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

[Rhea98]

On 2/20/2023 at 4:10 PM, garycarla said:

I am confused when you say "only a portion of the fee was give".  If this is basically "free" after using your points, what fee is this?

I think this was my comment. Since the Sea Terrace was not available, I tried the limited view (per info on promo) but only about $1500 credit was displayed with several thousand remaining balance. I hit the browser back button and saw that Central Terrace had a cost of $0. I chose that. I did not expect a portion discount: I expected all or nothing. 

[nosaturn]

Took a little finagling because my Chase account had the wrong spelling of my name, but transferring 100k out of Chase to Virgin Atlantic was virtually instant - and scary - and it showed up in my Virgin Red just as fast. The access key turn around was overnight and so today i booked the Sea Terrace cabin on the Valiant Lady for March 25th. Not expecting the free drinks at all but when it's a free cruise, who cares?! 

 

I worked for another cruise company before and we got free cruises, but had to pay the port fees (plus had to get there.  The 100k points were my sign up bonus with Chase so it really is free for us.

[Tyler414]

I’m a Virgin for anything Virgin..

 

Just saw this post…I have a lot of Chase Sapphire Preferred points,…I signed up today for all the Virgin apps including Virgin Atlantic Flying Cub, Virgin Red, and Virgin Voyages.

 My question is, if I transfer my Chase points to Virgin Flying Club, can I then transfer them to Virgin Red?   I understand this cruise promotion is a Virgin Red promotion?

 

 

[Tyler414]

Seems to good to be true… An all included (other than alcohol) cruise, in a balcony Mediterranean cruise for 100,000 credit card points…

[garycarla]

Transfer to Virgin Red - not Flying Club.

 

Works great. If a bit unsure, transfer 1,000 points first to see that it works.

 

Yes, it seems too good to be true, but it does work fine - as long as they still have cabins.

[Tyler414]

1 hour ago, garycarla said:

Transfer to Virgin Red - not Flying Club.

 

Works great. If a bit unsure, transfer 1,000 points first to see that it works.

 

Yes, it seems too good to be true, but it does work fine - as long as they still have cabins.

Chase only has the option to transfer to Virgin Flying Club, I did a test of 1000 points and they went into my Virgin Red account... Now to decide if I actually want to pull the trigger 😬

[nosaturn]

1 hour ago, Tyler414 said:

Chase only has the option to transfer to Virgin Flying Club, I did a test of 1000 points and they went into my Virgin Red account... Now to decide if I actually want to pull the trigger 😬

I transferred to virgin flying club and they showed up almost immediately in Virgin Flying (i had to call to transfer them though) and they showed up immediately in the Virgin Red app. I was expecting a couple days and was biting my nails, btu this was almost too fast.

[singleflyer]

I just went on the Virgin Red website to redeem my points for the free cruise and it is no longer offered!  Waited a day too long 😞

[garycarla]

9 hours ago, singleflyer said:

I just went on the Virgin Red website to redeem my points for the free cruise and it is no longer offered!  Waited a day too long 😞

I have seen reports where certain dates do come back. check OFTEN.

 

[Rhea98]

On 3/6/2023 at 11:08 AM, nosaturn said:

I transferred to virgin flying club and they showed up almost immediately in Virgin Flying (i had to call to transfer them though) and they showed up immediately in the Virgin Red app. I was expecting a couple days and was biting my nails, btu this was almost too fast.

I did the same, except, after purchasing upper class seats to Italy through VA, I had to add points from CITI (online), AmEx (online), and CSR (phone) to get the 100,000 as no one source had enough points. It worked. All of those were instant. I'd already used CITI for the flights and had previously set up VA as a transfer partner with AmEx which may have been why I didn't have to call on those. We booked the March 25 cruise, also.

[smart_alec]

I booked our upcoming 3/26 cruise on Scarlet Lady with Capital One points. Caught one of the 30% transfer bonuses last year, transferred points instantly and got the key pretty quickly (overnight). Haven't cruised yet but so far seems like a great use of the points. It was also a sign-up bonus for me from Capital Venture X (they had the 100,000 sign up bonus), thanks for 30% transfer bonus have quite a few points leftover in my Capital One account. Looking at cash value would've cost us about $2500 to book the same cruise, so it's a great value as far as I'm concerned. 

[Tyler414]

On 3/10/2023 at 10:12 PM, singleflyer said:

I just went on the Virgin Red website to redeem my points for the free cruise and it is no longer offered!  Waited a day too long 😞

It’s back for June and July sailings and is only 80,000 points. 

[carpeperdiem]

1 hour ago, Tyler414 said:

It’s back for June and July sailings and is only 80,000 points.

 

SCREAMING DEAL ALERT!

https://www.virgin.com/en-us/virgin-red/spend-virgin-points/seven-nights-in-the-med-between-june-and-july-16042

That is IF you can get to Athens or Barcelona...

 

I was able to redeem 80k for Scarlet Lady out out Miami (back in March using original offer).

Sailing June 4 (5 nights).

FYI, the access key bookings can't be upgraded (via TA or sailor services for $$) -- but you may get a level upgrade offer.

[carpeperdiem]

On 2/25/2023 at 7:24 PM, garycarla said:

has anyone here booked their cruise using points and the $600 shows

 

No bonuses. It is a screaming deal as is.

IMO, with this offer, you can afford to buy your own booze.

[cantgetin]

My understanding is that bookings on points don't qualify for ANY bonuses--loot, free bar tab, DBE, etc. and cannot be combined with any other offers. But, as others have noted, it is an amazing deal even with buying your own drinks, etc.

[Tyler414]

It’s a “free” cruise, no bonus or bar tab. 

[scseas]

41 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

My understanding is that bookings on points don't qualify for ANY bonuses--loot, free bar tab, DBE, etc. and cannot be combined with any other offers. But, as others have noted, it is an amazing deal even with buying your own drinks, etc.

For some reason, I booked on points for the deal earlier in the year and see a $100 bar bonus and DBE on my "add ons." Does this mean I will actually get these?

[cantgetin]

9 minutes ago, scseas said:

For some reason, I booked on points for the deal earlier in the year and see a $100 bar bonus and DBE on my "add ons." Does this mean I will actually get these?

If they are on your booking, I'd fuss if you didn't get them!  Take a screen shot of your account so that if they don't show up on the app, you have proof to give to sailor services......and consider yourself lucky that you got them!

I'm aware of others who booked on point deals and couldn't get any extras. But then, there is little consistency with VV and their various deals.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by cantgetin

[singleflyer]

1 hour ago, scseas said:

For some reason, I booked on points for the deal earlier in the year and see a $100 bar bonus and DBE on my "add ons." Does this mean I will actually get these?

 

When I did this deal in April for Miami I got Deep Blue Extras. 

[jon81uk]

I think you can receive the extras if you’ve already done the qualifying cruises or a status match. But a free cruise won’t count towards gaining the status in the future. 

[carpeperdiem]

Screaming deal is back for JUNE-JULY and now AUGUST Med sailings!
https://www.virgin.com/en-us/virgin-red/spend-virgin-points/seven-nights-in-the-med-between-june-and-july-16042

Getting to BCN or ATH in July or August is limited, but some flights are reasonably priced (points)
But -- finding a flight FROM BCN or ATH back to North America in July or August is insanity.
I consider myself a points/miles expert, and I've never seen anything like this, ever.

 

When a redemption is not a value, then you just pay the fare.
But this is beyond stupid.
350k points one-way BCN-NYC in July in ECONOMY
No. Thank. You.

[carpeperdiem]

ANNNNDDD....

 

Amex is offering a 30% bonus on points transfers to Virgin for a limited time for some accounts. I am lucky. I hope you are too.'

SO this 80,000 redemption = 62,000 MR points
For those of us earning at a 4x multiple for certain spend categories, this is almost free.

 

And the redemption value (62k points = $4,500-ish) redeems at about $0.0726 per point. Experts will tell you a very good redemption value is 4 cents per point. Do your own math.

[_tacocat_]

2 hours ago, carpeperdiem said:

Screaming deal is back for JUNE-JULY and now AUGUST Med sailings!
https://www.virgin.com/en-us/virgin-red/spend-virgin-points/seven-nights-in-the-med-between-june-and-july-16042

Getting to BCN or ATH in July or August is limited, but some flights are reasonably priced (points)
But -- finding a flight FROM BCN or ATH back to North America in July or August is insanity.
I consider myself a points/miles expert, and I've never seen anything like this, ever.

 

When a redemption is not a value, then you just pay the fare.
But this is beyond stupid.
350k points one-way BCN-NYC in July in ECONOMY
No. Thank. You.

That’s why there are such screaming deals on their European sailings. The flights are absolute insanity!  
 

I did a combo of miles and cash to get myself from LA to Athens-

first class in emirates LAX>DXB, which was more miles than I wanted to spend but… emirates first class lol- I SHOWERED at 40k feet! Paid cash DXB>ATH on emirates in coach, cash for ATH>LHR in “business,” and miles for VA LHR>LAX in upper class.  
 

2 RT coach tickets in cash would have been more than the cruise fare itself!!

 

Haven’t done a big miles redemption in quite some time, and holding onto them forever is a mistake because their value never goes up.  Balancing those insane redemptions out with a redemption sweet spot reservation that I made before United’s big deval - LAX>PPT later this year  😜 

[carpeperdiem]

I just booked Valiant for July 9 using 80k Virgin Red points (62,000 amex MR)

AirFrance JFK-BCN (in Premium Economy) including a 1-day stopover in Paris was only 30k points + $145 tax each

Then to get home - a bit of a compromise... since there are essentially ZERO avails from Spain or France on OneWorld partners - it took a bit of out of the box thinking...

The cruise returns to Barcelona on Sunday July 16 -- we will spend the day/overnight in Barcelona and fly EasyJet in economy to London Luton (LTN) on Monday - then - home to JFK on Virgin Atlantic in Premium Economy that evening. Only 27500 Virgin points (21,500 Amex with the bonus) -- but the taxes are steep --  £ 397.81 each - but overall it is a good value!

Because I have ways to convert points to cash at a reasonable redemption rate, I have options.

Still on hold with Air France to book the layover -- a few other moving parts here...
BUT -- in a day, it went from not possible to "we're going" !!
🎉

[carpeperdiem]

The layover in Paris fell through WHILE I WAS ON HOLD. Geez. 😡
Hate it when that happens.

The flights literally sold-out from under me while waiting for the agent to figure out how to do it.

So we booked JFK-CDG-BCN on AF from JFK arriving Barcelona on Saturday afternoon. We'll visit Paris another time.
We also will have to stay in Barcelona a day after the cruise -- getting out of Europe on Sundays can be very expensive.

My friend convinced me "Premium Economy" on AF or Virgin are NOT USA domestic premium economy... it's a very different product, so it's booked!

The moral of the story -- use cash if needed since not all flights can be booked with miles, and if the redemption value is in the toilet, do not let them charge 550k points for a flight that should be 45k.