Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

What does the Virgin Atlantic takeover of Flybe mean for Avios collectors?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

All of the coverage of Virgin Atlantic’s proposed acquisition and rebranding of Flybe has, not surprisingly, focused on what it means for Flybe and for Virgin Atlantic.

What hasn’t been discussed is what impact the deal will have on Avios.

When I heard that Virgin Atlantic was only going to be a minority investor in Flybe I thought that it may let the Avios deal continue.  Now that we know the entire airline is to be rebranded under the Virgin Atlantic name, we can say with 100% certainty that you won’t be collecting Avios from Flybe in the future.

Let’s have a quick run through the impact on Avios, from both a HfP reader and and from an Avios Group perspective.

For clarity, it is still not 100% certain that the acquisition will go ahead.  Other airlines may respond with counterbids and the current deal is clearly low at 1p per share, given they were trading at 16p before the announcement.

For HfP readers

You will no longer be able to collect Avios when flying on Flybe.  This will be a blow for some people, especially regular travellers on the pricier routes.

The upside is that I would expect Virgin Atlantic to offer tier points as well as miles on Flybe services – you have never been able to earn BA or any other status with Flybe historically.  This will make it easier to earn Virgin Atlantic status.  This will become especially valuable when the partnership with Air France and KLM kicks in during 2019, as your Virgin Atlantic status would have value when flying on Virgin, Delta, Air France and KLM.

You will no longer be able to redeem Avios on Flybe.  To be honest, whenever we have run the numbers on this, it has been rarely been great value unless booked at short notice.  The best value comes if you are taking luggage, as Avios tickets include one free checked suitcase which would attract a fee if you paid cash.  This ‘Avios Redemption University’ article runs the numbers.

And, for clarity, any Avios you have earned from Flybe and which are sat in avios.com will not become Virgin Flying Club miles.  I would anticipate that all avios.com accounts which are linked to Flybe customers – and which were not closed down when the main Avios Travel Rewards Programme was closed – will be transferred to British Airways Executive Club in the same way.

For Avios Group

Avios Group will lose the income stream from Flybe.  I’m not sure what percentage of Flybe passengers claimed Avios but as it is generally a business-focused airline I would suspect it is high.  I would imagine that, even after accounting for Flybe redemptions, there is a large net inflow of cash.

Avios Group will lose another piece of its offering for members outside the M25.  Flybe redemptions were not always great value, but if you didn’t live near Gatwick or Heathrow then they were your best option for a free point to point ticket.  The travel groups who have left Avios in recent years include:

  • Monarch (receivership)
  • Flybe (takeover)
  • Eurostar
  • Air Malta
  • Aurigny

…. and of course Air Berlin disappeared as a oneworld partner when it went bust.

Overall, this is definitely a net loss for Avios collectors and for Avios Group.

The only potential upside I can see is the increased competition from Virgin Flying Club.  With more people having the opportunity to collect Flying Club miles via Flybe (and indeed from all of the other Virgin Group Loyalty Company partners once the new venture is fully live in the Spring), it will put the scheme in a better position versus Avios and BA Executive Club.  Stronger competition is likely to keep Avios on its toes.

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 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 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

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (59)

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

  • PGW says:
    12 Jan12 January 05:09

    Avios redemptions on Flybe short haul direct services from UK regional airports are actually good value when set against BA Reward Flight Savers which require an Avios spend on the domestic connections. Not everybody starts and ends their journeys in London.

    • TripRep says:
      12 Jan12 January 08:25

      Whats the usual cash price for these flights and whats the p/avios value you’ve had out of your redemptions?

  • Paul Whistler says:
    12 Jan12 January 06:22

    This is truly devastating news. I gave up trying to claim Virgin Actlantic rewards. They never seem to allocate points to any of the trips I tried to book regardless of peak or off peak timing. I even tried combination of pay plus points. All I got from their Helpdesk was keep on trying.

  • david says:
    12 Jan12 January 07:18

    OT: Bit silly question but I just been credited Avios from BA for flights taken (MCO-PHL). I wanted to know if I sign up to AAdvantage would I also be credited AA miles for those flights? Thanks in advance.

    • Genghis says:
      12 Jan12 January 07:25

      Not in addition

    • Alan says:
      12 Jan12 January 10:38

      Nope. You can credit to any Oneworld airline but you only receive them once 🙂

      • Lady London says:
        12 Jan12 January 15:34

        And you can’t ask the first airline credited to cancel that credit so that you can credit to a different airline.

        I tried that after it turned out Lufthansa had put my Lufty Miles&More number back onto the booking after I went into their lounge. At checkin I’d credited to Aegean. I wasn’t smart enough to check the FF number on the boarding pass was still my Aegean one after the lounge reprinted it as I checked in.

        When I mentioned the mistake to LH and asked to un-credit I think they laughed at me. 🙂

        • Norbs says:
          12 Jan12 January 15:59

          Hi, I had this happening to me when flying with CX (they used my AA # instead of BA as it was after a flight cancellation) and was able to get the trip un-credited from AAdvantage and move the tier/avios to BA. No idea if it would work the other way around and/or with different carriers though

        • Alex Sm says:
          12 Jan12 January 17:03

          LH / M&M are nasty and very German in a bad sense (absolutely inflexible and mean). I had a bad experience recently in claiming meagre 125 miles retrospectively (slightly outside 6-months window) and they said NEIN, ORDNUNG UBER ALLES. While Aegean happily credited for the return leg of the same trip.

        • guesswho2000 says:
          14 Jan14 January 11:15

          Note that American Airlines have, at some point in the last couple of years, become very inflexible at changing FF#. I couldn’t for the life of me get my QF number on my AA booking in December (QF Platinum=OWE, vs AA nothing=OW nothing), and the usual tricks don’t work, as AA use SABRE instead of Amadeus…even asking their CS via Twitter was met with a firm no. So that will teach me to make booking while logged into my AA account and not paying attention to ensure the correct FF# is attached.

          Luckily it all worked out, but I was on edge given the on time performance of that flight, the weather and North American carriers’ tendency to oversell, and would have much preferred the move off the bottom of the list my QF# could have provided. But as I say, it all worked out!

  • Nigel the Pensioner says:
    12 Jan12 January 07:20

    The way BA are going at the moment in their death spiral of customer indifference, the better it is for Virgin and their long haul options. I can see a major switch of allegiance occurring especially when Air France KLM come on board! The Virgin Miles programme is miles easier to operate than Avios, where you have to chase points, from account to account and all that messing about with an ultra complex loyalty scheme which very few people fully understand.
    What will Cruz do……probably just pose in his baggage handlers hi vis jacket and watch it all fall to bits!

    • John says:
      12 Jan12 January 08:50

      Cruz will do nothing much because BA flies to places I want to go and Virgin doesn’t.

      • TripRep says:
        12 Jan12 January 09:25

        yup BA have tons more options for redemptions flying East, well until the merger with KLM/AF….

      • Oh Matron! says:
        12 Jan12 January 09:28

        Where does BA fly to that AF and KLM doesn’t?

        BA are at serious threat if both the AF/KLM deal and FlyBE deals go through

        • Rob says:
          12 Jan12 January 10:35

          Barbados and most of the rest of the Caribbean (BA and Virgin do the only European flights to Barbados for eg), almost certainly lots of BA’s US destinations.

        • Dan says:
          12 Jan12 January 10:43

          KLM/AF/Delta route map doesn’t look too bad, particularly if you live outside London so need to transfer anyway, https://www.afva.net/routemap.do

          • Alan says:
            12 Jan12 January 11:27

            The big question in my mind is what sort of integration/deal will they do with Flying Blue. Agree lots of UK regions have plenty of connections to AMS, so good from that POV. I keep wanting to use one of their promo deals but haven’t got round to it yet.

        • Lady London says:
          12 Jan12 January 15:42

          My issue with KLM AF is they seem to require very high amounts of miles to be paid for even modest redemptions. For a couple of years I had mid-level status with them and some very very nice benefits due to having been invited to join as being in the oil industry. But I couldn’t give them enough flights to use the benefits of the status as I was never going to earn enough even to book a cheap flight with them.

          I think though that there might be a year or two of arbitrage opps once kl AF start to merge more with vs until someone in kl AF says let’s unify the programs as well…. So for a short while I’m going to maintain my handful of vs miles. Will try not to let them expire.

        • Mikeact says:
          12 Jan12 January 15:55

          As a life long KL member, their monthly discounted redemptions are always worth a look, anything between 30/50% off, all classes, and of course selected routes.
          Apart from that, I would say that their FFP scheme is pretty much on par with most others, seeing that they have all been devalued over the years.
          We shall certainly look forward to spending the other way, ie UC to the US.

        • Darren says:
          12 Jan12 January 16:02

          Unless they have a 241 option then my miles will be better spent on BA. If there’s a comparable alternate (mles wise) earnig to burning I’d be interested.

    • Doug M says:
      12 Jan12 January 10:13

      Chase points from scheme to scheme? If this refers to Iberia and Aer Lingus that’s part of the attraction, leveraging max value from the Avios. Virgin is just like BA, award miles and tier points, one relates to status and the other being the currency to use for ‘free’ flights, of course you still pay taxes and fees. If the KLM AF whatever that is put in place is overly simple that will mean a lack of opportunity to find a better way to redeem the FC miles. Complexity is your friend.

    • Alan says:
      12 Jan12 January 10:40

      For their flaws I don’t see BAEC as any more complex than VFC, both pretty straightforward. VFC actually worse that BAEC one in my experience with it not properly showing old transactions.

  • Frenzie says:
    12 Jan12 January 07:23

    OT but Virgin related.
    The 10000 extra bonus points for their recent CC sign up promo haven’t posted even after 5 weeks reaching the spending requirement.

    • Jonathan says:
      12 Jan12 January 08:07

      Your qualifying period for the extra 10k points comes during X month and will be shown and post with your Y statement. i.e the month after which you earned them. Therefore if you spent the required money to earn the points in week 1, you’ll still have to wait a further 7 weeks(ish) for them to show and post.

      • Frenzie says:
        12 Jan12 January 08:51

        I am aware thanks.
        It has been over 5 months the last statement. When that statement posted I already hit my spending requirement.

        Anyone received this bonus?

    • Rob says:
      12 Jan12 January 10:39

      They get posted manually, give it time.

  • FlyUpTop says:
    12 Jan12 January 07:27

    Didn’t most avios points earnt on Flybe had to be chased and chased to get credited, maybe it’s not such a bad thing from that perspective however losing the opportunity to fly using avios from other, smaller UK airports is not so good.

    • David says:
      12 Jan12 January 08:15

      Yes, I remember having to chase up avios and I’m sure it was only a couple of hundred points so never bothered again – waste of time

    • TripRep says:
      12 Jan12 January 08:35

      Previously had this issue, but my couple of FlyBE flights from last month actually posted automatically.

    • John says:
      12 Jan12 January 08:51

      I never really flew flybe before 2018, and my flights in 2018 all credited without any action on my part.

      • Stu N says:
        12 Jan12 January 14:52

        Been about 50:50 for me. As long as you hit the 10 day window to claim they do give you the points.

  • Marcw says:
    12 Jan12 January 09:04

    Who bothers collecting the 52 Avios you get when flying flyBe? If I were a business man… I’d prioritise other lucrative ways of earning Avios.
    Anyway… I hope I can earn FB miles when flying flyBe in the future if this deal goes ahead… And not Flying Club sit. Atm FB are very interesting, especially if you can take advantage of Promo awards.

    • Yawn says:
      12 Jan12 January 09:27

      Yes, I wonder about the Air France/KLM angle to this story as Flybe already feeds into their network, though usually not in a value for money sort of way.

    • Stu N says:
      12 Jan12 January 14:54

      If you are travelling anyway, you might as well claim the points. Add FF no to corporate travel agent and diarise a chaser 30 days after return doesn’t take long, and for business travel it’s actually fairly lucrative. Better than BA would be for travellers with no status.

  • Mikeact says:
    12 Jan12 January 09:22

    I just wonder if any Nectar partners may be interested in trying to form some sort of takeover deal, as obviously, it’s not yet a done deal. They are certainly light on the ground when it comes to travel options…not that I have any particular love for Nectar, far from it.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!