Get 5,000 bonus Flying Club miles when you book Guest List

Last September, Virgin Atlantic launched an interesting new service – Guest List.

Most frequent travellers acknowledge that, whatever they may think of Virgin Atlantic’s on-board product, the ground service at Heathrow (and to a lesser extent Gatwick) is unbeatable. It certainly leaves British Airways a long way behind, even with all the improvements from Terminal 5.

If you fly Virgin Upper Class on a fully-flexible cash ticket, you get all of these extra benefits:

• A chauffeur driven car to and from the airport (75 miles radius)
• At Heathrow, be dropped off at the Upper Class Wing, a drive-in / walk-through private area, with your baggage unloaded and checked in for you
• At Heathrow, use a private security channel (fast-track security pass at Gatwick)
• Access to the Virgin Clubhouse lounge – the Heathrow one is generally seen as one of the top 10 airline lounges in the world

Guest List allows you to access all of these benefits if you are flying in Economy or Premium Economy.

The Guest List service is now a year old. If I am totally honest, I did not expect it to last this long – I genuinely didn’t think that enough people would pay the money. It seems that I was wrong – or that Virgin has a very modest new business target.

The price list (and full details) can be found here. It goes from £240 for one person, one way, up to £3,600 for nine people who require a car to and from the airport on both the outbound and return flight.

As a first birthday promotion, Virgin Atlantic is currently offering 5,000 Flying Club miles with the purchase of a ‘Guest List’ package. This is a one-off award per booking, so it has more impact on a booking for one person – I doubt it would swing the decision of anyone contemplating paying £680 for a family of four.

The core market, of course, is not the family market but corporates who want to trade down from Upper Class to save money but retain access to its perks.

I would say that this service works best if:

• You live nearly 75 miles from the airport, and would otherwise have a hefty taxi bill or car parking bill
• You are going to Heathrow, where the facilities are substantially better than those at Gatwick (no drive-through check-in, no private security and immigration)
• You do not have Virgin status which would otherwise get you Clubhouse access
• You will have enough free time at the airport to enjoy some of the amazing features of the Clubhouse
• You are not travelling with children (kids over 2 count as a ‘person’ for the purpose of calculating your fee)

For me, it would be a poor deal. We will soon have 2 kids over 2 years old and we live relatively close to Heathrow (a £50 taxi ride). £680 one-way would effectively mean paying £630 (knocking off the cost of a taxi) for private security and immigration and lounge access – not a great deal.

However, if I lived 70 miles from Heathrow with, say, a £150 taxi bill and was travelling alone, the £240 fee would not look too bad. 5,000 Flying Club miles on top may even be enough to swing it.

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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.)