10,000 Flying Club miles for a Chauffeur

I have finally got round to cashing in my flying club miles and have booked 2 UC returns to NRT.
I have 10,000 miles left which is enough to pay for the chauffeur to LHR from home. My question is does this include using the drive through check in or not. If it does it seems worth the miles to avoid the hole that is T3. If not it seems a bit of a waste.
Answers on a postcard please...

Thanks

Pete.

[preiffer]

Technically not - in reality, they'll sometimes turn a blind eye...


One thing to bear in mind: Since they moved DTCI to the side of the general checkin area, you still now have to get out of the car and walk into the main check-in hall after DTCI anyway. (It's a bit of a silly farse now). You no longer get driven straight to the security entrance, so its benefits are marginal.

[fozzyo]

We have used miles to get a Limo before now, but on the return leg. The last trip for example we got a car from LHR back home to Wolverhampton, if we hadn't it would have been a train journey. We were collapsing at home at the same time we'd probably just be getting on the train!

Mat

[HighFlyer]

I think Mat has summed it up, if you live a distance away from the airport then the service is invaluable. We had a CDC from MAN to Oxford and certainly got our 10k miles worth, but if i was still living just outside Heathrow, i would save my miles and use public transport or get a cab.

Thanks,
Sarah

Section 4.2.5 in the terms and conditions http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/tsandcs/spendingmiles.jsp relates to using miles for a CDC and goes on to talk about drive thru' check in, so I'm almost sure it is allowed now. I remember getting excited about this last year [:I] until I realised there was no drive thru' at SFO.

As Paul says though, having to get out of the car means the benefit isn't as good as it was. My judgement would be based on whether you plan to continue accumulating miles in the future. If not, you couldn't even get a £50 off voucher for Virgin Wines with your 10,000 miles, so if it would cost you more than £50 one way for a taxi I'd go ahead with the CDC.

However, if you are still planning to collect, to replace those 10,000 miles with purchased miles would cost you £165 (or a £10K spend on the no fee Virgin CC).

Sorry, but I couldn't find my postcards, hope this will do:)


Regards

Pat

Originally posted by preiffer
One thing to bear in mind: Since they moved DTCI to the side of the general checkin area, you still now have to get out of the car and walk into the main check-in hall after DTCI anyway. (It's a bit of a silly farse now). You no longer get driven straight to the security entrance, so its benefits are marginal.

I find that there is no waiting around at DTCI once in, although it can take a minute or two for the barrier to open. In contrast the main check in can be a bit of a shambles in comparison.

Cheers, Howard

Thanks for the advice, I think the 10,000 miles will be staying in my account. We have upgraded from PE to UC so will have some more miles coming into the fund.

My wife Maria and I both spent 10,000 for a round trip on this service to make our first UC experience complete and I will admit it was rather good. I liked the part at the drive in checkin where those rather large bollards come down to allow you in. please forgive us simple village folks for getting excited we dont get out much..

[fozzyo]

Originally posted by Krissw
My wife Maria and I both spent 10,000 for a round trip on this service to make our first UC experience complete and I will admit it was rather good. I liked the part at the drive in checkin where those rather large bollards come down to allow you in. please forgive us simple village folks for getting excited we dont get out much..

Its all right - we were just the same the one time we got to do drive-thru! It was the old location when we did it so everyone going into the car-park could see us. Fantastic! Followed by hours and hours in the CH and then UC all the way to Sydney! Great great trip.

So, what you are saying is that we can book from London, then book a limo from Yorkshire there and back for 20,000 points? Then we can enjoy the clubhouse!!!:D

Oops, edit to say I know we would need to book UC for the clubhouse or pay.

[Pete]

I think there's a mileage maximum for the CDC, and I doubt it would be as far as Yorkshire, but I can't remember what the latest figures were.

Any mainland UK destination in counties south of and including Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Powys, and Ceridigion.

For UK addresses outside this range, the car will take you to/from the closest regional airport from the following list, and you will need to arrange a connecting flight: Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Teesside, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Belfast, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey

Thanks, thought that was too good to be true!