Things in the Sky

For the longest time, Virgin America had a frequent flyer program, Elevate, but flyers couldn’t do much with it other than say they were a member and earn points for…er…nothing. Well, now those points can be used!

First, Elevate is a bit different than most frequent flyer programs around here in the US.  Usually either miles flown or number of segments flown are used as a way to earn points and redeem them for awards. Instead, Elevate is linked to how much money is spent – five points for every dollar. While I’m sure this aspect may not please the mileage runners out there, I think it makes sense to reward the highest-paying customers.

Perhaps the best feature of the program that I have found is that there are no blackout dates! If there’s an unsold seat, an Elevate member can get it. The press release does say, however, that the “price in points varies based on class of service and seat availability.”

There are a couple other things I like. The end of the press release mentions:

Coming in 2009: Members also will be able to combine points and dollars to redeem on-line. Members will be able to tailor the in-flight experience by loading a favorite play-list or videogame avatar.

I like the idea of combining points and money is a good one, and Northwest already does something similar called PerkChoice, where on leg is paid for in points and the other in dollars. I’m not sure how Virgin will do it – if they will split it like Northwest or find some other way to combine them. This is a benefit that is great for the flyers that don’t fly too often and often don’t have enough points for a roundtrip.

The idea of loading a playlist and avatar sounds really interesting and I’m hoping Virgin can release some more details about it soon.

There are, though, a few things I don’t like so much. Points are on an “18 month rolling expiration.” That timeframe seems a little short to me, but those who know more about the other programs out there can judge better. Points earned through September of this won’t expire until 2010 (no date is specified, maybe the end of the year?), which is nice for those who have already been earning points.

It doesn’t seem like there is a way to do upgrades like on other programs – it looks like if you want to fly first class, you will have to use a full reward to get it, not an upgrade.

Finally, there is no premium level. My idea was that elites could get automatic upgrades to Main Cabin Select if there is space available on the flight.

An Elevate credit card has also been announced. One point is earned for every dollar spent, and triple points are earned with Virgin America purchases. 300 bonus points can be earned for every $5,000 spent (up to 1,200 bonus points can be earned this way). There’s no annual fee, and one can earn a free flight if he or she applies by a certain date, uses the card by a certain date, and flies by a certain date. I’m not credit card expert, but it does seem like it is worth a look.

Overall, Elevate looks very promising to me and I think travelers will enjoy it – especially the lack of blackout dates. Right now, I think its only limitation is Virgin America’s relatively small route map.

I contacted Abby Lunardini at Virgin America yesterday about the new refundable fares asking why they aren’t on the website, and she got back to me quite quickly. She said that it is due to a “technical limitation” of their website. She also said that they wanted to get out these new fares to business traffic, and most of that comes through phone bookings and travel managers/agencies.

So I’m guessing at some point in the (hopefully near) future we will see them on the Virgin America website.

Virgin America issued a press release yesterday and then sent out a correction as well. The first part of the release was that the airline is rolling out its Main Cabin Select product, which was previously delayed in getting rolled out. If you want to learn more, Cranky has two great posts on it – click either here or here.

The other announcement was the introduction of fully refundable fares, and the release lists the benefits:

Fully refundable up to time of departure;
Transferable with name changes up to time of departure;
Changes or cancellations are permitted without a fee until the time of departure, with the difference in fares either collected or refunded;
No blackout dates;
No minimum or maximum stay requirements (as with all Virgin America fares);
No advanced purchase required;
“No shows,” or reservations not changed or cancelled prior to departure,will be turned into a credit valid for travel on Virgin America for one year from the date of issuance.

OK, looks good, except in the correction, this was added:

Fully refundable fares are only available via the Virgin America call center at 1.877.FLY.VIRGIN (1.877.359.8474) or through travel managers and agencies. The previous release noted that fully refundable fares were available through the Virgin America Web site (http://www.virginamerica.com), which is incorrect.

The only question I can ask is…why? Fully refundable fares are generally more expensive than all the others, so isn’t it advantageous for Virgin to make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase the highest fare? Plus, Virgin charges a $10 fee for booking over the phone – annoying!

Anyway  I think I will ask Virgin about this one and let you know if they get back to me.

EDIT – They got back to me.