Are you accumulating air miles in hope that they’ll whisk you away somewhere exotic? Guest author Derek Mott wonders whether these schemes are actually worth your loyalty…
We’ve been trying to use our Virgin air miles for a flight upgrade. But what we’ve found is all throughout the Virgin website it boasts and brags about air miles and their use, yet when you actually try to use them it’s a ‘no’.
So I’m left wondering – what’s the point of these schemes?
Computer says no
When trying to book for a flight upgrade, what I found is that the website tells you that you can get a flight upgrade subject to availability. Now I’d understand that to mean that if seats are available then you could upgrade to one.
Subject to availability is all over the site – but tucked away in the small print, it says that air miles seats availability is at the sole discretion of Virgin.
I take this to mean that in other words you don’t get to upgrade unless they say so, and I suspect that will usually be for a flight that they can’t sell the seats for.
Frankly I think we’re all being misled to believe we can use these loyalty points easily.
Are air miles worth your loyalty?
I wonder what’s happening to all of these miles? Presumably they’re accounted for somewhere, waiting to be used.
But if we’re not able to use them, only accumulate them, then are airlines like Virgin just profiting from our loyalty? And if so, what’s in it for us?
So have you ever booked a flight using some or all of your air miles? Or, like me, have you not been able to make use of these schemes?
Are air miles schemes worth your loyalty?
No (64%, 467 Votes)
Don't know (27%, 194 Votes)
Yes (9%, 69 Votes)
Total Voters: 730
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This is a guest post by Derek Mott, a community member on Which? Conversation. All opinions are Derek’s own, not necessarily those of Which? We chose Derek’s idea from the ‘Your ideas’ section on the website, make sure you share your ideas too.
