My wife and I.....

Hello and just a quick question please....

Planning to go to NY and LasVegas next June and looking to use some of my miles accumulated. Combined we have enough miles for upgraded Economy to UC, but seperately we only have enough for me (oh well, I can always smuggle out the champagne!).

Is it possible to combine or take into account my wifes miles when booking so we can both go, or is it a complete no no. I guess I could consider a comapnion ticket but that looks a bit more expensive.

Alternatively, we are going to Florida this Xmas, return UC, so that will net us about 74688 (including the 20000 bonus miles each), so I could wait until we have earnt those (I hate waiting!) or will the nice people at Virgin allow me to take these into account if I attempt to book now for next years trip.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thank you (this is my first posting!)

PS. Any idea if 'The Suite' is coming to Orlando soon from LGW?

[RichardMannion]

Hi Ian,

Quite a common question.

You can split the mileage required across both accounts in a 50/50, 75/25 way.

So for two upgrades roundtrip for Economy to Upper Class its 120,000 points, two lots of 60,000.

So you can:

a) Pay the whole lot from your account if you have enough miles
b) Pay 60,000 each if you have enough
c) The less known option, 50/50, so you could buy your return sector and a one-way sector of hers (total of 90,000) and then she buys the other one-way sector at a cost of 30,000 miles - in theory a 75/25 split

Few things to remember:

1. You can only use miles to upgrade if you are on a qualifying class, for economy these are L, B and Y which are the three highest fares in Economy. (ww.v-flyer.com/codes.asp)

2. You will only earn Tier Points and miles on the revenue fare you purchase, so in this case as a Silver member buying a L, B or Y ticket you would earn 4 Tier Points and 125% of the mileage flown.

On the point of going overdrawn on your account, it all depends on the situation - you can only ask. I know of instances where they have let Silver and Gold members go overdrawn, but the amount varies.

On UCS for MCO, that will be next year as far as I know.

Thanks,
Richard

Can't add anything to what Richard's said, except that I thought the 20k bonus miles was only for travel up to 10th September.

Thanks Richard for your help - I'll see what I can do.

I have just received an E-Mail extending the offer for 20000 miles until mid January, so that suits me down to the ground!!

Thanks again.

[RichardMannion]

Hi Nick,

The 20k Bonus Points offer has just been extended until 14th January 2005.

J and D bookign classes only.

Don't forget you need to register for the offer:
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/corporat ... &page_id=4

Thanks,
Richard

Fantastic news on the 20k miles offer. I was waiting to see what promotion they were going to do after 10th September. Obviously the marketing people couldn't come up with the gifts or (in my opinion the best) John Lewis vouchers...