East Coast rewards after February 2015?

[Stats]

Not sure whether this has already been mentioned but it looks like Stagecoach have registered www.virgineastcoast.co.uk

So it looks like the current site will become a FCC type of page and everyone diverted to the new site, unless they plan to use it as a corporate site

Yeah, I mentioned it back on the main thread a while back. They have also registered virgintrainseastcoast.co.uk/.com, virginwestcoast.com and virgintrainswestcoast.co.uk/.com. Some will have been purchased to stop other people from doing so to protect their brand name.

But its normal for new TOCs to change the website address to reflect the trading name of their company.

 

[westv]

Presumably, when the new website takes over, everyone's saved bookings on the old site will carry over.

 

[Stats]

Presumably, when the new website takes over, everyone's saved bookings on the old site will carry over.

Normally the answer would be no as the Data Protection Act prevents your personal details being passed from one company to another unless permission has been given. In this case however, I'm not sure as the company holding your personal details is being purchased by the new TOC. Add to the mix that VTEC's "new booking tool" is likely to be thetrainline based which will also mean that you will probably need to re-register.

Tickets already purchased will be retrievable as they will be stored on the National Reservations Database, and it's likely, as others have said, that the old system will be kept operational for any issues with tickets that have already been purchased and while the EC Reward scheme is honoured..

 

[Deerfold]

Presumably, when the new website takes over, everyone's saved bookings on the old site will carry over.

I'm not sure. When the current system was introduced under NX, previous bookings were lost which was irritating. With the transfer to EC, nothing was lost.

This suggests changes to the system used are more important than the change of TOC.

 

[shinkansen1966]

It's disappointing that no one from the DfT, Virgin or Stagecoach has publicly explained exactly what the arrangements are for the East Coast Rewards scheme after 1 March 2015.

 

[westv]

Normally the answer would be no as the Data Protection Act prevents your personal details being passed from one company to another unless permission has been given. In this case however, I'm not sure as the company holding your personal details is being purchased by the new TOC. Add to the mix that VTEC's "new booking tool" is likely to be thetrainline based which will also mean that you will probably need to re-register.

Tickets already purchased will be retrievable as they will be stored on the National Reservations Database, and it's likely, as others have said, that the old system will be kept operational for any issues with tickets that have already been purchased and while the EC Reward scheme is honoured..

I'm not sure. When the current system was introduced under NX, previous bookings were lost which was irritating. With the transfer to EC, nothing was lost.

This suggests changes to the system used are more important than the change of TOC.

So those of us that have to buy tickets three months in advance could potentially be royally screwed if things don't go top plan.

 

[Deerfold]

So those of us that have to buy tickets three months in advance could potentially be royally screwed if things don't go top plan.

I believe they maintained back room access for a while for cases where someone had mislaid their retrival code etc. But potentially troublesome for those using the system to prove journeys had been made for expense purposes etc.

 

[Tetchytyke]

It's disappointing that no one from the DfT, Virgin or Stagecoach has publicly explained exactly what the arrangements are for the East Coast Rewards scheme after 1 March 2015.

It's not a surprise, I am assuming they are hoping that nobody will notice if they don't talk about it. When it's finally confirmed that Rewards is going I am absolutely certain there will be a stink about it, which will not help with the electioneering.

 

[CockneySparrow]

It's disappointing that no one from the DfT, Virgin or Stagecoach has publicly explained exactly what the arrangements are for the East Coast Rewards scheme after 1 March 2015.

Bigger fish to fry at the moment I would guess

 

[trainophile]

So those of us that have to buy tickets three months in advance could potentially be royally screwed if things don't go top plan.

Surely if you collect your tickets as soon as possible after booking them, they remain valid... a ticket is a ticket after all.

On the "View my points" option in My Account, my four outstanding First Class Rewards tickets are showing as valid until 3rd July 2015. Might be worth taking a screen shot of that, in case of subsequent problems.

My unredeemed points are showing as valid until 2016 and 2017!

 

[yorkie]

Surely if you collect your tickets as soon as possible after booking them, they remain valid... a ticket is a ticket after all.

On the "View my points" option in My Account, my four outstanding First Class Rewards tickets are showing as valid until 3rd July 2015. Might be worth taking a screen shot of that, in case of subsequent problems.

My unredeemed points are showing as valid until 2016 and 2017!

Absolutely.

My advice is to redeem your points into Rewards Tickets before the franchise handover, as the current conditions give us 6 months to actually book the Rewards tickets.

It may well be the case that Virgin allows Rewards points to be redeemed into travel tickets for some time after the franchise handover, but we do not know if & when Virgin will alter the terms, so I am not going to be waiting to find out!

Once you have a Rewards ticket redeemed, as you say, you have 6 months to book. I do not think Virgin will either be able to, or want to, reduce that period, as you say you have evidence of a contract.

If Virgin are desperate to close the Atos WebTIS site, I suppose they could post out scratch cards allowing travel on a date of our choice within the next 6 months, that would effectively replace the rewards tickets at no worse terms than we have currently. Similarly, those of us with e-vouchers yet to spend could in theory be issued Rail Travel Vouchers instead.

I don't think there is any need for anyone to panic!

The only issue I foresee is people who have not yet redeemed their points as at any time Virgin could change the value of, or withdraw, items, as well as at some point converting Rewards points into less valuable Nectar points. I hope they will give notice of this (as East Coast recently did when they recently increased the threshold to redeem many of their Rewards products).

 

[mad_rich]

Once you have a Rewards ticket redeemed, as you say, you have 6 months to book. I do not think Virgin will either be able to, or want to, reduce that period, as you say you have evidence of a contract.

Hmm.

"But I have a contract!"

"Not with us you don't. Move along, sunshine."

Obviously Virgin/Stagecoach will take on a lot of the day-to-day liabilities of East Coast, but I wouldn't be too sure that some of the finer points of Rewards will make it through unscathed. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Hadders]

Hmm.

"But I have a contract!"

"Not with us you don't. Move along, sunshine."

Obviously Virgin/Stagecoach will take on a lot of the day-to-day liabilities of East Coast, but I wouldn't be too sure that some of the finer points of Rewards will make it through unscathed. I hope I'm wrong.

Remember that the takeover of East Coast by VTEC is different to a normal franchise change because VTEC are purchasing the share capital of East Coast Mainline. I'm not an expert but I think this means that East Coast doesn't 'disappear' in fact it carries on but under new owners.

So technically you still have a contract with them.

 

[Tetchytyke]

"But I have a contract!"

"Not with us you don't. Move along, sunshine."

Virgin/Stagecoach are buying East Coast, it's not a transfer of a franchise. So you do have a contract with them.

Problem is, the contract says this:

9. East Coast’s Right to End Membership
9.1 East Coast reserves the right at any time to suspend or terminate the membership of any Member without notice if, in East Coast’s reasonable opinion, there has been a serious failure by you to comply with your responsibilities in these Terms and Conditions. In such a situation, East Coast may also take any other action it considers appropriate, including, but not limited to, withholding or removing Points from your account.
9.2 East Coast reserves the right to discontinue the Scheme or any individual Rewards at any time.
9.3 Your membership of the Scheme will terminate automatically if no Points or Rewards have been earned or redeemed or used by you for two years or more.
9.4 In the event that East Coast ceases to operate the Inter City East Coast Main Line, the Scheme (including, but not limited to, all Rewards and Points accrued) may automatically be terminated by East Coast.
9.5 If your membership, any individual Rewards or the Scheme as a whole are due to end for the reasons set out in clauses 9.2, 9.3 or 9.4, East Coast will give reasonable prior notice (on the Website or otherwise) in order to allow you an opportunity to use up your accrued Points and Rewards. However, for the avoidance of doubt this clause 9.5 will not apply where East Coast ends or suspends membership as set out in clause 9.1.
9.6 If we or you end your membership of the Scheme we may delete our records of your Scheme membership and your Data without liability to you.

People who have vouchers to use up should have no issue doing so- the T&Cs say they are valid for six months and there is no get-out clause for EastCoast- but people who don't have vouchers already redeemed may find that their points suddenly become worthless.

 

[SickyNicky]

but people who don't have vouchers already redeemed may find that their points suddenly become worthless.

Although 9.5 seems to say that they will give reasonable prior notice, so you shouldn't just lose them overnight.

 

[CockneySparrow]

My money is on an email from East Coast saying that the free travel is no longer an option, I expect this email in a couple of weeks, "east coast rewards are changing"

 

[trainophile]

Are we all confident that any unspent eVouchers will be valid after the changeover? Thinking of making up enough for another set of tickets by buying a voucher just before the end of Feb, but there are so many unknowns at the moment.

 

[andythebrave]

Not wishing to be negative or anything but the Ts & Cs of the Rewards scheme do say that travel can only be on East Coast services. So, strictly speaking that means not valid from March. Though you can book into April right now and I guess that if you have a ticket then it will be accepted.
I guess that I won't be waiting to use my vouchers much longer !

 

[CockneySparrow]

Are we all confident that any unspent eVouchers will be valid after the changeover? Thinking of making up enough for another set of tickets by buying a voucher just before the end of Feb, but there are so many unknowns at the moment.

How are you going to manage to use the vouchers on east coast when there isn't nothing for sale on there

 

[ainsworth74]

Though as above East Coast is being bought out by Stagecoach/Virgin so they should inherit the liabilities of the existing operation. I don't see a requirement for them to continue to provide rewards tickets after the change but I don't think they can refuse travel either.

 

[trainophile]

How are you going to manage to use the vouchers on east coast when there isn't nothing for sale on there

Quite . It was suggested on here, just before the redemption values went up, that people could make up enough points to redeem for the tickets they needed by purchasing eVouchers and thereby redeeming their points (for travel up to six months ahead... again the jury seems to be out on that), and would have credit on their account by way of the eVouchers to make further bookings as and when they wished to.

I imagine all this speculation is not very useful, but it would be good if a VT/EC representative at least fed back that customers are being kept in the dark for too long.

 

[Hadders]

My suspicion is that at some point Rewards points will be converted to Nectar points.

Hopefully they'll be an option to convert Nectar points to evouchers (in the same sort of way you can convert Tesco Clubcard vouchers to RSH evouchers).

If something like this happens I doubt very much that the redemption rate will be as attractive as under the current Rewards scheme although it would be possible to convert Nectar points collected elsewhere. It might also be possible to redeem the evouchers for journeys anywhere, not just for journeys on the ECML.

 

[Class 33]

When Virgin East Coast commences from 1st March, will they be taking over the East Coast Rewards scheme? Or is it likely the scheme will be immediately axed and customers points they've built up become worthless?

I've currently got 470 points and waiting till I've booked a few more journeys to get my points to 510 or over to redeem them for two single tickets for a trip to Edinburgh for later this year. Though I don't plan to make any bookings for train travel within the next month or so, so I won't be hitting over 510 points before 1st March.

 

[yorkie]

When Virgin East Coast commences from 1st March, will they be taking over the East Coast Rewards scheme?

No-one knows, as Virgin are not prepared to answer that question.

For an idea of how Virgin treat its regular customers, and how much notice it gives on changes see No availability on Virgin Traveller

Or is it likely the scheme will be immediately axed and customers points they've built up become worthless?

No, that would be contrary to the (very little) they've said so far.

I've currently got 470 points and waiting till I've booked a few more journeys to get my points to 510 or over to redeem them for two single tickets for a trip to Edinburgh for later this year. Though I don't plan to make any bookings for train travel within the next month or so, so I won't be hitting over 510 points before 1st March.

In that case if I were you I'd buy an e-voucher now, to get you up to the required number of points, and immediately redeem the points into Rewards tickets (for which you have 6 months to book). The vouchers have effectively no expiry date, and as you've earnt the points with the purchase of the voucher, it's a good way to earn points from tickets costing as little as, say, £5 for example, which wouldn't qualify if paid for by credit/debit card.

Another bonus is that it makes the ticket purchase easier; simply select the voucher you wish to dip into. No need to enter security details for your credit/debit card at each purchase.

 

[Essexman]

I've got about 4500 points. Should I convert all of these then make loads of free journeys in the next 6 months or hang on in the hope that the points will remain valid for longer?

 

[yorkie]

I've got about 4500 points. Should I convert all of these then make loads of free journeys in the next 6 months or hang on in the hope that the points will remain valid for longer?

Until earlier this month, 4500 points would have got you 12 x 1st class tickets with 100 points to spare!

Now, you need 4695 points to reach that same total.

There is no rush to convert them now. If we hear of no further news before franchise changeover date, I'd convert them all the night before the changeover, which gives you 6 further months to book.

By the way if you want to reach 4695 points before you have that many points, you can purchase an e-voucher, for which there is effectively no expiry date.

 

[Essexman]

Thanks
I've already used about 12 - 15 free first class tickets since this excellent scheme began.
If I have to use them in the six months that will be an enjoyable one trip each month - with a good number of breakfasts included!

I'm not interested in Nectar points or any other scheme that doesn't give free train tickets.

 

[fireftrm]

EastCoast Rewards conditions state:
9.4 In the event that East Coast ceases to operate the Inter City East Coast Main Line, the Scheme (including, but not limited to, all Rewards and Points accrued) may automatically be terminated by East Coast.
9.5 If your membership, any individual Rewards or the Scheme as a whole are due to end for the reasons set out in clauses 9.2, 9.3 or 9.4, East Coast will give reasonable prior notice (on the Website or otherwise) in order to allow you an opportunity to use up your accrued Points and Rewards.

Of course reasonable prior notice is not defined, though the latter sentence would suggest more than a few weeks?

 

[CockneySparrow]

Until earlier this month, 4500 points would have got you 12 x 1st class tickets with 100 points to spare!

Now, you need 4695 points to reach that same total.

There is no rush to convert them now. If we hear of no further news before franchise changeover date, I'd convert them all the night before the changeover, which gives you 6 further months to book.

By the way if you want to reach 4695 points before you have that many points, you can purchase an e-voucher, for which there is effectively no expiry date.

Slight problem with that is that if the same outcome of the East Coast website follows the same fate as FCC you wont be able to use the vouchers as the booking engine will be gone

Suppose the only hope is that the current website for some reason bucks the trend

 

[JaJaWa]

At last! (Some of) the details we've been waiting for!

East Coast travellers in line for airmiles under new franchise

LONG distance rail travellers will be able to collect points towards transatlantic flights when the East Coast franchise returns to the private sector in six weeks time.

Plans unveiled by Inter City Rail, the Stagecoach-Virgin consortium due to take over the majority of services on the London-Edinburgh/Aberdeen line from March 1, reveal that regular customers will have an option to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points under its new loyalty scheme.

These can be put towards the cost of a Virgin Atlantic flight or a ticket on Virgin's domestic Little Red service, although this is due to be axed in September.

Passengers booking an advance ticket for the new Virgin Trains East Coast brand through its website will also accrue Nectar points which, for the first time in the rail industry, can be redeemed against the cost of a train ticket.

The new loyalty club will replace the long-running East Coast Rewards scheme, which has been praised as one of the most generous in the industry.

There were fears that members of the current scheme would see their points wiped out when the franchise switched over from East Coast to ICR in March, with Scottish passengers likely to be the biggest losers since long-distance travel between London and Scotland builds up the most points.

However, a spokeswoman for the Stagecoach-Virgin consortium said passengers with existing rewards points would be allowed to convert them into Nectar points for use under the new franchise. Customers who prefer to retain their Rewards points will also be given until September 30 to redeem them.

There are no details yet, however, on how many Nectar points or Virgin airmiles passengers will accrue per £1 spent.

A spokeswoman for the consortium said: "Our new rewards scheme with Nectar will replace the existing East Coast Rewards scheme on 1 March 2015 and will offer a wide range of benefits to Virgin Trains East Coast customers.

"Nectar points can be collected on any journey with Virgin Trains East Coast booked through our website or mobile app. Customers will also be provided with the option to collect Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points.

"In a first for the rail industry, passengers will be able to use their Nectar points when booking a Virgin Trains East Coast Advance ticket through our website, and the new scheme will offer a range of other exciting rewards for customers to spend their points on, with options for days out, entertainment and charity donations."

Under the existing East Coast Rewards loyalty scheme, members earn one point for every £1 spent booking a standard class ticket and 1.5 points per £1 for First-class tickets.

Points can be collected on any rail journey as long as it is booked via the East Coast website, and exchanged for train tickets, wine, cinema visits, high street vouchers, first-class lounge access or charity donations.

Consumer watchdog Passenger Focus said it was unclear whether passengers would be better off under the new scheme.

Guy Dangerfield, Passenger Focus manager, said: "Passengers will welcome Virgin Trains East Coast's link up with Nectar, but without more detail it's impossible to say if that will offer more or less than East Coast's existing rewards scheme."

Meanwhile, the existing loyalty scheme operated under the current ScotRail franchise is also due to be axed.

The Advance loyalty scheme will end when the ScotRail franchise is handed over from First Group to the new operators, Abellio, on April 1.

Advance members do not acquire points, however. Instead, the 33,000 members benefit from access to ScotRail's first-class lounges, a dedicated booking hotline, and free upgrades to first-class seats at weekends, subject to availability.

A spokesman for Abellio said the operator would replace the scheme with "a range of special offers, discounts and benefits".

ScotRail customers will also continue to earn Nectar points by booking tickets through the ScotRail website, but these cannot be used to purchase rail tickets from ScotRail.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/transport/east-coast-travellers-in-line-for-airmiles-under-new-franchise.116324554