Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 250 free Virgin Flying Club miles for installing their shopping toolbar

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Virgin Atlantic is currently offering 250 Flying Club miles for free to any member who downloads a special toolbar for their ‘Shops Away‘ shopping portal.

They have in the past offered as many as 500 miles for doing this.  I haven’t seen that available for well over a year, though, so I don’t think you have much at risk by taking the 250.

Virgin Atlantic 747

To access this offer, you need to go to the Shops Away page on the Flying Club website and click on ‘Shop Today’.  You will need to log in to access ‘Shops Away’.  Once in, click on ‘Mile Finder’ in the top menu.

There is no mention of how long it takes for the miles to turn up, but when this was last on promotion they were posting within 48 hours.

‘Shops Away’ is the Virgin equivalent of BA’s Gate 365 online store or the Avios e-store.  I wrote about one of their most generous offers – 700 Virgin miles for making any hotel booking at booking.com – in this article.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (March 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 – 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

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

Up to 120,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Up to 60,000 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

Comments (11)

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

  • Tracy says:

    Linking in with the Credit Card article you wrote today the Virgin preferred Visa gives 1 point per £1 and Visa spend counts towards the sign up bonus. There is a fee though.

  • Jason says:

    Does this mean if you have virgin
    miles about to expire and you get these 250 miles it will stop them expiring?

  • James says:

    You can also get 500 easy VS miles for signing up for e rewards, much the same as you via BA/Avios etc.

    • mark2 says:

      Thanks for that. You can also sign up through IHG. I have managed to use different emails to sign up for several introductory bonuses and for my wife too.
      I soon get tired of trying to complete the surveys however.

  • Rob says:

    Raffles, did you ever receive the 700 miles from the £3 booking?

    • Rob says:

      Yes. However, booking.com also rang me twice (I genuinely missed the calls) and emailed me once ( I ignored it) about me not turning up.

  • SuperTed says:

    Nice to see they have this for the Safari browser too. However, it says:

    “You will also earn 250 miles when you download the Mile Finder.”

    It says nothing about actually installing it. Just about downloading it. I installed it anyway. But curious whether anyone got the points even though they didn’t install?

  • Macca says:

    Do we know if this will work if you took advantage of the previous download offer?

  • mark2 says:

    Points now received. I did install the bar but will now uninstall it!

    • mark2 says:

      I notice that on my wife’s computer I downloaded the bar but did not enable it and she still got the points.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.