On the whole I’m very much not a fan of the Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer program. Their award chart isn’t cheap for most destinations (though pricing isn’t crazy for US-London), but on top what generally kills it for me is the high fuel surcharges. I don’t really want to spend $700+ in taxes/fees for a transatlantic redemption.
Still, I dutifully collect 1000 Virgin Atlantic miles each time I have a one-day Avis rental. On a three-day rental I’m still crediting to US Airways for the 3000 mile bonus with Avis. But those short one-dayers go to Virgin, the 1000 miles is just too tempting for me even though I’m not a fan of the program. And over time I tend to rack up a lot of one-day rentals.
I figure that if my car rentals yield a business class ticket to London (including a visit to Virgin Clubhouses, which I do enjoy!) for $700+ in fees, it’s worth it.
Today Jared Blank points out another use for those Virgin miles that hadn’t occurred to me, or at least I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice. You can use 6000 miles for a roundtrip intra-Hawaii award on Hawaiian, or 9000 miles for roundtrip first class.
My first thought was “what’s gonna kill this deal is fuel surcharges” but Jared rang up Virgin and verified that there aren’t any on this award.
Not an amazing use of miles, but a small number that’s useful. Jared points out that you can transfer Starwood points to Virgin, 20,000 SPG points is enough for four intra-Hawaii roundtrips. A commenter on his blog adds Membership Rewards as a transfer partner. Me, I’m not really looking to add to my Virgin balance by moving over valuable points. But since I pick up Virgin miles as a consequence of renting cars anyway, I’ll keep this in my back pocket and probably use it the next time I make it out to Hawaii.
I collect Virgin from Hilton then transfer Virgin to Priority Club to maintain PC Platinum. LOL.
What do you do with your Virgin balance?
Convert it into HHonor points?
I love these ideas. Genius!!
I put my Virgin FF# on my Hertz rentals. I mostly do alot of Hertz Local Edition rentals. 1000 miles plus 100 mile bonus for being 5*.
I used to credit BMI on my Hertz rentals but they discontinued it so now I mostly credit Virgin now. On occasion, I may put Hertz ZE1 points on the rental if they are running a nice promo.
@ED.
what is the conversion rate from Virign to PC?
Those intra-Hawaii tickets are cheap but I guess it could be worthwhile for some to use miles that way. Especially if you’ve got your bday set in the Virgin system they’ll snail mail you a post card for 2500 miles on your bday (but it only works to redeem on your actual bday, if you miss it you don’t get a second chance).
Inter-island flights in Hawaii are now usually $80. I personally do not consider that “cheap” for a 100 mile flight!
Buying two interisland flights for 6000 AMEX Membership Rewards points is a steal.
$80 is cheap. My last minute day trip from OGG to HNL was almost $600 for 3 of us!
I’m ding the US Airways GrandSlam this year just for interisland tickets. Very easy/ almost free to get 10,000 miles out of that promo which I can exchange for a ticket on HA.
Yeah, $80 is the advance purchase price.
Of course, the Virgin redemption wouldn’t help you on last minute inter-island travel.
80$ per way u mean right…i’m in hawaii..typically 60$ + is cheap per way…
Don’t forget that US-based Diners Club cardholders can convert Club Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic miles.
@crazy
Virgin is 1 to 1 to PC. Hilton too. Thus, Hilton gives 1000 Virgin Miles on the double dip, then 1 to 1 to PC…..all free, no fee.
However, It has to be a 10K chunk then 5K thereafter.
ED