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Upgrade for £30 to Virgin Atlantic Economy Delight – which I HIGHLY recommend

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Starting today, and running until Saturday, Virgin Atlantic is offering upgrades from Economy Classic to Economy Delight for just £30 each way.

This is an EXCEPTIONALLY good deal and you’d be mad to turn it down.  There are two good reasons – one relating to comfort and one relating to miles.

First up is comfort.  Here is the difference between Economy Classic and Economy Delight:

Economy Classic:  Standard Economy fare with checked luggage included, can be upgraded to Premium Economy with miles

Economy Delight: Extra legroom (34″ pitch), priority check-in and priority boarding, can be upgraded to Premium Economy with miles

So …. for £30 you are getting extra three inches of legroom, priority check-in and priority boarding.  This is clearly worth doing.  Both tickets types come with free seat selection.

Virgin Economy Delight offer

And that’s before we get to reason two to upgrade – more miles.

Economy Classic:  earns 50% of miles flown plus 25 tier points each-way 

Economy Delight:  earns 150% of miles flown plus 50 tier points each-way

This makes the £30 deal a no-brainer.  Flying to San Francisco, for example, you’d earn an extra 5,350 Virgin Flying Club miles (which I’d value at £53.50) each way.

We reviewed Economy Delight last year on a flight to New York which you can read here.

This page of the Virgin Atlantic site shows you the differences between the fare classes.

The Virgin Atlantic booking page is here.  Date restrictions apply.

To maximise your miles when paying, 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.

How to earn Virgin Atlantic miles from UK credit cards

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Flying Club miles from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Flying Club miles.  That page is regularly updated with the latest special offers and will still be accurate even if you are reading this article months after publication.

(Want to earn more Virgin Flying Club miles?  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 (138)

  • r* says:
    24 Jan24 January 16:56

    How long do hilton usually take to enable status matches to diamond via ihg plat? I completed the form early tuesday but im still showing as gold, i had hoped it wouldve been completed by tomorrow as i have a stay over the weekend.

    Would calling them be likely to expediate things?

    • BJ says:
      24 Jan24 January 17:21

      You will stay gold until you have completed 8 stays. Time to respond to status match requests varies. I can be as little as two days and often as much as a week.

      • Brian W says:
        24 Jan24 January 20:36

        Not true, you get upgraded to Diamond first so you are Diamond as you complete the 8 required stays, if you fail you lose Diamond. Complete it and you keep it until the agreed date.

        I completed mine in December.

  • Russ says:
    24 Jan24 January 17:02

    OT,anyone know if it’s possible to change your amex offers to that of another country? Also, how long out of the UK do you have to be before you are obliged to tell them you aren’t living here permanently? Will still have a residence here but have a long scheduled break starting next year and don’t want to give up my amex cards. Thanks

    • Rob says:
      24 Jan24 January 17:29

      They don’t really care – you can keep the card unused. If you have a BA Amex do not change your BAEC account to your new address, however, as Amex won’t be allowed to send the points or voucher over.

  • Qwerty Bertie says:
    24 Jan24 January 18:56

    OT: request for Hilton advice. A few days ago I booked a ten night resort stay far in advance, fully with points, and it can be cancelled for a long time yet without charge. Noting the banner at the top of this site about the Hilton sale, I looked at the same stay again out of curiosity, as I was initially considering cash instead of points. I noticed though that not only is the cash rate lower, but also the points rate.

    It is now over 50k points cheaper for the stay. Is it too simple/am I overlooking something, when I think to myself just cancel the stay, wait for the points to return, and re-book at the lower rate?

    • BJ says:
      24 Jan24 January 20:01

      Points refund is almost instantaneous (you might need to log out and in again after cancellation). No reason not to cancel and rebook provide you are certain wholestsy is available for less points.

    • Alan says:
      24 Jan24 January 20:04

      If you’ve got enough points I’d make a second booking at the new rate first, but if not then you should be fine as long as no one snags it in the time between you cancelling and your points returning (should only take a few minutes, you sometimes need to sign out and back in). I’ve done quite well in rebooking at times, always worth keeping an eye from time to time on existing reservations!

      • Qwerty Bertie says:
        24 Jan24 January 21:06

        Thanks very much to both you and BJ.

        The stay at both rates is between 300k and 400k total in points, net of the two free nights, and I don’t have anywhere near enough points to book again prior to cancelling. However, I will risk cancelling first as logically there must be at least two rooms available for the stay, the one it would let me book now whether points or cash, and the one I’m reserving…so here goes everything…

        • Alan says:
          24 Jan24 January 21:40

          Cool, I’m sure it’ll be fine – let us know how you get on though 🙂

        • Shoestring says:
          25 Jan25 January 06:26

          Nice one, both! 🙂

          Just as good as the Virgin life insurance if you’re young enough! BTW I have screenshots of all the original Virgin life ins T&Cs if they end up being needed.

        • AndyGWP says:
          25 Jan25 January 06:46

          *urgh* i’m normally quite good at tapping into these things but I can’t find what you’re referring to here TRH – any pointers? 🙂

        • Shoestring says:
          25 Jan25 January 07:41

          see @Alan 22.47

        • Qwerty Bertie says:
          25 Jan25 January 11:23

          Was successful, saving 58k points. Value per point of 0.46p against the current cash price, which I’m happy with. Was prepared to pay cash, but this seemed like a good use of points, as not planning any other international trips this year/had possible future devaluation of points in mind.

      • Prune says:
        25 Jan25 January 00:00

        Aha! Got it!

  • Adam says:
    24 Jan24 January 20:04

    The miles earning for economy classic isn’t totally accurate as I regularly fly on expensive economy classic fare codes and receive 150% of the miles and 50 tier points.

  • Richard says:
    28 Jan28 January 21:21

    The £30 upgrade doesn’t work if you booked with miles 🙁

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