Virgin Atlantic food improvements launched

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• Andrew says:

  2 Mar2 March 04:12

  It’s a shame Virgin are continuing to serve the meals in Upper class on a cluttered tray rather than the pre-Covid table set up. It’s little touches like that which sets Upper apart from the Club World meal production line style service and I hope it returns soon – not quite sure what the Covid excuse is for this.

  • babyg says:

    2 Mar2 March 10:18

    im guessing its far easier/less contact to pickup an entire tray vs placing/picking up individual items… just guessing at virgins thinking – not agreeing it makes any sense.

• tony says:

  2 Mar2 March 06:56

  I’ve got some new AMEX offers. Spend £650 or more and get 5% off (up to £300) at Brighton & Hove Albion….

  And no sign of the Melia hotels offer.

  On the basis I’ve never spent anything at a football club on my AMEX card but frequently spend at hotels, I’m not sure how this is supposed to impress me as the £575 renewal fee on my Platinum card now sits just a couple of weeks away…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    2 Mar2 March 07:06

    My only piece of advice on the £575 fee is to change it to monthly billing and decide if it still makes sense on a more regular basis.

  • Doug M says:

    2 Mar2 March 07:31

    The offer for Brighton is limited by the number of tickets that they can sell anyway, it’s great for a few fans useless for everyone else. It wasn’t the result of some clever data search. Plenty of comments here about leveraging renewal fee into hefty chunk of points.

    • tony says:

      2 Mar2 March 10:02

      Fair enough re Brighton, but I also live nowhere near the place. With a limit of £300, presumably they are expecting people to book corporate hospitality, given that a season ticket “only” runs around the £600 mark…

      Think i’m going to have to have that conversation with them though, as travel still looks awfully constrained for the rest of the year, removing most of the benefits.

    • kitten says:

      2 Mar2 March 11:40

      Call them 2 weeks or so before your renewal, explain you’re not finding the benefits much use over the past card year so you are deciding about renewing. Ask if any offers coming soon on the card that you should take into consideration?

      If this conversation results in anything useful to you then you can decide. Obvs 2 weeks before renewal is due could be better timing than after.

• KS says:

  2 Mar2 March 07:13

  Got another £100 on £500+ at Mandarin Oriental. Only 4 locations in Europe.
  Another £25 on £100+ at Blacklane.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    2 Mar2 March 08:31

    Out of interest which card and was it just main card or supps too?

    • APPL says:

      2 Mar2 March 08:49

      Mandarin is on my Platinum main and supplementary. Valid on checkout spend before end of May in London, Paris, Geneva and Munich.

    • KS says:

      2 Mar2 March 08:51

      Mandarin Oriental on Plat and Blacklane on BAPP, both on main as well as supp.

    • Andrew says:

      2 Mar2 March 09:54

      The MO £100 on £500 is on my Blue Amex.
      Apex Hotels has reappeared too (10% every time).

      LBG – BOS: Q Hotels is offering 10% back. For non-travel Papa Johns (10%), Selfridges (10%) and Pets At Home (10%) are useful too.

      LBG – MBNA: Village Hotels has 10% back.

      Virgin Money: Offers were refreshed at the start of the month. H&M (10%), P&O (5%), Harvey Nichols (10%) and Hughes (2.5) are the ones that caught my eye.

    • WaynedP says:

      2 Mar2 March 10:00

      Mandarin Oriental (£100 back on over £500 spend by 31 May)
      Blacklane (£25 back on over £100 spend by 31 May)
      Apex Hotels (10% every time up to 31 June)
      The Doyle Collection (£60 back on over £300 spend by 30 April)
      All above on both BAPP primary and supplementary cards.

      Melia Hotels & Resorts (£75 back on over £300 spend by 30 June) on BAPP Primary only.

  • Andrew says:

    2 Mar2 March 08:56

    Blacklane on my Plat, no MO offer though, just Melia and some random hotel chains I’ve never heard of like Doyle or something.

    • Rob says:

      2 Mar2 March 09:49

      Doyle is for everyone doing the Dublin shuffle to avoid UK quarantine!

• Russ says:

  2 Mar2 March 09:35

  What no pork sausages or bacon for breakfast?

  • Andrew says:

    2 Mar2 March 10:01

    Perhaps Virgin have changed catering contractors to one which focus on serving the ME carriers and are halal only facilities.

  • Andrew says:

    2 Mar2 March 10:06

    Even in the publicity shot the “food artist” has decided the “bacon” looks so rank they’ve had to hide it. Goodness knows what it would look like on the actual plane.

    Why not just make a really good vegetarian breakfast and drop the bacon altogether? Simon Howie makes amazing vegetarian (and vegan) black pudding, square sausage, link sausage and haggis.

    I’m not veggie, but I honestly can’t tell the difference. If you want a bacon roll, have one in the lounge (If they ever learn to cook it properly).

    • Jody says:

      2 Mar2 March 11:56

      It’s so refreshing to hear a meat eater say this! As a veggie I’ve been on so many aircraft where I can’t eat anything (Iberia and Latam for example think that ham belongs in everything. Cheese and ham roll, cheese and ham croissant etc). Would be so much easier if they didn’t rely on meat for everything.

      Mind you, I’m now gluten free as well as veggie, so I suspect being able to eat anything on a plane will be a thing of the past and I will be needing to take my own pack-up. Can either order gluten free meal or veggie meal, but a GF veggie meal is clearly way too hard.

      • Peter K says:

        2 Mar2 March 12:17

        My sister has to have raw vegan to be safe on long haul flights due to severe allergies. It’s not especially enjoyable for her but it’s safe and it’s food.
        Sometimes that’s the best you can hope for!

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          2 Mar2 March 16:43

          “but it’s safe and it’s food. Sometimes that’s the best you can hope for!”

          Well that’s as far as reasonable expectations go for airline food in every cabin . If anyone thinks even biz/1st offerings are anything to get excited about then they urgently need to consider their non-plane dining options.

• WaynedP says:

  2 Mar2 March 10:19

  VS Status Match with BA update:

  I pulled the trigger about three weeks ago on the day of Rob’s article announcing enhanced terms allowing delayed commencement of status uplift to first of the month when next due to fly with VS. Successful application was confirmed within 24 hours.

  My next VS flight due 7 March was clearly going to be cancelled, and I wondered whether VS would allow for that, or go ahead anyway and apply status upgrade from 1 March.

  VS twice notified me last week of 7 March flight cancellation, but went ahead yesterday and upgraded me to VS Silver and reset my Tier Point balance to zero, which means that I have to acquire 400 TPs by 28 Feb 2022 to retain Silver.

  Having a March flight booked with VS (which was then cancelled) has put me in a position not much better than those who applied for status match in Jan / Feb before the commencement flexibility was added to the t&cs.

  But as it was an unexpected “something for nothing” offer from VS, I’m disinclined to challenge. Gift horse in the mouth and all, and I fully expect to derive at least some benefit over the next 12 months on flights I would have taken with VS anyway.

• Ryan says:

  2 Mar2 March 12:50

  Started spending on Amex Bus Plat from day 1, no offers yet but only received on Saturday. How quickly do they generally start to show?

  • Genghis says:

    2 Mar2 March 15:29

    Give it another week.

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