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You can now redeem Virgin Atlantic miles again for Necker Island holidays

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Few people know that you can redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles for holidays on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island retreat.

Necker Island was badly damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017.  After substantial rebuilding, the resort is about to reopen and this means you can now book it with miles.

Whilst it is not yet showing on the Virgin Atlantic website, US blog Frequent Miler says that it is now bookable.  The reason it is restricted is that Necker is usually booked by private groups and only a handful of weeks per year are available for individual travellers.

Greg, who writes that site, should know as he has done this.  Impressively, he got the entire 1 million miles (it later went up to 1.2 million) entirely from credit card sign-up bonuses …… welcome to the USA.

This is probably the best value Virgin redemption you can get.  A week on Necker Island during those weeks where the island is not let on an exclusive basis will cost you $35,000 for a couple.  That is £26,980.  Flights are not included in this price.

On that basis, 1.2 million Virgin Flying Club miles is a very good deal – you’re getting over 2.2p per mile.

You might think that 1.2 million miles is a lot, and of course it is.  However, it would ‘only’ require £800,000 of spend on the Virgin Reward Plus credit card and I know there are a fair number of HfP readers, mainly business owners, who spend six figures per month on their cards.

Virgin Atlantic has decided to make life a bit harder for credit card heavy hitters.  You must now have Virgin Flying Club Silver or Gold status to book this award.  This is not hugely difficult but, unless you can find a promotion offering it for free, it would require you to shift some business travel towards Virgin or ask for a status match from any other airline card you have.

PS.  If you were thinking of booking Necker Island for cash for $35,000, you used to earn 50,000 Virgin Flying Club miles if you gave them your number.  It is possible that this offer remains available post-reopening.

PPS.  My wife has 1,418,078 Virgin Flying Club miles and we could book this.  Unfortunately, after watching the BBC2 documentary about Necker Island a few years ago, she’s decided that it is a bit too, ahem, free spirited for her liking …..

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 (142)

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

  • Lumma says:
    4 Nov4 November 09:00

    Haven’t got the PayPal offer but when checking I saw I had a one for “hand picked hotels”. I’m staying in one now for a wedding, so that’s £50 saved

  • Mark says:
    4 Nov4 November 09:40

    Haven’t seen anyone mention but I got a “Book Heathrow to Durban return via Ba, get £100 back”

    It’s not personally somewhere i want to travel this year but hoping we get more offers like this. Makes it actually feel like a BA CC.

  • Stephen says:
    4 Nov4 November 10:35

    Dropping the Gatwick flights isn’t good news if you live in the regions. Travelling Glasgow to Gatwick I had a choice of Airlines, Glasgow to Heathrow is only BA.

  • rob says:
    4 Nov4 November 11:38

    OT

    Could do with some help understanding. If I book an Avios redemption from NQY to PEK (with a Llloyds upgrade voucher if that makes any difference) and I miss my connecting flight from LHR to PEK because of delays, am I right in thinking the airline would have to rebook me onto another flight/the next BA flight to PEK because it’s on the same ticket/redemption?

    I’m aware there is an airport change issue here which makes it more complicated for me.

    Thanks

    • Anna says:
      4 Nov4 November 12:40

      Which airline would you be using for NQY to LHR? This would only work if all on BA metal.

      • Shoestring says:
        4 Nov4 November 14:13

        It would only work if all on the same BA PNR. 2 different PNRs & delay and you’re stuffed.

        It’s BA NQY to Gatwick, which is the airport change mentioned.

        • Anna says:
          4 Nov4 November 15:36

          BA fly from Newquay to Gatwick but not from Manchester?! I’ve heard it all now. ????

        • Nick_C says:
          4 Nov4 November 17:08

          It’s a FlyBe flight with a BA codeshare

        • Lady London says:
          4 Nov4 November 19:04

          @Anna you haven;t quite…..IIRC Newquay is like Inverness, one of the very few where APD not applied if the ticket starts off there.

        • Shoestring says:
          4 Nov4 November 20:04

          The only delay you’re likely to meet is a slow tractor! 🙂

    • the_real_a says:
      4 Nov4 November 14:12

      If you call up you can “add” a regular avios redemption to a PNR that contains a flight on the LLyods upgrade voucher which would give you protection. I have done this… but i wasn’t aware anyone flies NQY – LHR

      • Lady London says:
        4 Nov4 November 19:06

        It’s flybe to LGW. You’d be right i don;t think anyone’s doing LHR from Newquay

        • Anna says:
          4 Nov4 November 20:35

          Can you use the Lloyds voucher on Flybe? There’s something in the Ts and Cs about it having to have a BA flight number, which it does, it’s not quite as clear as the 2 4 1 Ts and Cs re BA metal.

        • Genghis says:
          4 Nov4 November 20:46

          “Upgrade vouchers can be used to upgrade either 2 one way flights for 2 people travelling at the same time and to the same destination or 1 return journey booked on a British Airways main line service. British Airways codeshare flights are excluded. Flights from London City airport are excluded.”?

        • Anna says:
          4 Nov4 November 21:08

          But people have used them on BA1 from LCY, and there was some suggestion that they might also be valid on the CityFlyer regional routes.

        • Genghis says:
          5 Nov5 November 06:03

          Yes. BA1 is mainline. I’ve also burned on BACF from LCY despite the rules as voucher is/was (?) applied manually so essentially what you can (could?) get away with. But these are more like BA mainline than a Flybe (insert other airline) codeshare

        • Callum says:
          5 Nov5 November 16:05

          There are never Avios redemptions on BA codeshares.

          There may be one under the airlines own code though (i.e. there can’t be a BA redemption from NQY but there could be a Flybe one).

          Whether you can mix them on the same PNR is another question. I can get unrelated BA flights added onto my Lloyds redemptions so it’s technically possible – they may not allow you to do it with Flybe though.

        • the_real_a says:
          5 Nov5 November 16:42

          I understood that if its bookable on Avios through the Avios portal then it can be added to a PNR that contains a Llyods upgrade flight. The added flight is not upgraded you pay full avios and taxes for that cabin. I did this with Air Malta (?) flights when they loaded them on the avios platform combined with a BA CW return.

  • Lady London says:
    4 Nov4 November 11:52

    I prefer train from Manchester as it’s a more pleasant experience than MAN airport seems to be. Hardly takes much longer though – although I’ve always been on trains without problems so might have just been lucky.

  • C says:
    4 Nov4 November 12:05

    Had the Paypal offer and spent £30 plus last night on ebay on a few different items from a couple of sellers, but forgot that the transaction is split between the sellers rather than appearing as a single transaction! I’m guessing it’s not a cumulative offer and has to be a single transaction? Annoying!

    • Rob says:
      4 Nov4 November 12:50

      Don’t count your chickens. I did a £16 transaction today via Paypal in the hope that cumulative counts.

  • King Will says:
    4 Nov4 November 12:09

    Paypal offer not on my preferred gold amex account

    • Shoestring says:
      4 Nov4 November 14:50

      Good datapoint – thanks.

      • brandon says:
        5 Nov5 November 13:23

        paypal offer is on my amex gold secondary (credit version) – in fact its 3 out of 6 families amex cards…

  • Matt B says:
    4 Nov4 November 12:19

    We were booked on the LHR to Mathon service in August next year, and have been transferred to the LGW flights. A bit annoying as it means extra travel there and the times are worse so I may even need to take an extra days leave. Unfortunately dates are fixed so will just have to accept it

    • Nick says:
      4 Nov4 November 15:31

      You’re welcome to ask for LHR-MAD-MAH if you want.

    • Lady London says:
      4 Nov4 November 19:10

      @Nick is right you’re full entitled to ask for a re-routing. Best to do your research before you call, so you can just name the exact flights you’d want instead. That way you make their job easier and better chance of them agreeing without any fuss but you do have the right to request a reasonable re-routing. More chance of being accepted more readily if you can stay on same airline’s flights (although on this route I would keep the outbound BA and just use IB for the second leg… it will make them happier).

      I will be astounded if they don’;t agree so please let us know?

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

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