Virgin Flying Club makes its cancellation policy WORSE – and doesn’t tell anyone
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For many years, a lot of frequent flyers gave Virgin Flying Club a wide berth. The reason was its archaic cancellation policy.
These were the rules which existed until September 2013:
Cancel your mileage flight and you lose 25% of the miles used
Cancel your mileage flight within 7 days of departure and you lose 100% of the miles used
As far as I was concerned, this was simply not acceptable. People often save miles for years to get a reward flight, so impose a swingeing 25% penalty if they had to cancel – even many months before departure – was simply not on.
With no ceremony or announcement, Virgin quietly changed its policy 14 months ago. The Virgin terms and conditions for Flying Club redemptions turned into this:
If for any reason a flight reward is cancelled by the Member outside 24 hours of departure, 100% of the Miles will be re-credited to the member’s account. A cancellation fee of £30 for changes to flights originating in the UK, US$50 for changes to flights originating in the US or local currency equivalent of US$50 for changes to flights originating in any other region will apply. If for any reason a flight reward is cancelled within 24 hours prior to departure, no Miles will be refunded and no fee will be charged. If you change the original travel date (within 24 hours of departure) and later decide to cancel your flights, you will forfeit the mileage used for the reward. Once travel has commenced Miles cannot be refunded. Except as expressly stated in these Flying Club Terms, Miles are not refundable and changes or revalidation are not permitted in case of no-show.
However, for reasons which I cannot begin to understand, Virgin has partially rolled back the clock.
The cancellation terms and conditions (4.2.1) now say:
If for any reason a flight Reward is cancelled by the Member outside 7 days of departure, 100% of the Miles will be re-credited to the Member’s account. A cancellation fee of £30 for changes to flights originating in the UK, US$50 for changes to flights originating in the US or local currency equivalent of US$50 for changes to flights originating in any other region will apply. If for any reason a flight Reward is cancelled by a member within 7 days prior to departure, no Miles will be refunded and a £30 administration fee will be charged to process the refund of any taxes, charges/sur-charges. If you change the original travel date (within 7 days of departure) and later decide to cancel your flights, you will forfeit the mileage used for the Reward. Once travel has commenced Miles cannot be refunded. Except as expressly stated in these Flying Club Terms, Miles are not refundable and changes or revalidation are not permitted in case of no-show.
The period where you will lose 100% of your miles has been pushed out from 24 hours to seven days.
For most people, of course, this will not be a problem. One possible situation is that you will not be able to cancel an economy or Premium Economy redemption if Upper Class opened up at the last minute. You also have the risk of cancellation due to last-minute problems at work or minor health issues – and travel insurance is usually very vague when covering the loss of your miles.
Virgin Atlantic has generally shadowed British Airways in setting its policies whilst usually being just a little bit better. There is a reason why the Virgin Black credit card has an 18,500 mile sign-up bonus whilst the British Airways Premium Plus Amex offers 18,000 Avios. It seems odd for Virgin to make a change like this which opens up a gap between Avios and Flying Club.
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):
Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard
15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review
Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard
A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 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 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.
The Platinum Card from American Express
40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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
40,000 points sign-up bonus 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.)
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