Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines are opening a pop-up pub in Holborn

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For no logical reason whatsoever, Virgin Atlantic and its joint venture partner (and 49% shareholder) Delta are opening a pub.  For 10 days.

“The Joint Venture” will be at 33 New Oxford Street and is taking over “The Old Crown”.  New Oxford Street is not Oxford Street, it is to the east of Tottenham Court Road.

If you’re interested in craft beer then this is definitely one for you, as the pub will be selling 230 different brands – one from each of the 230 cities which Delta and Virgin fly to in the US.

It opens NEXT Friday 10th August and closes on Sunday 19th.  There are various events planned throughout the week including quiz nights – details are on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Note that, whilst the website doesn’t mention this, the press release I received says that they will be giving away free flights to the winners of the quiz nights …..

There is a press opening party next Thursday so I will pop along and see what it is like.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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

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 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.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (85)

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

  • Mark says:

    O/T just gone to transfer some Avios from Iberia to BA for the first time in a few months (earned from Accor hotel transfer) and I get a message on the combine my avios page saying “You can only move Avios from British Airways to Iberia Plus – you cannot move your Avios back again.” anyone else seeing this?

    • Genghis says:

      Yesterday I pulled from avios.com and then pulled from BAEC.

      • Mark says:

        thanks, seems to be working. Very surprised to see that message as I thought there had never been any restriction for transferring within IAG…oh well!

    • Anna says:

      Wouldn’t that contradict what Iberia said at the weekend about moving the bonus avios to BAEC?

      • Mark says:

        The Iberia page you go from when combining my Avios says you can transfer back and forth so theres a contradiction there too!

      • Rob says:

        That is the long-running CMA IT quirk. Go via avios.com and all is fine (unless you’re in a BA household account).

  • Mark S says:

    OT regarding Virgin Atlantic Credit Card. I signed up to the free Rewards Card, spent a fiver and bagged the points then put the card in the sock draw. Received a letter (almost a package) saying that there was an offer that will apply to new cards and mine of a further 2k points each month for 3 months if spending £500 per month on the card. Card now out f the sock drawer.
    However, the offer on the paid card makes that very attractive. I am travelling at present, and may or may not have thrown the offert away, but the basics was to receive 15k miles on first spend, then 6k (or perhaps 5k) per month for 3 months on a 1k per month spend.
    Thought I’d use some downtime to apply, but can’t find a link with that offer. Anyone have a link?

    • Alan says:

      I thought the offer was only if you already had the card? Agree was much more generous on the paid-for one, annoyed I only had the free one, but didn’t seem like they’d honour it if you then did paid-for too.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      No link just apply and they will add the points manually.

  • KevMc says:

    OT anyone had any issues linking their VFC account to Amex MR? When I try to submit my VFC account number, it seems to send me around in circles and never actually adds it…

    • ankomonkey says:

      Yes. Had exactly the same about 2 weeks ago when trying to add it. I didn’t need to transfer urgently, so left it with the plan to try again soon. I thought I would try Chat if it didn’t work upon next try.

  • Rash says:

    OT can I transfer Amex MR points from my wifes account to my Hilton Honors account?

    • Mark2 says:

      probably not, but when they get to hers you can transfer them (called Pooling).

    • Genghis says:

      Yes. Sent from my MR to wife’s HH a few months ago to stop hers expiring.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      Yes. I have done this twice.

  • Ade says:

    OT – Potential Now TV offer (not sure if its been mentioned before, as I’ve been away and not kept up on the threads), especially for those of us that remember the various NoW TV/Tesco offers.

    On BA Shops (and avios) they are showing 2,000 points for a monthly cinema/entertainment pass, which seems to cost £7.99 or £9.99, the small print is a bit vague, but the offer runs until mid-August.

  • john says:

    OT: Got an e-mail from curve that they are upgrading me from a prepaid mastercard to a debit mastercard.

    It also suggests that if I use my card primarily for personal use I should let them know and they will send me a ‘personal debit card’ instead of a commercial debit card. I’m assuming that I’d no longer get Curve Rewards in that instance?

    • Genghis says:

      I upgraded to personal debit and I am still on the old Curve rewards scheme, 3% at Boots etc.

    • Andy S says:

      I’d like to know too the difference between personal and commercial. There never used to be a choice, they always assumed you were using it for business! What are the pros/cons of switching to “personal”?

    • Darran says:

      Got the email too. I would also like to know the pros and cons of each, particular where HMRC is concerned. We have until Friday to decide.

      • CDB says:

        I had issues paying HMRC Childcare (not the main self-assessment) using a corporate debit card the BIN seemed to be blocked but now fine after they switched me to a personal debit card. Not on the old rewards scheme though. I also saw on their facebook/twitter a potential metal card…

      • Rob says:

        Personal card lets you use it for deposits at hotels and car hire which you can’t now.

  • the real harry1 says:

    My complete disinterest in Curve is because I don’t pay HMRC (well, I do, for my sole employee, personal trainer, fit as, but that’s largely irrelevant, cute though she is 🙂 ). No other earthly point in it.

  • Jimbob says:

    OT – I’m looking on spending my Iberia avios, and looking at BA flight London to Rome on the 18th July. It shows up as available on the BA reward site, but doesn’t appear on Iberia Plus.

    Are some BA reward flights kept back from Iberia Plus? I’m trying to keep to the t&c’s and not transfer the avios out of Iberia

    • Steve says:

      Correct – some BA flight availability does not show up on Iberia plus, eg BA001 from LCY to JFK is non existent on IB Plus but lots of availability on BA, JFK to LCY shows up on some days on IB Plus but not as many days as shown on BA.

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