Virgin Little Red closure – cheap redemptions, big flight bonuses, who gets the slots?

The announcement of the closure of the Virgin Little Red domestic routes to Manchester, Aberdeen and Edinburgh was badly timed for Head for Points – I was sitting in a departure lounge at Heathrow waiting to take a six hour flight.  The extra 24 hours has allowed me time to pull together all of the relevant information.

The Little Red services launched in March 2013, using airport slots freed up by British Airways under pressure from the European Commission following its takeover of bmi. 

I have flown Little Red twice and I liked it – although that was partly because the planes were almost empty, which was of course the problem.  The Aer Lingus crews who staffed them were cheerful and Virgin had taken some hints from Virgin America in terms of cabin lighting.

Fares were laughably cheap even at short notice.  Given that you also earned Virgin miles and tier points at a decent rate, it was a bargain.

The failure of these services surprise me.  Despite the wind of the Virgin PR machine behind them, plus attractive fares, they still could not fill the planes.  Perhaps too many people were going directly to ba.com or the low cost carrier websites to book their tickets, where the Virgin option would not appear?

The lack of a lounge in Terminal 1 was an issue (Virgin ended up dumping Servisair and giving out coffee vouchers instead). 

The move to Terminal 2 has given them the Aer Lingus lounge which is pleasant enough and the Manchester and Edinburgh options are arguably better than the BA lounges.  The failure to attract connecting passengers to Virgin long haul flights is not a surprise given the need to change terminals – passengers in Manchester and Edinburgh could also choose long-haul flights via the Middle East or other hubs.

All in all, though, I struggle to think of what else Virgin could have done to make it work.  Good pricing, good crew, attractive interiors, status matches, miles and tier points …. what else could you do?

When are the routes closing?

The last Manchester flight will be on March 28th.  The Aberdeen and Edinburgh routes will close on 26th September.

You can read the full press release here.

What bonuses are available for flying Little Red?

A base level member will now receive 2,000 Flying Club miles per return flight.

A Silver member will receive 3,000 and a Gold member will receive 4,000.  This is very generous given the low cost of the flights.

What redemption deals are available?

Good ones, if you have status.

A standard Little Red return flight was 7,500 Flying Club miles plus £34 tax.

Effective immediately, a Virgin Silver member can book a return flight for just 5,000 miles plus tax.  A Gold member can book for a crazy 2,500 miles plus tax!

These discounted deals must be booked by telephone.

Will they still be matching BA Gold and BA Silver cards onboard?

I wrote recently about how Little Red was offering on-board status matches to passengers who had British Airways status.  We need to wait and see if this will continue.  With the Scottish flights still having a year to run, Virgin may consider it worthwhile to continue with this.

What happens to the landing slots?

The Heathrow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh take-off and landing slots used for the Little Red flights all belonged to bmi.  British Airways was forced to divest them as part of the takeover.  Two of the Manchester slots were already owned by Virgin and will be retained – in the short term I imagine Virgin will lease them out.  The other Manchester slots were also from bmi.

This is what the European Commission said:

As a general rule, the slots obtained by a prospective entrant must be operated on the city pair(s) for which they have been requested from IAG and cannot be used on another city pair unless the prospective entrant has operated them during at least six full consecutive IATA seasons (“the Utilisation Period”). The prospective entrant would be deemed to have grandfathering rights for the slots once appropriate use of the slots has been made on the city pairs at issue, for the Utilisation Period. Once the Utilisation Period has elapsed, the prospective entrant would be entitled to use the slots obtained on the basis of the Commitments exclusively to operate services on any route connecting London with any other part of Europe (including Aberdeen and Edinburgh), or on London-Moscow, London-Cairo and London-Riyadh.

If Virgin had run the services for three years, it would have been able to close down the routes and retain the slots.  However, those slots could only be used for flights to Europe, Moscow, Cairo or Riyadh.  It is interesting that Virgin did not see this as attractive enough to keep the services going for another nine months or so.

My understanding is the slots will now revert to British Airways.  This is not a bad little earner for them – you are looking at around $150m-200m of slots based on recent prices.  However, if another airline wishes to launch a route between Manchester, Edinburgh and/or Aberdeen and London, it can apply for them.  I am not sure what the process will be and how long the offer remains open.

What happens to the planes and crew?

The planes belonged to, or were leased by, Aer Lingus.  The crew was also employed by Aer Lingus.  If they were leased specifically for these services then they will presumably return to the owner.  The future for the crew looks bleak unfortunately.

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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.)