Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Virgin Flying Club launches a redemption seat sale on selected US economy routes

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Virgin Atlantic has launched a reward seat sale on selected routes.

Full details are on their website here.

You can book until 31st October for flights before 12th December.

These deals run until 31st October.  All dates during this period are priced at the lower standard level under the Virgin Flying Club redemption chart so you really are getting the lowest possible mileage price.

Virgin Atlantic reward seat sale

Economy redemptions are booked as ‘Economy Classic’ tickets.  You can pre-select seats and checked baggage is free.  You can see the difference between Economy Light, Economy Classic and Economy Delight in this HFP article.

Check the cash price before you book a mileage ticket because, even with 25% off the miles required, these may still not be good deals on cheaper days.  Taxes and charges are still payable although they are a notch lower than what British Airways asks for World Traveller Avios redemptions.

These are the routes which are reduced by 25%:

  • London Heathrow to New York (Newark and JFK)
  • London Heathrow to Miami
  • London Gatwick to Orlando
  • Manchester to Orlando
  • Manchester to New York JFK
  • Glasgow to Orlando

Here are some example return prices in Economy:

Miami (from Heathrow) – 18,600 miles + £267

Orlando (from Gatwick) – 18,600 miles + £236

New York (from Manchester) – 15,000 + £241

Remember that you must complete your travel by 12th December.

How can you top up your Virgin Flying Club balance quickly?

If you are short of miles, remember that Virgin Flying Club miles transfer INSTANTLY at 1:1 from American Express Membership Rewards as long as your accounts are already linked.  It may take a couple of days if you have not previously linked your accounts.

Transfers from Tesco Clubcard are also very fast, usually overnight – the ‘Clubcard to Virgin’ page is here.  250 Clubcard points are worth 625 Virgin Flying Club miles.

You cannot do a ‘miles plus money’ redemption for these deals.  It has to be a 100% miles booking.

To maximise your miles when paying the taxes, your best bet is one of the two Virgin Atlantic Reward credit cards.  These earn double miles (3 per £1 on the paid card or 1.5 per £1 on the free card) when you book at virginatlantic.com or via Virgin Holidays.  Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

Full details of the reward flight sale are 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 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 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.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (93)

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

  • Mike says:
    10 Oct10 October 05:58

    Just had a tempter from Virgin to sign up at a significantly increased bonus:-
    Reward+ Credit Card
    Up to 33,000 bonus miles available in the first 3 months:

    15,000 miles when you make your first card purchase (within the first 90 days)
    6,000 miles a month in your first 3 months, when you spend a minimum of £1,000 each month.
    Plus:
    1.5 miles for every £1 you spend
    Double miles when you spend direct with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays‡
    Free Boingo Wi-Fi for Mastercard cardholders at 1 million worldwide hotspots†.
    Spend £10,000 in a year to unlock companion flights, upgrades and more***

    • Nick says:
      10 Oct10 October 06:23

      This has been kicking about for months. Exactly the same basis I signed up with towards the end of July. The 15,000 miles posted very quickly but the 6,000 per month bonus appear to post a month in arrears.

      • Sandgrounder says:
        10 Oct10 October 06:45

        As the first earning period was the first two months combined, can I expect 6k on statement 3, 4 & 5? Just about to receive statement 2 in the next few days.

  • Frenzie says:
    10 Oct10 October 06:24

    Can I use my reward upgrade voucher on the top of these?

  • Anon says:
    10 Oct10 October 06:35

    Any idea how you got offered the increased bonus, were you a flying club member, have a virgin bank account?

    That offer would probably sway me.

    • DTB says:
      10 Oct10 October 06:45

      I was a flying club member and heavy spender on the old MBNA black Virgin card, they offered me 15k signup bonus and 15k per month on £1.5k spend, so 60k in total. 45k posted so far, hopefully final 15k will post on the next statement date.

      make sure you have your flying club marketing preferences switched on.

      • Rich says:
        10 Oct10 October 07:25

        I took the VA plus card and got the 15,000 sign but no monthly bonuses despite 4 figure spend each month. Is there anything I can do to trigger this?

      • RakishDriver says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:06

        That is a very good bonus.
        Wondering what criteria virgin are applying as it doesn’t seem to be on 4-figure monthly spend. I’ve never managed to go higher than red…are you silver or above?

        • Rob says:
          10 Oct10 October 09:16

          My wife had the old MBNA and got the same offer despite never spending on it, apart from triggering the initial bonus. She does have a 7 figure Flying Club balance though

      • Thomas M Jackson says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:17

        Has anyone got a link for this offer? I’m about to sign up for the plus card so the bonus would be lovely.

        • Rob says:
          10 Oct10 October 09:34

          Makes no difference. VA manually adds the bonus and checks you off against their list of invited members.

      • Mariusz says:
        10 Oct10 October 12:34

        Hoping that one day the higher singup offer comes in. I am not paying £160 for 33000 miles.

        • Jamie says:
          10 Oct10 October 15:46

          I don’t think there’ll be a better offer than that which is widely available – I’d take it while you can and be a bit realistic. £160 for 33k miles isn’t a bad deal when 1p/mile of value is pretty achievable.

    • Graham Walsh says:
      10 Oct10 October 08:55

      The 33k offer is all over Facebook

      • Alex W says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:01

        I’m seeing a 60k offer on Facebook, which I’ve already signed up for.

      • Rob says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:02

        No it’s not. Virgin has given FB your details so YOU see it all over FB.

        That’s how FB works. For example, GDPR issues aside, I could upload a file to FB to people who unsubscribed for the HFP email list and then have FB bombard them with our content that way. I don’t, but it would be 15 minutes work if I wanted to.

    • Rob says:
      10 Oct10 October 09:12

      Ex MBNA VS cardholders.

    • Mr dee says:
      10 Oct10 October 23:07

      I had actually cancelled my black card but got the 15k a month offer, if it want for the offer I wouldn’t have bothered so it worked for them

  • James says:
    10 Oct10 October 07:40

    OT – I’m starting a trip to Vegas in AMS on BA on Saturday, so naturally I have a positioning flight to take over there.
    As I will be flying back to London and have a long overnight layover (in which I will just go home in between flights) is it ok for my to check my main hold luggage in at Gatwick for the second part of the flight rather than having to take it to AMS and back again?

    • ChrisC says:
      10 Oct10 October 08:01

      Yes that would be fine.

      A tip though when doing OLCI for your AMS-LGW flight is to answer ‘don’t know’ when it comes to how many bags you have to check in rather than with a number.

      Are you doing. Straight back to back at AMS?

      • James says:
        10 Oct10 October 08:43

        That’s great, thanks.

        I will be arriving in AMS on Saturday at 13:30 then flying back at 22:30.

    • PointsChaser says:
      10 Oct10 October 09:16

      What happens if you just stay at home and miss the LGW – AMS flight?
      I am assuming you are doing AMS – LAS – AMS for the cost savings over LHR – LAS – LHR?

      • ChrisC says:
        10 Oct10 October 09:28

        Miss the AMS-LGW flight and the rest of the ticket is cancelled,

        • PointsChaser says:
          10 Oct10 October 09:51

          Yes, but what happens if you miss the last leg of the ticket which is LGW – AMS?

        • John says:
          10 Oct10 October 10:21

          Nothing happens if you book direct with BA and don’t do it too often.

          If you book with a travel agent BA may bill the travel agent who will pass it on to you.

        • ChrisC says:
          11 Oct11 October 06:53

          Sorry misread your post.

          Unless you make a habit of it nothing except you won’t earn any tier points or avios if that is important to you

          Also depending on how you time the last leg if there are irrops the airline can reroute you direct to AMS as your final ticketed destination. And yes that has happened to people who have been rerouted in that way and then had to buy an expensive walk up ticket to get back home because they were always going to drop the last leg and never booked a final positioning flight.

      • James says:
        10 Oct10 October 11:21

        In this case my return is LAS-LHR then change of airport to Luton back to Amsterdam on Vueling, which I certainly will not be taking.

        Normally you would be obliged to take it because you can’t get your bags back until the end, however with a change of airport they will have to.

  • Rhys says:
    10 Oct10 October 07:50

    OT. Has anyone had any joy with the Amex Selfridges offer buying multiple gift cards? Will be near the store for a meeting today and wondering about popping in.

  • FlyUpTop says:
    10 Oct10 October 08:51

    Just noticed Tesco have credited my VA account with 2k points for signing up to auto convert. I thought it was only 1k?

  • jeremy i says:
    10 Oct10 October 09:55

    hello all. o/t but curious for some credit card advice. I have an amex platinum and have just been charged the £450 fee (having already held the card for a year – was happy to pay). my other half has a gold and has just been charged the £150 fee. assuming I can find somewhere to transfer the MR points, what is the ‘best’ strategy for us as a couple now? I was thinking:

    1. other half upgrades gold charge card to platinum using the link. but then what?
    2. what do I do with my platinum assuming I don’t want to pay for it for another year?

    i’m sorry if i’m being dumb. I guess it’s whether we can refer one another to another amex card and, if so, which one.

    kind of want an easy life so assume we wont be doing lots and lots of new cards. happy to stick with whatever we go for for the next year or so. thanks in advance!

    • John says:
      10 Oct10 October 10:27

      1. Cancel the plat, keep the gold (don’t upgrade) for a max of 6 months so you only pay the gold fee for that period.

      2. Upgrade the gold to plat.

      3. Refer the other person to gold, now eligible for signup bonus as not held an MR account for 6 months. Cancel plat.

      4. Repeat step 3 every 6 months. Not possible to upgrade gold CREDIT to plat.

      Alternatively keep gold for a full year before referring the other person, spending £15k to get 10k extra MR.

      • jeremy i says:
        10 Oct10 October 10:50

        thank you john – that’s incredibly kind of you. just i quick follow up which is whether i should look into one of us referring the other to another non-MR card eg BAPP or SPG?

        • Gill says:
          10 Oct10 October 11:28

          Pretty much what me and the other half do. Referrals from platinum card generate a higher referral bonus than from gold so you probably want to do that before you cancel.

        • Peter K says:
          10 Oct10 October 11:38

          I would do differently if after Avios.
          1) refer from the Plat to BA premium Amex (assuming you can put £10k through in a year) to gain 18k MR points +26k avios
          2) cancel gold and plat
          3) in 6 months time go for one person gold, one person platinum, both referred in from BA Premium to gain 9k avios for each plus new bonuses
          4) cancel the plat after getting the bonus (assuming you wont use the benefits much) or the gold (of you want the plat benefits)
          5) 6 months later (so 12 months from the start) refer each other so that the person who had the BA premium then gets a Gold/Plat and the person who had a gold/plat gets a new BA premium.

        • jeremy i says:
          10 Oct10 October 13:22

          thank you peter and gill.

          i think im gonna:

          1. refer the other half for a bapp or spg card;
          2. get the other half to upgrade his gold to a plat [which is also helpful for him to get marriot gold for 50pc off at JWM phu quoc where we’re going on an old travel pacakage
          3. then once he is plat get him to refer me to bapp or spg
          4 . cancel both plats asap
          5. keep situation under review – lol i dont want to get into the churning business (too much) as its too stressful.

          jeremy

        • Genghis says:
          10 Oct10 October 13:39

          @jeremy it’s a bit of admin but v lucrative

        • Crafty says:
          10 Oct10 October 13:58

          Jeremy – have I missed something, how will you get 50% off at JWM Phu Quoc?

        • jeremy i says:
          10 Oct10 October 16:00

          hi crafty. i think i read on flyer talk that gold members get 50pc discount on **breakfast** at the JWM Phu Quoc. Sorry if i got you excited that the whole stay would be half price!

  • Clive says:
    10 Oct10 October 10:10

    Just an OT – Are others finding chat on the SPG card is disabled?

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