Bits: pre-order food and drinks at Heathrow, Virgin East Coast First Class ticket auctions
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News in brief:
Pre-order food and drinks at Heathrow
If you are fed up with large queues at Heathrow’s restaurants, help is at hand. Literally.
Using your smartphone, you can now pre order food and drinks at Heathrow restaurants like Giraffe, Wondertree, Comptoir Libanais and The Curator. This will be for take-away only.
To bring this service to passengers flying from Heathrow, the airport has partnered with Grab, an American company which currently works with 20 airports in the US.
This service has been added to the Heathrow Airport Guide app and US passengers can access it via the Grab app.
For now this service is available from at least one restaurant per terminal, but the plan is to have all restaurants included in the near future.
Upgrade your Virgin East Coast ticket with new bidding app
Virgin East Coast has partnered with travel app Seatfrog to give passengers the option to upgrade their seat via an auction.
Virgin East Coast will auction off unsold First-Class seats to standard ticket holders with a starting bid of just £5.
For now this option will be available on some weekday services from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh, Leeds, Newscastle and York, but more routes will be added soon.
Auctions will start about 2 1/2 hours before departure and close about half an hour before departure.
Simply open the Seatfrog app, enter your booking reference and start bidding. Some services will also have an ‘upgrade now’ button. If you win the auction your new ticket will be send straight to your phone.
This service will only be offered on selected services, in order to stop customers downgrading in the knowledge that they will save money by bidding for an upgrade.
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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.
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