Virgin Flying Club increases credit card sign-up bonus to 10,000 / 25,000 Flying Club miles

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• Matt says:

  9 Jan9 January 07:52

  It’s worth noting that the exact same offer was run this time last year, and the bonus on the Black card increased to 30,000 on £3,000 spend when the 25,000 bonus expired.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:11

    True, it did. That was the only occasion they did that though, the other two runs of 25,000 miles on Black last year dropped straight back down afterwards.

• Mr Bridge says:

  9 Jan9 January 08:40

  On an unrelated matter
  is now a good time to flip my amex plat, or will a better bonus appear soon?

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:09

    Difficult to see it going higher than 30,000 to be honest.

    • xcalx says:

      9 Jan9 January 13:02

      Its still 35,000 if referred.

      • jonathan smy says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:13

        Does anyone know how long the renewal has to last to get the renewal bonuses? I.e. with the amex gold you get another 7500 points for renewing at £125. If I then transfer the points out or spend them, and then cancel the amex after 2 weeks for example I would get £120 back but do I have to also repay the 7500 points?

        • Louie says:

          9 Jan9 January 13:56

          Once they have posted, they are yours to keep.

• Daniel says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:57

  This post, combined with the post from yesterday covering Virgin’s reward seat sale, is seriously making me think about switching over from collecting Avios.

  Granted, the Virgin route network is far less than BA, but it does seem that earning rates are higher, with the advantage of a visa for back up, and there seem to be more frequent transfer offers from Tesco, MYR etc.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:06

    The issue with Virgin is route network. They have also culled a lot of non-US routes this year – there is a risk that the other non-US routes will follow as Delta effectively uses Virgin as its surrogate to get more slots at Heathrow for America flights. If your main interest is in redeeming to North America then, of course, you are fine!

  • Andy says:

    9 Jan9 January 13:08

    I am thinking the same as you. Am tempted to collect a pot of Virgin miles just for a North America redemption. Got some Hertz rentals coming up so will start with that.

    If you could take advantage of a Amex MR transfer bonus and then book in a reward sale it could be a great deal. I just hope they happen as often as last year!

  • ankomonkey says:

    9 Jan9 January 15:20

    I did exactly this last year and pretty quickly accumulated ~300k VS miles (and silver status) with plans to use them on the NRT route (I have family there). Then they cancelled the route… Not advising against collecting with VS, but think carefully…

    • Trevor says:

      9 Jan9 January 15:35

      Yup, I wanted to use VS or Cape town or Vancouver and started collecting. now they are cancelling both routes… If you want to go only to the US frequently, maybe a good option, but then there are plenty others, and you don’t want to spread yourself too thin, so rather concentrate on 1 or 2 programs. If this fits your needs, add it to your armoury.

• BA-Flyer says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:14

  Slightly off-topic, but watch out for extra fees with MBNA (who issue the Virgin card). I took advantage of £25 TopCashbBack when you deposit £10 as a new customer with William Hill. I got hit with a £3 cash advance fee and £1 interest on the fee. No doubt my fault for not reading the terms and conditions, but still a questionable description of a cash advance.

  • Richard says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:27

    I’m afraid there’s really nothing unusual about that – most credit card companies will treat gambling as a cash advance. A quick Google turns up http://www.choose.net/money/guide/faqs/online-gambling-charges-credit-card.html which lists Amex, Barclaycard and a whole host of others.

  • Jason says:

    9 Jan9 January 12:27

    I had the same with Tesco mastercard, using supercasino last year. Used a debit card for subsequent accounts.

• Michalis says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:14

  Hi Raffles.
  My amex gold year is coming to an end. I had the platinum BA amex with the voucher that I have downgraded to blue but the next year won’t be coming until may.
  I don’t thing the benefits of gold amex in the second year are worth the £125 fee, so I rang them but they wouldn’t bulge on the fee.

  What card would you recommend getting now until I can focus on the BA again (maybe – depending on how easy will end up being trying to redeem the voucher this year).

  I have a small number of points with Virgin and Emirates (both below 10k) besides decent balances with Amex and BA. Also if I were to cancel, I am still struggling to justify transferring those Amex rewards points to BA (I know you could redeem on partners) when I could use them with Emirates , Singapore etc.

• Ian says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:44

  Forgive me my ignorance, but what happen if you book a reward flight with Virgin and then later have to cancel? Do I lose the miles or there is a charge for this?

  Thanks.

  • Matt says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:51

    If you’re not within 7 days of travel, you’ll get the Miles and Taxes back but have to pay a £30 cancellation charge. Within 7 days you lose the Miles. Unfortunately it used to be 24 hours but they are now being more restrictive.

    • Ian says:

      9 Jan9 January 11:09

      Thanks Matt. Because on their website the information seems to be confusing:

      First is says:

      Once tickets for a Reward Booking are issued, no name changes are allowed. 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.

      But then it says:

      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.

      • Rob says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:21

        It is confusing because they went from 24 hours to 7 days and then backtracked. However, when they backtracked (possibly after a nasty article I wrote on HFP) the wording was messed up.

        Note that I do not know they have backtracked. One HFP reader was told on the phone they had gone back to 24 hours. When I looked at the wording I saw the same confusing mess you copied above.

        • Ian says:

          9 Jan9 January 13:44

          Thanks Raffles.

• Rob says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:47

  In the post it says you get an upgrade with the white card when you spend 10k. Can I check does that mean within 12 months? I’m pretty sure it does.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:00

    Yes, per card year

• Richard says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:57

  I’m tempted by the black card mainly because of the Regus benefit, but it would hinge really on whether I can use up the miles on EDI-LHR flights before they stop doing them in September.
  Having done a test booking to check for availability, I’m a little bit suspicious of what it seems to be telling me – it’s offering me every single day up to the end of service, and it even looks like I could book right now for a reward flight this afternoon!
  Can anyone shed any light on whether that’s actually true? I’m wondering if there’s some nasty surprise lurking after the point where I’d have to give my (as yet non-existent) Flying Club number.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:59

    The Little Red services are running at well under 50% occupancy so it is not surprising they are available. If you are a Virgin Gold they are reduced to just 2,500 miles return!

    • Think Square says:

      9 Jan9 January 15:31

      Ironically since they announced the end of Little Red, loads seem to have really perked up. I’ve been using them on the MAN and EDI routes a couple of times a week recently, and every time it’s been heaving.

  • Alan says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:00

    No, the availability really is that good! Combined with the fantastically cheap redemption rates it’s a real shame the service is stopping – it’s great to be able to directly connect to/from SQ or UA services out of LHR T2 too!

  • Richard says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:08

    Thanks for the replies! For someone in my specific circumstances, then, it sounds like a no-brainer 🙂

  • Colin JE says:

    9 Jan9 January 13:36

    Remember you can have the Regus Gold membership on Virgin Flyer Silver or higher.

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