Virgin Atlantic launches limited Belfast and Glasgow flights
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For reasons not entirely clear, Virgin Atlantic will experiment next Summer with a very restricted service from Belfast and Glasgow.
From Belfast, Virgin will be flying to Orlando. It will fly a grand total of six times – Thursday 25 June and then every Thursday in July.
On the off chance that this timetable suits your holiday plans, you will find yourself on a 3-class Boeing 747.
There are only 16 Upper Class seats so the chances of more than a couple being available for redemptions is not great. One upside if you can find a seat is the lower (ie £0) APD rate in Northern Ireland.
The second route is even odder.
A Glasgow to Las Vegas service will launch on September 10th 2015. It will fly a grand total of eight times, ending in October, using the same 747.
Again, it will only be a weekly service departing on a Thursday. I’m not sure I have ever met anyone who went to Las Vegas for an entire week, but you could build in some sightseeing around it.
To add to the oddness of these routes, remember that Virgin Little Red does not fly to Belfast or Glasgow – only to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester. This means that there is not even a convenient ‘all Virgin’ option if you don’t want to stay away a full week and end up flying home via Heathrow instead.
As I said, all very strange. This feels like a throwback to the ‘old Virgin’ before Delta took its 49% stake and started making some rational decisions such as ditching Sydney.
Full details can be found on the Virgin Atlantic website here.
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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (February 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.
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