When cashback sites really aren’t worth the trouble

I have decided that it is about time I reviewed the new Virgin Little Red domestic services, from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester to Heathrow.

A flight has now been booked, so look out for my thoughts in a couple of weeks.

Being the good little money saver that I am, I booked the flight via the Virgin Atlantic link on Quidco. And this is what I got back:

This is a tracking receipt for your recent purchase through Quidco.

Date: 25th May 2013 16:30:18

Retailer: Virgin Atlantic (Avg payment speed 5 weeks)

Purchase Amount: £8.00

Cashback Amount: £0.08

Booking flights, especially cheap ones, via cashback sites is a bit of a swizz. The airlines will generally deduct all taxes and surcharges from the amount you get paid on. This is just about acceptable for Government-imposed taxes, but there is no excuse at all for not paying out on the fuel surcharge. After all, my flight cost substantially more than £8!

I suppose 8p is better than nothing – although you need to have a pretty low value on your time to justify clearing cookies, opening up Quidco, finding Virgin Atlantic, clicking through etc (plus opening and deleting all the Quidco emails about tracking, payment etc) to find 8p a good return.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)