Virgin companion seats?

[Slowhand]

[I`m saving a phone call and/or a trawl through the small print on the VA website by posting this here! :p015:]

I see on my Vigin Amex cc statement that I have earned a companion seat.
Can I apply this at anytime if I pay for one seat on the flight, or is this another of Virgin`s "hard to obtain" freebies?

[Wendy]

:yes: You can use the companion seat at anytime if there are fares available, that's why Chris and I only go at certain times. It is hard to get them around school holidays or popular times like Christmas and Easter. You're like us, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting them so long as you avoid school holidays. All you pay is the flight for you and then just the taxes for Sue.

Having said that you will have a problem getting UC. These aren't released immediately and are only on certain days and I think you have to pay a full fare, but I'm not sure.

[Slowhand]

Thanks Wendy. It seems like a phone call to VA is on the cards then.
Fortunately we are flexible over when we travel, just so long as we are there when we do our cruise next May.

[Wendy]

You can check online, all you need to do is log in and put in your dates and then select "spend miles" this will then tell you whether there are any flights available when you want to travel. You can normally see what other dates are available as well.

I've just had a quick look and for May and June there are plenty of PE FC seats but no UC FC seats.

[Slowhand]

You can check online, all you need to do is log in and put in your dates and then select "spend miles" this will then tell you whether there are any flights available when you want to travel. You can normally see what other dates are available as well.

I've just had a quick look and for May and June there are plenty of PE FC seats but no UC FC seats.
Thanks Wendy but I have a couple of questions.
1. Ok I`ve put in a few random dates and failed to get any results. Is it a case of systematically trying each date one by one or is there a cunning way of seeing when seats really are available? [i`ve tried but can`t find that facility on the site.]

2. Because I intend using my free companion ticket, technically is this nothing to do with spending miles?

[ukwdwnut]

when i asked about spending miles terry which is slighlty different, i was told by CS that thay dont even know how many special reward seats they allocate, so what the heck we are supposed to do to find out god only knows. i would give them a ring, might be quicker lol

i did hear that some were getting rid of the miles thing, whether that was virgin or not i dont know

[Slowhand]

i did hear that some were getting rid of the miles thing, whether that was virgin or not i dont know
It had better not be Virgin after all the cajoling they did to persuade me to take their cc instead of the regular Amex card that I already had, not to mention the miles I converted from the Amex card I used at work which came to a tidy few 000000`s. :(

[ukwdwnut]

It had better not be Virgin after all the cajoling they did to persuade me to take their cc instead of the regular Amex card that I already had, not to mention the miles I converted from the Amex card I used at work which came to a tidy few 000000`s. :(

i know, it better not be, my 85000 cost me a lot too.

im still pretty miffed that they swapped from mastercard to amex as hardly anywhere i shop dont takes the flippin card :mad:

[Slowhand]

im still pretty miffed that they swapped from mastercard to amex as hardly anywhere i shop dont takes the flippin card :mad:
Yeah, that`s something to do with the commission that Amex charge the retailers for the privilege of having the facility to offer it to their clients!
I tend to use mine only for "big spends"...air tickets, car hire, DCL etc.etc., and use my Mastercard for the day to day things.

[ukwdwnut]

i had to get rid of my MC one as they wouldnt let me have two card from MBNA :(

[Wendy]

Thanks Wendy but I have a couple of questions.
1. Ok I`ve put in a few random dates and failed to get any results. Is it a case of systematically trying each date one by one or is there a cunning way of seeing when seats really are available? [i`ve tried but can`t find that facility on the site.]

2. Because I intend using my free companion ticket, technically is this nothing to do with spending miles?

I'll try and answer them :D

If you are trying for UC and it tells you to try again, then it means there aren't any available :( Try PE and then you will see what I mean.

If you put in a date say from sometime in April to the end of June you can look between the months. The dates when seats are available are shown, if the box is grey then there is nothing available.

The reason why you look to spend miles is because it is a reward seat and they come under the same category as miles only seats. So it there are seats available to buy with your miles then they will be available as a companion seat.

Hope that explains it a bit better, I'm useless at explaining things :sorry:

I have only had problems getting seats when I tried for October and it was because of the school half term. If you go any time other than holidays you should be OK.