How to redeem your Virgin Atlantic Credit Card Upgrade voucher
Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card is probably the best non-Amex traveller card in the UK, and the Tier Reward after hitting £10,000 annual spend is quite attractive. One of the rewards to choose from is an upgrade voucher, and I’ll talk about how to use it today.
[Receiving the Voucher]
First of all, you should receive the voucher within 30 days of spending the qualifying amount. You won’t receive an email or see it in your Virgin Atlantic account, but you’ll see the following row in the activity statement:
You don’t need to specifically choose from the three Tier Rewards, instead whenever you are ready you can just redeem straightaway.
[Facts]
The voucher can be used on both revenue and reward tickets. This is a big advantage over the BA upgrade voucher issued by Barclaycard.
Only Virgin Atlantic operated flights are upgradable. Economy Light tickets are non-upgradable.
The voucher can be used to upgrade a return flight or two one-way flights. You can use half of the voucher on a one-way flight and save the other half for the future.
You can upgrade one-cabin, i.e. Economy to Premium or Premium to Upper Class.
Reward availability is required in the upgraded cabin.
You need to pay the difference in taxes and charges.
The voucher cannot be redeemed online. You must call the contact centre to redeem it.
It can be applied on tickets issued by travel agencies too – you don’t have to book directly from Virgin Atlantic, which is good as they don’t have best rate guarantee.
You can redeem the voucher for someone else – you don’t have to travel.
[Calculating the charges]
To know how much you need to pay for the upgrade is easy. Say that you want to upgrade a one-way flight from London to Miami, then just search any date for that route on Virgin’s website. Select a flight and cabin then you’ll see ticket price on the next page:
See Taxes, fees and charges? It’s not the whole picture though, you must click the link to view the actual breakdown, which will show you the carrier-imposed surcharge too:
The two numbers combined are payable charges for a reward ticket. And in this case:
- Economy: £120 + £169 = £289
- Premium: £120 + £270 = £390
- Upper Class: £350 + 270 = £620
Which means you must pay £101 for upgrading from Economy to Premium, or £230 from Premium to Upper Class.
[Using the Voucher]
The first thing you need to ensure is reward availability in the cabin you want to upgrade to. Since Virgin Atlantic doesn’t guarantee reward seats on any flight, you may need to search their website often or subscribe to one of the alerting services.
Once you find it:
- For reward ticket, you don’t need an existing booking, simply call in to make the booking with points and voucher
- For revenue ticket, you don’t need any Virgin points, just call in to upgrade with the voucher
Since fuel surcharges are sky high at the moment, upgrading a revenue ticket usually turns out a much better deal.
Virgin Atlantic actually has a Gold service line which isn’t publicised on their website. However if you are a Gold member you should be able to find the 0800 number in any newsletter they sent you. I wasn’t aware and just called the regular number at 7pm on Wednesday. It took 25 minutes to get through, which wasn’t too bad.
The agent could see reward availability and my upgrade voucher no problem. She asked for my credit card details to pay the £230 charge, which is identical to my calculations above.
It’d be nice to be able to redeem the voucher online, but overall the contact centre experience was smooth and positive, and I think paying £230 for an upgrade to Upper Class, plus finally finding a use for that voucher feels really good!
Earn voucher or Virgin points on restaurant dining via SquareMeal
We wrote about IHG’s partnership with OpenTable which allows you to earn IHG points when making restaurant reservations. It turns out that OpenTable isn’t the oligarch in the industry and SquareMeal provides a very similar service.
SquareMeal has a wide range of business operations, but we’ll just focus on the dining part today. Basically:
- You earn 100 points for each restaurant reservation
- You also earn points when dining at select restaurants and paying with linked cards
For the second perk, you can search on their website and filter by Restaurants With Reward Offers:
You need to link a debit card or credit card (Visa / Mastercard / Amex) to your SquareMeal account. If you put enough spend through the designated card at participating restaurants you’ll earn a bonus. You don’t have to reserve via SquareMeal in this case, but there aren’t many participating venues.
You can opt to earn one of the two kinds of points:
- SquareMeal Points: 100 points = £1, and the voucher can be redeemed at participating restaurants
- Virgin Points
The first option sounds better value to me, providing that the vouchers are easy to exchange and redeem. Don’t forget to weight in the 150 IHG points from OpenTable in your equation.
The following are some ways to earn points:
- Sign up with my referral link and reserve once to earn 300 points
- Add your first debit / credit card to earn 100 points
- Earn 100 points every time you reserve a restaurant
- Earn 25 points every time you write a review
Of course, you must show up to your reservation to earn the points.
My review of Aloft Birmingham Eastside
Marriott’s Every Night Counts promotion is coming to an end, and I’m participating one last time at the Aloft Birmingham Eastside hotel while visiting a friend in Solihull.
If you are looking for a central hotel IHG is your best bet. Somehow none of the Marriott hotels is ideally located. The Aloft is right next to the Aston University, and about 20 minutes’ walk into Birmingham’s New Street station.
From my limited experience, Aloft and Moxy share similar design concept of their public areas, although Moxy has more of a sexy element when it comes to guest rooms.
The hotel has a big ground floor, with a colourful bar by the entrance.
It’s not really a busy day but I didn’t receive any room upgrade. When asked about upgrade availability the receptionist told me “your room was pre-allocated this morning”, which isn’t really an answer. I didn’t bother to pursue as I just needed a bed for one night.
The room is about what you’d expect from a budget brand, basic but clean. It’s weird that Aloft usually positions itself in the four-star league, whereas in terms of quality and price it’s more on a par with Holiday Inn, Hampton or Ibis.
As a Titanium member I could choose breakfast as the welcome amenity. Breakfast is served in the Tempo restaurant, next to which is a Refuel station where you can purchase snacks.
Standard buffet:
Gym room:
Overall the hotel is okay, however unless you need to be in the area or the hotel’s rate is very good, I think there are plenty of better choices in the city.
£10 Amazon credit for Barclaycard customers
If you are a Barclaycard customer, there’s now a chance to grab a free £10 Amazon credit.
You can check out the offer details here. Note that according to the terms and conditions you must land on the offer page first before taking part.
- Offer ends September 30
- Pay at least £10 on Amazon with your Barclaycard
- You’ll then receive a £10 voucher to use by October 30
The offer should be open to all Barclaycard customers – note that it is Barclays’ credit card division, so debit cards that come with their current account won’t qualify.
Hyatt: new London hotels, Asia Pacific bonus points offer
Hyatt has recently opened two new hotels in London:
They were recently converted from Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites of the IHG brands. From what I see their room rates have almost doubled to an eye-watering level (sometimes £300+), which is insane for the location. I hope they’ve done a great renovation job!
On the other hand, if you do want to stay with them spending points appears to be a great option. I find Hyatt’s new redemption pricing confusing, but for an upcoming Saturday they only cost 9,000 points and 12,000 points respectively.
You also earn 500 bonus points per night when staying at either of them by July 31.
Also Hyatt-related, they have started a new Mid Year promotion in Asia Pacific.
- Register by July 31
- Stay between May 16 and September 2
- Earn 1,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed
- Maximum bonus awarded is 15,000 points
You can see the list of participating hotels on the promo page, which seems to cover most properties except those in mainland China.
My review of Eurostar Business Premier Lounge, London
Eurostar is the most convenient way to travel between London and Paris, and thanks to its partnership with American Express you can transfer membership rewards points to Eurostar to redeem tickets cheaply.
Another benefit that comes with American Express is, if you hold the Platinum or Centurion card, you can access the Eurostar Business Premier lounges (but no guest allowed). The card must be issued in the UK, France or Belgium though, and the London staff do inspect it very carefully.
Unfortunately it doesn’t come with the Business Premier fast track lane, and you can only enter the station approximately 90 minutes before departure, so don’t arrive too early.
One interesting find – my ticket was booked with points which comes with one free change that has already been used, however on the ticket machine I’m able to change it again for free.
After passing security, the Business Premier lounge is on your right.
The lounge has two floors. The ground floor is long, narrow and a bit cramped.
I recommend to stay on the second floor, which is much nicer.
If I remember correctly, the bar is manned on weekday evenings.
Wireless aircharge is available, but it’s very slow.
There are quite a few drink options on offer, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
But when it comes to food the selection is very poor. A couple kinds of nut mix, popcorn, biscuits, and that’s about it. And they don’t taste good…
As you can see, the Eurostar lounge isn’t comparable to an airport lounge, and most importantly don’t expect any kind of meal here. However, if you need a place to work or want a few drinks before your journey, feel free to kill some time here.
TAP Portugal: London – Brazil in business class for £1,200
TAP Portugal has launched an Executive (business) class sale for flights from Europe to Brazil. You can depart from multiple cities (including London) and arrive at Rio or Sao Paolo.
Many dates are available from September to March.
London – Rio de Janeiro, Nov 24 – Dec 4
London – Sao Paolo, Feb 21 – Mar 1
You need to book by May 16. Stopover in Portugal (Lisbon or Porto) is possible, but your itinerary will be repriced.
My review of Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel
After one night at the Bristol Hotel to spend my D$, I extended my stay by a couple of nights at the Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel. The hotel has a good reputation, and it’s not every day that you see a hotel call itself Royal.
The hotel is on the other side of the canal, opposite to the Bristol Hotel. It’s a more lively area with quite a few shops and restaurants nearby. It’s a lovely weekend and the park in front attracts many sunbathers.
The hotel boasts its Victorian style, and has been welcoming guests for 150 years. The design of its public areas is very carefully curated to reflect its history and elegance, and I can’t say I’m not impressed.
Although it’s definitely not at that level, the hotel reminds me of Hotel Bristol in Vienna in a lot of ways.
Unfortunately the hotel is fully booked, and I was only given one-level upgrade to a Superior Room. Some guest rooms are located in the Royal Wing, but from what I can tell it’s not really physically separated or come with additional perks.
The room is okay, just what you’d expect from a standard Marriott hotel, and there isn’t really anything Royal about it.
The room is back facing and very quiet.
Breakfast is served in the restaurant, which is complimentary for Platinum members and above.
Pastry offering is excellent – the croissants and pains au chocolat are very fresh, and amongst the best quality ones that I’ve had at any hotel for a long time.
However, only black coffee is free and you’d have to pay for Cappuccino etc, which is quite stingy.
I’m not a fan of hotel gyms in general, but this one is quite nicely decorated.
Some reviews I read online spoke very highly of this property, which almost made it an attraction in Bristol itself. I also agree it’s a good one, but nothing outstanding – it’s possibly one of the top accommodation choices in the city, however don’t be fooled by the Royal name, as it’s still just a four-star hotel.