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Bits: see the FA Cup with Emirates, get 3000 miles for joining Virgin Flying Club

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News in brief:

See the FA Cup Third Round with Emirates Skywards miles

I have written before about using Emirates Skywards miles for Executive Box seats at Arsenal or the other football clubs around Europe sponsored by Emirates.

Emirates is now the lead sponsor of the FA Cup.  For the 2nd Round in December, they offered tickets for just 1 mile.

Now that the 3rd Round is here, they are not being that generous.  However, at just 4,000 Emirates miles for a ticket, you can’t complain.

As at 3pm yesterday the following games were available.  Remember that you can only book a maximum of two tickets per game per Emirates account.

  • Exeter City v Liverpool
  • Wycombe v Aston Villa
  • Eastleigh v Bolton
  • Doncaster v Stoke
  • Manchester Utd v Sheffield Utd
  • Chelsea v Scunthorpe or Leyton Orient
  • Tottenham v Leicester

These are for games in the second weekend of January.

Book via this page on the Emirates website (log-in required). 

Get 3,000 free miles for joining Virgin Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic has brought back the special offer for joining Virgin Flying Club which first ran a couple of months ago.  Via the Virgin Red app which I discussed here, you will receive 3,000 miles for joining Flying Club.

If you have an Android phone, the good news is that Virgin Red has just launched on that platform too, as well as the original iOS version.

You don’t need to do anything.  The miles will be automatically dropped in your account within seven days.

3,000 miles won’t get you far.  However, once you have your account open, you are better placed to pick some miles via the generous credit card sign-up bonus, opening an ISA, buying wine, Heathrow Rewards, Tesco Clubcard conversions or American Express Membership Rewards.

The offer is only available to 2,000 people and it was down to 1,500 yesterday afternoon.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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

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. 

Category

Emirates and Emirates Skywards, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (47)

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

  • Genghis says:
    15 Dec15 December 09:57

    Thanks for brining this up here Harry otherwise I’d have missed it! It worked for me.

  • TimS says:
    15 Dec15 December 11:29

    Are you sure about the referral miles Rob?

    As I read the Virgin T&Cs, the referrer gets 5,000 or 10,000 miles depending the refereee booking into PE or UC but the referee only gets 2,000 miles (PE) or 3,000 miles (UC) themselves:

    3.2.4 For every person you refer who joins Flying Club, you will earn Miles on the basis of the cabin in which they complete their first round trip with Virgin Atlantic: the following Miles will be awarded in qualifying classes: Economy 2,000 Miles, Premium Economy 5,000 Miles and Upper Class 10,000 Miles.

    3.2.6 For all persons referred who subsequently join Flying Club and travel, they will earn bonus Miles on the basis of the cabin in which they complete their first round trip with Virgin Atlantic: the following Miles will be awarded in qualifying classes: Economy, 1,000 Miles, Premium Economy 2,000 Miles and Upper Class 3,000 Miles.

    • Lambs says:
      15 Dec15 December 13:32

      Hi
      How do you redeem for football tickets?

      • TimS says:
        15 Dec15 December 13:37

        Via the link in the article above. You need to log in to your EK account before you can see the available tickets though.

    • Rob says:
      15 Dec15 December 14:41

      Hmmm. Has that changed? I am sure both got the same.

      Luckily no-one has asked me for a referral today!

      Article amended, thanks.

  • AndyR says:
    15 Dec15 December 11:53

    I thought the transfer is 1:1 to Iberia? So wouldn’t that be 2200 Avios?

    • harry says:
      15 Dec15 December 13:24

      you’re right (unfortunately) – mis-read what Raffles said
      ‘The minimum conversion to Avios points is 3,000 points. You should always transfer Accor points into Iberia and not British Airways because the conversion rate is 1:1 compared with 2:1!’

  • Gavin says:
    15 Dec15 December 12:54

    Will get the points now and try and sort out the link to Iberia on Chrome tonight. Useless IE!

  • Kathy says:
    15 Dec15 December 14:48

    Thanks Harry!

  • Liz says:
    15 Dec15 December 15:10

    Thanks Harry it worked for me too. Also now set up an account for my husband and converted them too!

    • Gavin says:
      15 Dec15 December 19:00

      Hasn’t worked for me on IE, Chrome or Firefox. Have followed the instructions but no email?

      • harry says:
        15 Dec15 December 19:13

        Timing/ method – I deleted any existing reward instruction on IB using Internet Explorer, then switched to Chrome (as Andrew said that was what he used that worked) and did as I suggested above, making IB the preferred automatic burn option.

        No message that it was going to be instant! Just I could see the autoconversion change had been made by USING ANDREW’S link.

        Then in the night the 2 emails arrived telling me mission success/ conversion success, plus that any future Accor earnings would be converted straight away with no need to hit a higher redemption quantity.

        So maybe it WOULD have worked for you on Chrome, but you were too impatient 🙂

        Maybe do it all again and get some sleep?, it will probably be actioned by the morning.

        • Gavin says:
          15 Dec15 December 20:18

          Ha I’m not quite that impatient I did all that on various browsers, the issue was after pressing confirm I was getting a blank page. Anyway finally tried on Safari on the trusty iphone 4 and 1100 avios are coming my way hopefully

          The gf is almost certainly moving to Limassol for an fx job in January so all avios routes very welcome!

          • Gavin says:
            16 Dec16 December 06:50

            Confirmed a transferred this morning via email, not checked Iberia yet tho but my Accor balance is zero. Cheers Harry and Andrew!

  • D says:
    15 Dec15 December 16:27

    How can they ensure people won’t sign up for different emails, get the miles, then transfer them into one account?

    Great promo though, thanks 🙂

  • AndyGWP says:
    15 Dec15 December 18:08

    Raffles – a friend (living near KUL), has 45k Amex MR, and around 6k Skywards miles.

    They were originally going to use the MR for Avios RFS redemptions, but no need now as they get ‘local'(?) flights for 10% of cost due to a deal their boss has done.

    They are thinking of visiting home (LHR) using their miles, but I can’t see any options (of value) unless I’m missing something. Am I right? (I’m great at figuring out going west, but my knowledge of carriers / points redemption opportunities going East is limited)

    Any advice or suggestions to explore would be appreciated 🙂

    • Rob says:
      15 Dec15 December 22:38

      As the points are in MR there is flexibility to use for hotel conversions etc so no major crisis.

      Is 45k enough for a one way in Avios on Malaysian to London? Wouldn’t be enough for 2.

    • Clive says:
      15 Dec15 December 23:32

      19500 each way BA off peak from most Asian cities. If they route HKG/AMS they can keep taxes to a real minimum.

    • AndyGWP says:
      16 Dec16 December 06:49

      Thanks both… Gives me something else to look at 🙂

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