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Amex Membership Rewards transfers to Virgin Flying Club are now instantaneous

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Well, this is a first for the UK.

In the US, it is normal for American Express Membership Rewards points to transfer instantly to airline and hotel partners.  This is not the case in the UK, where it usually takes 4-5 days.

The best transfer partner is usually Tesco Clubcard who can get points across to British Airways or Virgin Atlantic overnight.  The worst is Starwood Preferred Guest who took 30 days to do a Lufthansa transfer for me earlier this year, and I know only move Emirates transfers once per week.

Virgin Atlantic 747 Upper Class cabin

However, I just did a transfer to Virgin Flying Club to benefit from the current 25% bonus I was targeted for.

When I did it, I got this message:

“Your Membership Rewards points will be transferred instantly to your Virgin Atlantic Frequent Flyer Account.”

I was, frankly, highly dubious of this.  I logged into my Virgin account, though, and they were there.  (This was only the base mileage – the 25% bonus miles were always meant to post in arrears.)

This is a fantastic improvement, and means that you can look up reward flights on the Virgin website and instantly transfer the points across from Amex in order to book.

This does not apply to all partners, though.  I have no idea about British Airways but having done a Club Carlson transfer this week I can confirm that those points do not go across in a hurry – I am guessing 4-5 days.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 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 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 – 30,000 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

Huge 80,000 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.)

Comments (21)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • darrenf says:

    Have read bad things about SPG transfers here and on FlyerTalk – but I’ve only transferred SPG points twice, once to AA and once to BA, both inside the last 2 months, and neither transfer took more than 72 hours. In fact to BA it was quicker than the redeposit of Avios from a cancelled booking, which I had to chase by phone.

  • Diane says:

    Hi

    I have managed to transfer my SPG points to BAEC a couple of days ago – did take several phone-calls to Amex, but they have gone from my Starwood account, so hopefully will be en-route in cyberspace . Can someone please advise what happens when I cancel my SPG amex – where does the pro-rata refund go ? Also, is there a recommended time frame to cancel in.
    ( My husband also has done this – his points plus the bonus went through in a couple of days – but he did have to make one phone call to Amex to link the card to his SPG account)
    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Refund goes onto your SPG account! Keeping logging in to your Amex account online and you will see it appear. They can transfer it to any other Amex card you have, which is what I always do, or presumably do a bank transfer or cheque.

    • Stevo says:

      When I cancelled by SPG Amex I rang the 0800 number and was asked what I would like them to do with the pro rata refund – they offered to transfer the credit to another card (I have BA Amex & Gold Amex) – I was told this would take about week all in and sure enough it did.

      First it credits to the cancelled card and then they transfer it manually to another card (but I did not have to chase them – all done in the first call).

      One thing to note, if you would like some of your credit limit transferred to another card then ask before cancelling as it can’t be done afterwards.

  • Nick says:

    Does anyone know if the bonus is still on offer when converting amex mr points to virgin flying club?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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