Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: Gate 365 / Avios e-store shopping deal, Virgin / Moneycorp promotion

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News in brief:

Gate 365 / Avios e-store shopping bonuses

If you are starting your Christmas shopping, the British Airways Executive Club ‘Gate 365’ shopping portal has some special deals if you click through its links before purchasing.  These offers are scheduled to launch today.

Examples include:

  • John Lewis (started last week) – 3 Avios per £1 (this was incorrectly listed as 12 earlier, sorry!)
  • House of Fraser – 8 Avios per £1
  • Currys – 4 Avios per £1
  • Selfridges – 16 Avios per £1

These deals run until 6th December.

Avios wing 5

Bonus Virgin Flying Club miles with Moneycorp

If you are travelling out of Gatwick soon, Moneycorp is offering triple miles (3 Flying Club miles per £1) if you buy foreign currency from them.

I would strongly recommend against this if you have not pre-ordered as you will receive a terrible rate if you just walk up to the desk.  However, this deal is available on ‘Reserve and Collect’ as long as you exchange £500 or more.

You should compare rates with other companies, of course, but Moneycorp online rates are generally competitive and the 3 miles per £1 could swing it in their direction.

If you are willing to pre-order currency for home delivery, you can also get this same deal.  You do not need to be flying with Virgin Atlantic in order to take advantage.

Full details of the offer can be found here.  It runs until 10th January.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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.)

Comments (40)

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

  • Rob says:

    Yes, big fat typo which will teach me to write articles at midnight. Apologies. The other numbers are correct.

  • Andy says:

    Sorry OT question – I have just received my Amex Platinum (UK) card and was about to enroll for the hotel benefits (SPG Gold, Club Carlson Gold, Accor Plat) for myself, but the form is asking if I want to enroll my supplementary cardholder too.

    Does anyone know it if is possible to enroll them at a later date if I don’t do it now? Or can this form only be submitted once?

    • Alan says:

      Don’t worry you can do them later 🙂 You can also enrol yourself online if that’s any easier.

      • Andy says:

        Thanks Alan, so if I do it online I don’t need to enroll in all the schemes now? The website has tick boxes for all the schemes you want to enroll in on one page, so wasn’t sure if I do SPG now for example, whether I can come back and do Accor later on?

        • Alan says:

          You’re welcome to do them all at once or individually whenever you want, although as they seem to vary a bit as to how quickly they process things I’d be more inclined to just apply for them all at once.

    • Rob says:

      Yes, you can do it later

  • harry says:

    O/T bit from the postie
    500 points on Tesco wines by the case XX444P looks generic but that needs testing
    Minimum 6 bottles

    This is excellent value for somebody with free Tesco deliveries, ie buy (say) 6 bottles for £25, get 1200 Avios (=£12)

  • Jono says:

    The £500 minimum for the currency deal… it looks as though, when you click through, it says that £500 is the minimum for free home delivery and £50 is the minimum for airport collection?

  • Aceman says:

    Is there any way to get miles from moneycorp for bank to bank exchanges?

  • ed says:

    OT – I’ve accumulated 80k flying miles, and currently trying to figure out whether its better to collect another 80k for 2 return upper class flights to NYC or boost my avios collection to allow for 2 x one way redemptions in upper / club (possibly using a BA 241 amex voucher)
    (ignoring potential for a virgin devaluation) anyone got any advice for me please. how do taxes for 2 x one way redemption compare to return miles bookings?

    • Rob says:

      Taxes to US are higher if you book 2x 1-way. Both BA ans Virgin charge higher fuel surcharges to US customers than UK ones. By booking two one ways you pay the higher US charge on the inbound.

  • Liz says:

    OT is anyone else having trouble getting the Tesco Living Magazine with the gift card vouchers – don’t think they have arrived in Scotland yet – tried all over Dundee and Perth and Ayr in the last few days.

  • Mark says:

    My wife’s new iPhone may come with a few miles from Selfridges…..

    • Mark says:

      Silly me I got my hopes up and it isnlimites to certain items on the Selfridges website sigh!

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

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