BA Avios vs Virgin Flying Club

Martynt74 · 3 Dec 2019 at 14:40

Wasn't sure whether this was better in the Amex thread or on it's own.

At the moment i have around 80k Amex points which should get me a decent way towards some nice free flights once i get a new signup bonus for the BA/Virgin credit card. However i'm struggling to decide which basket to stick my pointy eggs in.

Ideally i'd wait to decide on flights and then do it, however i'm looking to switch my credit card for one which offers a companion voucher to maximise the benefit and so need to make a choice now.

Being sad i set up a bit of a pros and cons list. The main factors being Virgin have more flights from Manchester and i believe you can use points on any flights whereas BA allow you to use the companion voucher for Business/First flights but have limited availability.

There are other pros/cons but the above are my main factor.

Anyone (not based in London) had similar internal debates and where did you decide?

VincentHanna · 3 Dec 2019 at 14:58

I don't have much to add, other than to say that Virgin are a better carrier...

Nitefly · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:04

If you can easily spend £10k a year then the BA Amex card is great - you get a companion voucher that is basically by one get one free with a few conditions (return flights must be from and to UK, can be used on BA planes only, you have 2 years to use it, can’t use it for a return ticket if there are multiple cities I.e fly to India fly back to the UK from Australia).

The Avios are also really good for one way flights to the US which are otherwise stupidly expensive. For example, yesterday I booked two one way flights to Nashville with BA for ~£250 each and 25,000 points (down from 50,000 by using the voucher). Sky scanner says the cheapest one way direct is £1,700 each (?!). There may be far better ways of using points but there is absolutely no way I could have done that specific flight which worked for us without paying a fortune so in that sense it saved us about £3k.

Got a cheeky flight back for £180 each on a Black Friday sale (no avios). Pretty pleased.

Cheers @Rotty for helping to get me started!

Trust me if you want a referral

Edit - used barely any points, 25k not 50k

Martynt74 · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:07

I'll probably go via TCB as they offer £45 for the BA Amex. How many points does your referral offer?

I think i'm torn between getting maximum usability (Virgin) or getting the potential best experience (BA)

Rotty · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:10

I have moved from VA to BA schemes the reasons being the much better route network, the BA Amex voucher and easier availability of reward flights

Well when I say I have moved, I currently have 2 BA Prem plus cards ( 1 in my name and I in the wife's) I also have the pay Virgin card but the voucher isn't much good so I will prob change that for a free card as I will need a backup Visa/Mastercard

Currently I have 100k VA miles and 200k Avios

the KLM / AF deal if off I believe

I think you can use the BA voucher in all classes but you would be mad to, there are 2 business class reward seats minimum on every flight

Rotty · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:11

Marvt74 said:
I'll probably go via TCB as they offer £45 for the BA Amex. How many points does your referral offer?

(BA)

referral is 9k miles, that's worth more than £45

Nitefly · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:11

Marvt74 said:
I'll probably go via TCB as they offer £45 for the BA Amex. How many points does your referral offer?

I think i'm torn between getting maximum usability (Virgin) or getting the potential best experience (BA)

I think I get 9,000 points per referral.

Nitefly · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:14

@Rotty Yup - ours was a terrible use of the voucher, a mere 25k points saved but it worked for the trip and no scope for another trip this year - would have expired.

Still have another 140k in the bank and another voucher to use by 2021

Edit - 140k air miles, not pounds (sadly).

Rotty · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:14

VincentHanna said:
I don't have much to add, other than to say that Virgin are a better carrier...

Virgin business and Premium are def better, Econ nothing in it

BA are starting a roll out of new business product

Martynt74 · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:14

Rotty said:
I have moved from VA to BA schemes the reasons being the much better route network, the BA Amex voucher and easier availability of reward flights

Well when I say I have moved, I currently have 2 BA Prem plus cards ( 1 in my name and I in the wife's) I also have the pay Virgin card but the voucher isn't much good so I will prob change that for a free card as I will need a backup Visa/Mastercard

Currently I have 100k VA miles and 200k Avios

the KLM / AF deal if off I believe

I think you can use the BA voucher in all classes but you would be mad to, there are 2 business class reward seats minimum on every flight

Interesting, i thought with VA you could use the points against any purchase so would've offered better availability.

Rotty said:
referral is 9k miles, that's worth more than £45

Is that for the referrer or referree?

I know with the gold card the person referring gets 6k points but the person signing up only gets 2k

Rotty · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:16

Nitefly said:
@Rotty Yup - ours was a terrible use of the voucher, a mere 25k points saved but it worked for the trip and no scope for another trip this year - would have expired.

Still have another 140k in the bank and another voucher to use by 2021

Edit - 140 air miles, sadly.

I have business flights booked to Bangkok in March and still have 2 more vouchers, I have to decide whether to keep 2 cards going, I can do the 20k spend for 2 vouchers quite easily but the 250-300k miles a year I would need to get value might be a bit trickier

Martynt74 · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:18

Yeah, i was debating that also. If i get 2 cards then presumably i can use the companion voucher for both flights rather than just the outward flight.

Scam · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:18

I wish VA would sort the KLM/AF/Flybe stuff out soon. I've been sitting on 200k+ miles since I started using them with work (yearly trip to the US), but I have little interest going on holiday to the US or Caribbean. Using them on other carriers can work but not as easy to sort out. It's only 120k points to fly with ANA 1st class to Japan, for example.

EDIT: You can also use VA points to buy Eurostar vouchers which is interesting. 25k for £100 I believe which is not too shabby.

EDIT2: And VA clearly win it for the LHR experience.

Martynt74 · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:21

Scam said:
I wish VA would sort the KLM/AF/Flybe stuff out soon. I've been sitting on 200k+ miles since I started using them with work (yearly trip to the US), but I have little interest going on holiday to the US or Caribbean. Using them on other carriers can work but not as easy to sort out. It's only 120k points to fly with ANA 1st class to Japan, for example.

Again, that's holding me back too.

I'm not sure i get the value with my Gold card. Rhe 10k bonus doesn't feel worth the £140 fee given i could buy 10k avios for ~£100 using the various Groupon deals, feels like i'd be better with the Cashback card and get 1.25 points on everything over £10k spend.

Nitefly · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:21

Marvt74 said:
Yeah, i was debating that also. If i get 2 cards then presumably i can use the companion voucher for both flights rather than just the outward flight.

You can use one voucher on a set of return flights.

So buy one get one free inbound and outbound, with one voucher.

I couldn’t do this as I didn’t want to return from Nashville. BUT the point I wanted to make, that perhaps was not clear, is that it was infinitely cheaper to use the air miles to fly than it was to pay the cash price:

25k points plus ~£250 fees each (without a voucher... with a voucher it was 12.5k points each)

vs

£1700 each

Martynt74 · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:22

Nitefly said:
You can use one voucher on a set of return flights.

So buy one get one free inbound and outbound, with one voucher.

I couldn’t do this as I didn’t want to return from Nashville.

Oooh fab, didn't realise that was the case

Nitefly · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:37

Marvt74 said:
Oooh fab, didn't realise that was the case

Also, do be mindful that you still have to pay fees / taxes. So if you book business class flights you will still have to pay a few hundred in fees each.

I’ve got taken screenshots (with my phone

whyyy?! What a nob

) to show you.

(Ignore the flight dates this is just for example)

This is the cost of return flight for 2 people to Tokyo in economy with the voucher (outbound flight in peak season and inbound off peak).

This is the cost of return flight for 2 people to Tokyo in business with the voucher (outbound flight in peak season and inbound off peak).

So there is a huge difference in Avios used between the two and the taxes paid for business class are higher.

OllyM · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:41

Nitefly said:
If you can easily spend £10k a year then the BA Amex card is great - you get a companion voucher that is basically by one get one free with a few conditions (return flights must be from and to UK, can be used on BA planes only, you have 2 years to use it, can’t use it for a return ticket if there are multiple cities I.e fly to India fly back to the UK from Australia).

That's not true, you can book open jaw flights with the companion voucher. The only stipulation is that the distance between the two points has to be shorter than both of the legs back to the UK.

You can't do it online, you have to call.

Nitefly · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:44

OllyM said:
That's not true, you can book open jaw flights with the companion voucher. The only stipulation is that the distance between the two points has to be shorter than both of the legs back to the UK.

You can't do it online, you have to call.

Thanks for this. Interesting, you definitely can’t do that online as you say. Not sure it would have been any cheaper thanks to that silly cheap return flight we found but very good to know for the future!

Royal Fleet · 3 Dec 2019 at 15:46

When I was making the same decision a couple of years ago it came down to destinations. Virgin only really seemed to fly west whereas BA went to all points of the compass.