are also upgradeable so if your daughter has no problem you could use 20k miles to UG one-way.

Originally posted by sailor99

Originally posted by Lipstick


A you talking about a standby crew companion ticket?

I think its one of the free companion tickets you get with 1 year of £10 or 12k spend with virgin credit card. I assumed this based on the use of "CC" for credit card in the thread title.

Ah you to me, CC is, and always will be Cabin Crew!

Hi All,
I couldn't get on any sooner as my computer was unwell!

Your advice is very very much appreciated[y]
Sadly my incorrect abbreviation of CC doesn't mean cabin crew as has been pointed out!


On your advice and Buffy pointing out I mught get another class by telephoning VS,you were of course quite correct[y]
S class was available,soI got a fare of £1,040 plus one tax, that makes each ticket under £600--result[:p]

I hope my daughter (age 19) remembers this when I'm old and incontinent[:w]

Great result and proof that Companion tickets are worth the paper they're not printed on.

Originally posted by Kazzie
I hope my daughter (age 19) remembers this when I'm old and incontinent[:w]

Do you think she'll remember you if you upgrade to UCS

Phil

Can you upgrade a companion ticket with miles?

Originally posted by Legin
Can you upgrade a companion ticket with miles?

No.

You can upgrade the "parent" ticket with miles, but the companion is unfortunately stuck in the class it was booked in.

Originally posted by Kazzie
Hi,would mucho appreciate advice[:X]

I'm looking at booking PE flights for my daughter and I to go to NY for 3 nights on November 29th this year.
I have a 'free' cc companion ticket,I haven't called up but looking at the cheapest flexible PE flights online the price is £1,450 for one seat and I'd use my free companion ticket.

BUT one the MMM fare the same dates,the price for both seats is £1,292 plus 15,000 airmiles.

Is there any point my paying £155 more to have the airmiles for the one flight above and save 15,000 miles??

How does anyone mange to get a bargain on a free companion ticket if it is based on a flexible ie more expensive fare?
Thanks in advance for your knowledge[y]

Doing asimilar thing with my wife in June. We found that using the companion flight was the cheepest option.

As BuffyTVS65 say online you would have been quoted a W fare and a S fare (which can be used with a companion ticket) is about £300 cheeper. Although remember you will still have to pay taxes etc on the companion ticket. Give Virgin a call but do just check the cost of two K fares thy may be not much less than the other options and you do gain miles for both tickets if your daughter belongs to flying club