[FinnKZ229]

My family will be flying to Brisbane next year using Business Class Award tickets on Qatar Airways. As my son and my wife secured the only two seats available direct to Brisbane I had to take the next best option of direct flights to Sydney. I then easily booked a Business Class Award flight on Qantas from Sydney to Brisbane on the BA website. Unfortunately, within a week, Qantas brought the departure forward by 1 hour which meant the connection wouldn’t work. I changed the booking to the following flight but then realised that this would arrive after the car hire desk had closed. I decided that I would instead book a Virgin Australia flight that would depart at the original time.

I therefore transferred some Membership Rewards points from Amex to Virgin Atlantic so that I could book the Business Class Award flight on Virgin Australia. The Virgin Atlantic website states that you can book Award flights by booking on the Virgin Australia website and mentioning the Virgin Atlantic membership number. I tried this but it seemed to be impossible to “mention the Virgin Atlantic membership number”. So, I tried the alternative method of phoning the Customer Care line. I spoke to a very helpful lady who took all the details and then read out the terms and conditions, which are that you can only book Economy Class Award tickets on domestic Virgin Australia flights through Virgin Atlantic. I protested that this is not mentioned or specified anywhere on the Virgin Atlantic website. She replied that she was very sorry but there was nothing she could do.

I raised a complaint with Virgin Atlantic and received a standard reply stating that I should contact their Customer Care Line who would be able to help me. Obviously they are unable to do this. So, I would just like to warn everyone that it is not possible to book a Business Class Award flight on Virgin Australia through Virgin Atlantic.

[Slayeronwings]

It’s all Economy on Virgin Australia with your points. You need to look at the chart on their page. Bit like SQ and first class suites LHR SIN with VS points.. you will never find one because SQ makes money on them seats.
At least the taxes are low down under.

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