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Virgin Atlantic launches a special New York City World Pride flight for 2019

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Virgin Atlantic is launching a unique flight to take you to the World Pride event in New York next June.

This will be a flight like no other, it’s fair to say.  Staffed entirely by LGBT+ pilots and cabin crew, it will be hosted by Tituss Burgess – a Broadway musical actor and star of the Netflix show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – and will feature special guests and live performances. 

It will include an on board DJ, ‘Drag-Queen Bingo’, a Judy Garland singalong, inter-seat speed dating and special in-flight entertainment.

A portion of ticket sales from the flight will be donated to The Attitude Magazine Foundation in the UK.  Further fundraising and raffles will take place on-board.

The flight departs from Heathrow to Newark on 28th June.  Flexible return dates are available.

Flight-only information is on the Virgin Atlantic website here.  Economy seats start at £380 so there doesn’t seem to be any surcharge for the entertainment, given that June is approaching peak season.  You can only book by telephone.

Flight plus hotel packages are available via Virgin Holidays here.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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.

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.

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

Comments (132)

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

  • Phil G says:

    New customers only for the FX card.

  • xcalx says:

    Be careful of over spend if buying for your kids to use.

    I got a few of the fx cards via groupon in September £35 top up ~ £25 free money.
    Mrs xcalx used it for petrol yesterday filled the tank £74.56 this put the card into a negative balance. She said the card showed £99 credit.

    • Me Dee says:

      Not a smart move if you used it on the pay at pump where a pre auth is done…

  • BJ says:

    OT: Nectar double up at Sainsburys is coming back. Pertinent dates for exchanging points for vouchers…

    Exchange your points for a £10, £20 or £50 voucher either online between 29 October – 4 November or instore between 5 – 18 November 2018.

    • Shoestring says:

      Does this mean you get 1p a point, usable in store?

      Limits?

      • Shoestring says:

        oh right, limit is £200 & can spend on Taste the Difference wines

        • BJ says:

          I think you are relatively new to Nectar IIRC Harry so take care. As you will guess, getting a real 1p value is more difficult than it seems. For example wine and toy offers running now or soon will likely dry up. before double up. Also, if this is run as before there will be a limit on how much you can spend in each department, I think it was £40 last year. I have not yet had a chance to look at detail this year.

  • Rob says:

    We have an issue, because these are speculative articles but I know the facts – but I have agreed not to wrote about it yet. It is not going to be quite what some people are expecting though.

  • Prins Polo says:

    What is Langham’s footprint?

    • Rob says:

      Mainly Asia, with a strong HK focus. The London one is an outlier. A slightly less posh Shangri La, basically.

  • Lee says:

    OT – SPG Amex missing points
    Noticed total points change in my SPG/Marriott account this morning. Can’t see anything from actives yet, and definitely not all my missing points though. Worth have a look!

    • Gill says:

      How odd. I have exactly 15000 points added an was waiting for less than 300. Listed as goodwill adjustment so comp of some description.

      Yesterday amex chat supervisor credited me 5000 comp for ongoing issues. 20k not bad given I’m not hugely impacted.

      • xcalx says:

        “Yesterday amex chat supervisor credited me 5000 comp for ongoing issues. 20k not bad given I’m not hugely impacted.”

        I would say more than generous as you were pursuing less than £1 worth of points 🙂

        • Gill says:

          I doubt they’ll top Lloyds in the comp stakes but safe to say I’ll now patiently await my miniscule point drop. ????

        • C says:

          I just contacted them on chat for the second time (last asked about 2.5 weeks ago and got told 2-4 weeks, same as today) – asked about compo and was told:
          “I am sorry to inform you that there is no compension due to this delay because we have transferred the points to your SPG partner account but they have not posted to your partner account as of now”. Told them that my agreement was with amex not spg and this was not what I expect with a card that has an annual fee. No success. May try again in a few days!

    • fivebobbill says:

      Wife has just had 276 points added to her new Marriott account, showing up on statement as “Spg Ax Uk Base Spend Cnsmr”.
      That 276 corresponds to a 3 spend total on SPG card 7th – 11th Sept.
      Haven’t put any spend on the card since then due to merger issues, but she still has some points missing pre 7th Sept. No sign of any compo though…

    • Lee says:

      Turns out that’s my points for Sep. Looks like the link works again although my Jul and Aug points still missing

      • KevMc says:

        +1

        My wife’s October points have arrived today, having swept over a day or two ago. Still no sign of August or September as yet, though…but at least it is looking more positive!

    • Alan says:

      No change to my total yet.
      Marriott International finally replied to my DM after 5 days, trying to escalate complaint with them – totally chaotic!

  • Philip says:

    Tried the Langham link to HSBC site on an Ipad , input number but it insists on indenting to the second numeric box so it can not take the first six digits of my Prem card number , good old HSBC tech , tried a couple of different browsers no luck .

  • Paulthetaxman says:

    ot – anyone have any idea how long it takes for hsbc to post the uber credit when purchasing flights on the premier credit card?

    • Rob says:

      Never, if you booked after 30th September – wasn’t that the last day?

    • philip says:

      I think any credit had to be used by 1st of November , mine was a different deal from Premier but it gave me the impression they were not co operating with Uber any more , but that is speculation on my part

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

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