[Anonymous]

[KennyNLM]

Did members know that unless you complete an earning or spending activity in any three-year period your Flying Club miles will expire?

Unfortunately I had this experience recently when I went to check that my Delta code share miles from a recent flight had been added and saw that all of the miles which I have earned flying on Virgin have now expired!

I usually find that most reward schemes notify you that your points will expire.

Of course their terms and conditions state this online but do you think I’m being slightly optimistic thinking that they should reinstate my miles?

[BugAdvisor]

I found the best way to keep them active was to join the Heathrow Rewards scheme. Spend enough to secure 500 points. Transfer those points into Flying Club – voila your expiration date is extended.
I would guess that gifting points between accounts might have a similar effect although haven’t tried.

[sparkyflier]

However Flying Club is really not attractive now. I nearly redeemed some miles last year, but the costs of the charges, taxes etc was so high there was not much difference between that and the lowest fare. As a result I am far less minded to choose them, which is a pity as I think we need competition between carriers.

[KennyNLM]

Sparkyflyer – I agree that its not very attractive anyway hence why I’m not too concerned about my loss, just frustrated. I think I collected enough miles to obtain a return flight to NYC but as you say the variance in price between the lowest fare (especially during sales) and redeeming points and paying taxes isn’t that much anyway

[BugAdvisor]

I usually convert my flying club miles into Hilton points. Using them for VS flights doesn’t save much, plus you don’t earn any miles on the reward flight. It’s a pity they don’t offer upgrades with miles on anything but full fare flights.

[mkcol74]

This is where either making an online purchase of something you’d normally make anyway via their shopping portal can help.

And also using a service such as http://www.awardwallet.com can help
(referral code http://AwardWallet.com/?refCode=lixklcfgli if you want to nose & a free upgrade coupon “free-nzjbpp” but I’ve no idea what you get upgraded to!).

In the spirit of full disclosure, if 4 of you use the upgrade coupon (I think you get AwardWallet Plus for a month or so) I get upgraded to AwardWallet Plus – which I already have as I pay for it, so I don’t think I’m actually benefiting. Just wanted to be clear before any naysayers pop along & try to burst the bubble!

[openfly]

Not quite as bad as KLM…they expire after 20 months!
To keep the VS Miles from expiring, take a VS credit card out and put a bit of spend on it once in a while.

[sparkyflier]

Or a Virgin East Coast train?

[Author]

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