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Booking Virgin with Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi Points. (no cash required)

garycarla

By garycarla,
in Virgin Voyages

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aviators99

aviators99

Posted
Posted (edited)

It's not a terrible redemption rate.  I know many people who are happy with 1-2% return on credit card spend, and this is closer to 3%.  Personally, I try for closer to 20-25%, by using it for premium cabin international flights (100,000 points would get me round trip business class to Europe), but I might hop on this.

Edited by aviators99
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aviators99

aviators99

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4 hours ago, Rhea98 said:

Well, it appeared that my first choice cruise (March 11, VL) is gone. I grabbed the offer today and hope my second choice (March 25) will still be there

Let us know how the process goes.  I'm probably going to do this in the next 2 days, as well.

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Rhea98

Rhea98

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53 minutes ago, aviators99 said:

You're not waiting until the 30% bonus?

No, I did not wait.(It was only a loss of 10,000 pts--not the whole 30,000. or whatever it would have been.) After discussing the cruise possibility, DH and I decided we really wanted to take one of the cruises. My first cruise choice was already gone so I moved some pts from AmEx, CITI, and Chase. Hit the REDEEM and about 4-5 hrs later received the key access. I booked the 3/25, 8 day. I'm so unfamiliar with the VV website. the Sea Terrace was not available so I choose Limited View and only a portion of the fee was given. I went back and saw that Central Sea Terrace was marked $0. Whew!  I'm expecting the Deep Blue Perks available via status match will apply since the cruise begins before March 31. We are retired (ancient, in fact--at least DH is) and live in south central FL area. 

 

I hope you don't remove your "Heart" from my post, but I  can understand if you do. I'm not usually such a wimp, but?????

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aviators99

aviators99

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10 hours ago, Rhea98 said:

My first cruise choice was already gone so I moved some pts from AmEx, CITI, and Chase. Hit the REDEEM and about 4-5 hrs later received the key access.

I was hopeful that I would get it as quickly, but it's already been around 8 hours for me and no access key yet 😞

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Rhea98

Rhea98

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It will show up! 🤞 I was totally shocked when it came so quickly.

I used those extra hours booking flights from Orlando to Miami and a room for the arrival night. Looks like you won't need to do any of that!!

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Rhea98

Rhea98

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3 hours ago, garycarla said:

I could be wrong, but somewhere I read that "access key" bookings do not get the Deep Blue status perks.  I think these heavily discounted cruises are like those for casino, travel agents, etc.

All I know is that Deep Blue Perks are listed on my booking under Add-ons. 

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jon81uk

jon81uk

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4 hours ago, garycarla said:

I could be wrong, but somewhere I read that "access key" bookings do not get the Deep Blue status perks.  I think these heavily discounted cruises are like those for casino, travel agents, etc.

The “free” cruises won’t count towards gaining status, so couldn’t be used as one of the two to get sea rover level. But think once you have status you do get the perks on them. 

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Rhea98

Rhea98

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Posted (edited)
On 2/17/2023 at 1:13 PM, aviators99 said:

Let us know how the process goes.  I'm probably going to do this in the next 2 days, as well.

Well, MAYbe I learned something about how VV website works (although I don't know anyone who's figured out MSC--most certainly no me). This morning (2/19--30% transfer bonus on Citi starts), as I sort of expected, the cruise I actually booked is still available; but, the Mar 11 cruise I had hoped to book but which had disappeared, is back!

I also saw this pop-up, but text on previous page says " plus up to $600 in free drinks by booking your 2023 voyage by February 28th."  

image.png.834b6cd7c4ea9d70fbac2e08ff3fba35.png

It's all pretty confusing to me even though we're platinum on NCL, diamond on MSC, and have cruise a few on Carnival. I'm sure I would find challenges going to other cruise line websites. 

I'm not one bit disappointed with how my situation turned out. 

Have you received your access code?

 

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jon81uk

jon81uk

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25 minutes ago, Rhea98 said:

I also saw this pop-up, but text on previous page says " plus up to $600 in free drinks by booking your 2023 voyage by February 28th

There is currently a special offer of up to $600 bar tab, this is for everyone who books by end of Feb no matter status.

https://www.virginvoyages.com/cruise-deals/our-2nd-most-inclusive-offer-ever

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Rhea98

Rhea98

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16 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

There is currently a special offer of up to $600 bar tab, this is for everyone who books by end of Feb no matter status.

https://www.virginvoyages.com/cruise-deals/our-2nd-most-inclusive-offer-ever

Thanks for the help. I'm pretty sure it's tied to actually "purchasing" a cruise. I think these are the terms. We use alcohol so rarely that it's a moot point for us. We do drink coffee--and some low/no sugar coffee beverages.

Heck, I'm just so happy to spend 8 days on the sea--virtually for free--, on a ship/line that sounds very comfortable for us, I don't care about much else. As we have lived for 40+ yrs in persistent hot, muggy FL, we had sworn off Caribbean cruises several years ago preferring transatlantic crossings or Northern Europe/UK (maybe our best cruise ever was all around the British Isles and then up to North Cape, Norway in spring 2018--when Norway and UK were hit with excessive heat 🙄). 

VV made us an offer we couldn't resist. 🚤 😁 

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garycarla

garycarla

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Hard to say if it would get the BarTab deal or not.  From VirginWebsite

Would love to hear of folks that have done this deal and got the bar tab.

 

- The "Our Most Inclusive Offer Ever” offer is not combinable with the following offers, promotions, discounts, or credits:

  • Incentive and Contracted Circle Programs
  • Casino Rates 
  • Interline Rates
  • Internal reduced rate programs 
  • Giveaway or promotional reduced rate Access Keys 
  • Any other previous offers
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aviators99

aviators99

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2 hours ago, Rhea98 said:

Exactly. It may not be a giveaway, but it's definitely a reduced rate.

Correct.  No perks with the mileage cruise.  I did get my access key and booked April 8.  You should call and see if you can switch yours to March 11, if that's what you really wanted.

 

Also, for others:

 

Note that the terms are a bit ambiguous about which room type you can book when redeeming miles. It says you can book the Sea Terrace (without the "the" capitalized). They really mean The Sea Terrace, which excludes Central. I found this out the hard way (after redeeming). The great news is that you don't even have to pay port charges or taxes (I found this out the easy way 🙂 )!

Edited by aviators99
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Rhea98

Rhea98

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Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, aviators99 said:

Correct.  No perks with the mileage cruise.  I did get my access key and booked April 8.  You should call and see if you can switch yours to March 11, if that's what you really wanted.

 

Also, for others:

 

Note that the terms are a bit ambiguous about which room type you can book when redeeming miles. It says you can book the Sea Terrace (without the "the" capitalized). They really mean The Sea Terrace, which excludes Central. I found this out the hard way (after redeeming). The great news is that you don't even have to pay port charges or taxes (I found this out the easy way 🙂 )!

We're ok with the one we chose. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

FWIW, I'll repeat my experience posted earlier: "the Sea Terrace was not available so I chose Limited View and only a portion of the fee was given. I went back and saw that Central Sea Terrace was marked $0." That portion of the fee was about $1000 off, iirc. Availability of a specific room type may be a factor. If you don't see the cost of $0 come up, go back to the previous page and see if another is marked $0. I don't think you're "stuck" until you move forward on the booking page. 

Edited by Rhea98
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aviators99

aviators99

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8 hours ago, Rhea98 said:

FWIW, I'll repeat my experience posted earlier: "the Sea Terrace was not available so I chose Limited View and only a portion of the fee was given. I went back and saw that Central Sea Terrace was marked $0." That portion of the fee was about $1000 off, iirc. Availability of a specific room type may be a factor. If you don't see the cost of $0 come up, go back to the previous page and see if another is marked $0. I don't think you're "stuck" until you move forward on the booking page. 

Thanks.  Someone else said this, as well.  I reached out to my TA and she says she will fix us up.

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