Best-ever Virgin credit card bonus: 10,000 – 25,000 Flying Club miles sign-up offer

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• Tim M says:

  9 Jan9 January 07:45

  So I assume when you say the deadline to receive the higher bonus is the 31st of March, you have to have spent the 1k/2k by this point rather than just signed up for the card?

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:14

    No, sign up is 31 March and you would have 90 days from then to spend the £1/2,000. I will clarify the text.

• Idrive says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:47

  this is an excellent offer (at least for me)! i might want to take it on but need to carefully think…for heavy Visa Spender the Black deal is very good in my opinion (you do not quote it but as per other MBNA cards, the £2k target should be for a combined AMEX/Visa spend, no?)

  the upgrade voucher is the best bet as it would cost 20k per leg for two people on VA…i am not sure how good Prem Economy is though.

  I recently setup a 50k VA pot so it is definitely a good way to add some 10000s more before a 2015 redemption.

  This was in my plans for Q3 2014 though, i did not expect this to come so early…!!

  • Chris says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:51

    Virgin’s Prem Econ is better than BA’s in my opinion… well at least on BA’s old planes anyway.

  • Trevor says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:03

    A simple click and you’ll know that…

    1. 18,500 bonus miles will be credited to your Flying Club account after your first card purchase, providing you use either of your cards within 90 days of your account opening and supply your Flying Club membership number. A further 6,500 bonus miles will be credited to your account when you apply by 31 March 2014 and spend £2,000 on either card in the first 90 days…

    Bare in mind that the upgrade vouchers are only available after you hit the targets with Amex spend, not (heavy) VISA:

    3. Spend £5,000 on card purchases on the Virgin Atlantic Black American Express® Credit Card by the end of any year and you will receive a Premium Economy reward upgrade…

    • Idrive says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:51

      thanks Trevor, I had no time/way to check that this morning, i will study this further! BUT, the important first of all is the 90days bonus…:-) then 5k in a year is an easier tgt.

      • Trevor says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:32

        No problem. Yup, £5k is certainly easy to achieve in a year, but a) a shame that the voucher isn’t received before the end of the year and b) for perhaps rather little gain from it, is the voucher that worthwhile when you could sign up for and churn other cards for the same spend, possibly earning more points that the voucher’s value? More for you to study/chew on.

• Paul says:

  9 Jan9 January 07:51

  Good to see some coverage of VS deals, Raffles!

  Other readers might like to be aware that Virgin are running an enhanced signup bonus of 30,000 miles exclusively from the rep in their Clubhouse at LHR and LGW. She assured me last week that I would be eligible for this on signup for the Black card, despite already holding the White.

• Alan says:

  9 Jan9 January 07:55

  Hmm, the the white card deal looks pretty interesting – not sure I’d value the additional miles (both bonus and additional earnings) at £140 though and as you say the vouchers aren’t worthwhile.

  • Corrine says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:37

    For an easy option, the standard 3000 points with 3000 referral with the free white card (great if you can recommend a family member) has no minimum spend, the points are allocated when you start using the card !

    • Ian says:

      9 Jan9 January 11:05

      Do you happen to have the link for this referral? Thanks.

• squills says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:22

  o/T Sorry Raffles – being lazy here – but you being the good fellow you are:

  Can I trade down from BAEC premium card to the free card with a phone call, do you happen to know? Or anybody else for that matter?

  TIA 😉

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:32

    Yes. I believe, from what others have told me, that they technically treat it as a new application and so run a credit check etc, although that is not an issue.

    • squills says:

      9 Jan9 January 09:16

      Thanks I’ll give it a go.

  • Worzel says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:03

    Squills(8:22):

    Converted from the PP to basic not that long ago.

    Made a mistake and phoned to convert- “Spanish Inquisition” !!!

    Should have put the request in writing.

    Can’t see the need for a further credit check but who knows?

    • squills says:

      9 Jan9 January 09:17

      Thanks also.

  • goglobalnz says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:46

    I downgraded my BA Amex approx 4 months ago simply by applying for the standard card while holding the Plat. It was a seamless change, updated on my online profile within a week. No need to talk to anyone, or send a letter in

    I downgraded because I’d spent my 2 for 1, but hadn’t flown yet and was concerned that if I had to cancel the flights for any reason I might lose the voucher.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:28

  In terms of the companion ticket, couldn’t you use it to bring your partner along on a business trip? Wouldn’t be entirely worthless then (but agree it’s not a patch on the BA Amex).

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:35

    Yes, that is the obvious use. Not sure if there are booking T&C’s though – eg you need to book direct with Virgin and not through a corporate travel agent?

    You should also check if the ‘free’ ticket books into revenue class or reward class. Emirates has a similar deal with its credit card, but the companion ticket requires reward availability to be available, which makes it even harder to use. It also causes problems if you partner wants to changes flights at the last minute due to business requirements, since award space for a last minute change is unlikely to be there.

    • Keiths says:

      9 Jan9 January 20:05

      Without turning this into FlyerTalk or VFlyer (!) there is only one way to make the Companion flight worthwhile (yes, you do need to have reward availability).
      Book an ‘S’ class P/E ticket and that is only a couple of hundred pounds (max) more than the cheapest P/E. You can then use the Companion flight.
      Don’t forget, you also get 2 upgrade vouchers from Econ to P/E when you spend £10k pa.
      When we had a place out in Florida I would book one ‘S’ class ticket for myself to get the tier points (became Au), use the Companion ticket, and then also 2 Econ rewards which auto upgraded to P/E (assuming reward seats were available).
      We could do this twice per year and my wife also had the black card.
      So, for a total of £280 (2x fees) and 2x’S’ tickets we got 8 P/E returns pa to Florida (plus the miles and taxes of course).

      • Rob says:

        9 Jan9 January 20:52

        Thanks Keith. I will work this into tomorrows post.

      • DV says:

        9 Jan9 January 21:32

        That’s very helpful, thanks!

• Gordon says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:42

  I have the black card at the minute but no longer use it as i have a few miles with virgin and im collecting elsewhere. To avoid the fee can i switch to the white card? If the fee has just been paid can you get a refund?

  • Idrive says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:49

    Raffles wrote the fee is not refundable. you may want to call them to double check.

  • Chris says:

    9 Jan9 January 08:49

    I had the black card a few years ago and tried to cancel early and get some of the fee back, but they didn’t allow it. However, about 3 months later I somehow won an Xmas competition with them and got 100k miles from them… so glad I didn’t leave!

    • Gordon says:

      9 Jan9 January 13:15

      I just spoke with MBNA and two good bits of news.
      1. They will refund my fee in full (it was charged in the last 2 weeks)
      2. I can apply for the white card asa new card and I will qualify for the bonus as it is regarded as a new card

      • Trevor says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:29

        Good call! and pretty interesting news that we can qualify for both bonuses! Thanks for sharing.

      • Rob says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:59

        That’s a result. Note, though, that I think you’re only getting the refund as a goodwill gesture. This is not MBNA policy – I don’t want other people to apply thinking they can get a refund down the line!

        • Gordon says:

          9 Jan9 January 16:34

          Raffles you are correct. The lady asked her manager about the refund. I am a long term customer and the fee was only applied to my account 10 days ago. I think these two facts swayed their decision.

• ankomonkey says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:58

  My wife and I both have VS accounts. Does anyone know if it would be possible for the card to be taken out in my name and the miles to accrue to my wife’s account? Do they check that names match exactly? Am I dreaming to think I might be able to call up one day and change the account that accrues the points so that I can accrue to both at certain times? Applied for too many cards in wife’s name recently to risk hitting another credit check right now and get us a card each…

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:40

    Might work, with matching surname and address

  • ankomonkey says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:14

    Thanks, and good point. We signed up to Noddle a while back.

    Since end of November we’ve taken a mortgage and 2 credit cards. Just don’t want to kill her score for the sake of a decent, but not life-changing, bonus.

    • Trevor says:

      9 Jan9 January 13:35

      Can understand sentiment, but fore-warned is fore-armed, and better to know than assume. Especially when many people don’t play this game as they fear for their credit score, yet if done sensibly it actually improves your credit score. Mine was already top, remains unchanged, and my wife’s has gone up!

      • Idrive says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:59

        You need to plan and be very precise! Mine has gone up!

        • callum says:

          9 Jan9 January 20:59

          If you’re referring to the number out of 999 that Experian etc. give you, then it’s a complete waste of money. No lender cares what that score is, and the way they generate it isn’t particularly good either. It sometimes gives out a score of 999 to people with CCJs etc.!

          Unless you have something important like a mortgage you want to apply for in the near future, getting one more credit search recorded (or one more card if you’re accepted) isn’t going to make a great deal of difference. And unless you have lots of them in a small space of time, rejections (or more accurately searches – it isn’t recorded whether you were rejected or not) don’t damage your rating at all.

  • mangrove says:

    9 Jan9 January 16:48

    Would checking the credit score affect the credit score? Or are these days finally over?

    • Trevor says:

      9 Jan9 January 17:03

      Not at all – Noddle will create a new erport for you every month an dyou can check it as often as you like – it leaves no footprint that a credit check would see.

    • callum says:

      9 Jan9 January 21:04

      Those days never existed – certainly not in the last 5 or so years anyway. While you can see on your credit report when you’ve requested a copy of it, that isn’t shown to lenders. They see a different report to what you see. For example, they cannot see who your other lenders are either.

      I think some of you are mixing up how credit ratings work in the US to how they work over here. I believe things like having a numerical score are much more important over there?

      • John says:

        10 Jan10 January 01:13

        Yes. Credit scores don’t exist in the UK. A potential lender here looks at your repayment history, available credit and recent searches.

        In the US a number is calculated and potential lenders look at that number as well as the history.

        At least that is my impression of how things work.

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