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Bits: Virgin East Coast launches a 50% off sale, HfP in the Daily Mail

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News in brief:

Virgin East Coast launches a four day sale

Virgin East Coast is running a short sale until Thursday night.  The discount is apparently a full 50% on all sale tickets, although the deals cannot be combined with any railcards you hold.

The sale is valid for travel between 5th September and 4th November but excluding half term week of 21st to 30th October.

My very positive review of the new food offering in First Class on East Coast is here.  A review of the refurbished First Class lounge at Kings Cross will follow later this week.

HfP in the Daily Mail

The Daily Mail ran an online story yesterday about the recent cutbacks to the British Airways food and drink offering.  My recent articles on the topic were referenced as you can read here.

Similar stories have appeared elsewhere in recent days which cannot make pleasant reading for BA bosses.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card 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 Credit Card

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 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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

British Airways and Avios

Comments (65)

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

  • dicksbits says:
    15 Aug15 August 21:29

    The press reports were a PR disaster for BA. I can see the decision being reversed in some way.

  • Larryflyer says:
    16 Aug16 August 00:47

    Something in the Daily Mail article sounds not quite right (there’s a first!). The anonymous passenger who paid £500 to fly LHR-JFK in WTP (presumably calculated as half of a round trip fare) says he got breakfast then just a chocolate bar on his 7 hour flight. BA are then quoted as saying the second meal is removed for flights under 7 hours in WTP (and under 8.5 hours in WT).

    Are there any LHR-JFK (westbound) flights that are scheduled for 7 hours or less? A couple of dummy bookings show (at this time of year, at least) that shortest scheduled time is 7 hours 30 minutes. Meals must surely be based on scheduled, not actual, flying time, so jet-stream anomalies are hardly relevant.

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

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