What does Delta’s acquisition of 49% of Virgin Atlantic mean for you?

As you will presumably have read elsewhere by the time you see this, Delta has agreed to acquire the 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic owned by Singapore Airlines.

The price of £244m means that Singapore has taken a hit on its original £600m investment.

What is more interesting is what is NOT happening:

• The rumoured acquisition by Air France / KLM of Richard Branson’s 51% shareholding is not happening.  This means that Delta remains a minority partner.
• The Virgin and Delta frequent flyer schemes are NOT merging
• Virgin is NOT joining the SkyTeam alliance at the moment

What IS happening is:

• Virgin and Delta will form a joint venture for their transatlantic routes, sharing revenues and changing timings and fares to effectively operate as one airline.  This will mirror the American Airlines / BA transatlantic venture.  Virgin and Delta will offer 31 daily flight to/from North America between them.
• Virgin and Delta’s frequent flyer schemes will have a reciprocal relationship.  Virgin status will be valid on Delta and vice versa.  Delta flyers can redeem on Virgin flights and vice versa.  However, Virgin Flying Club members will NOT get access to full SkyTeam availability.

As I wrote in this article, I wanted Virgin to join Star Alliance.  That is now out of the question, and the best you can hope for is that they join the ‘alliance of losers’ – SkyTeam.

This will give you the chance to redeem on some of the worst national carriers in the sky – when the best airline for redemption (combining availability and service) in your alliance is Korean Air, you know you’re in trouble ….

Just think ‘what could have been’ if Virgin had bought bmi and come into Star Alliance.  In 10 years people will look back at that as THE great missed opportunity in recent British aviation history.

There may be one good thing to come out of this.  Delta has historically been happy to hand out miles like sweets.  There may be promotions where you can buy a pile of Delta miles cheaply and redeem for Virgin flights.  They may not even add a fuel surcharge.  If there is, you will read about it here!

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (January 2025)

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 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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.)