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Save 25,000 miles as Virgin Atlantic launches Upper Class reward sale from Manchester

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Virgin Flying Club has launched a one month sale on Upper Class redemptions to the USA from Manchester.

Full details are on the Flying Club website here.

The good news is that there are no black-out dates.  If there is a redemption seat available in the next 11 months, you can have it at the discounted price.

Virgin Atlantic 787

The discounts are impressive and even if you live nearer Heathrow or Gatwick than Manchester you might want to consider heading up there.  The major downside is that you are trading the excellent Virgin Clubhouse lounges in Heathrow and Gatwick for the shared, and frankly not comparable, Escape lounge at Manchester.

Here are the redemption prices, return, in the sale:

Boston – 70,000 miles off-peak, 90,000 miles peak

New York – 70,000 miles off-peak, 90,000 miles peak

Atlanta – 70,000 miles off-peak, 90,000 miles peak

Orlando – 70,000 miles off-peak, 90,000 miles peak

Las Vegas – 110,000 miles off-peak, 130,000 miles peak

San Francisco – 110,000 off-peak, 130,000 miles peak

These represent a discount of 25,000 miles per return flight.

Remember that, if you are a few miles short, you can also transfer Amex Membership Rewards points (transfer instantly), Tesco points (transfer overnight), Heathrow Rewards points or various hotel loyalty points to Flying Club.

Here are peak dates:

22nd June – 6th September

13th December – 6th January 2018

29th March – 16th April 2018

Tickets must be booked by 31st July for travel up to 11 months in advance.  Remember that these sale rates only apply to direct flights from Manchester on Virgin Atlantic aircraft and that not all routes operate year-round.

You can find the full details on Virgin’s website here.


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 (15)

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

  • stron says:

    Not sure if it is a system wide glitch or if I just got lucky, but I made a booking from Manchester to NYC then subsequently called up and changed to it LHR – NYC and they didn’t take any more miles from my account.

    I got a confirmation email saying that I’d been charged the full LHR redemption points fare, but my account balance didn’t get impacted.

    Obviously you pay the GBP30 change fee, but that’s not a bad price to pay in order to save 12,500 miles (mine was a one way redemption, so not sure if it will work on returns and all destinations). GBP30 for a saving of 25,000 miles is obviously even better!

    Good luck!

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

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