How you can earn Virgin Flying Club miles shopping at Waitrose

Our other article today includes ways of topping up your Virgin Flying Club account.  One of these ways is earning miles at Waitrose.

I realised that we haven’t actually mentioned this partnership for almost two years, and it is possible that a lot of Head for Points readers don’t know about.

Via a deal with Virgin Atlantic, you will earn miles in Virgin Flying Club for every £1 you spend in-store at Waitrose.

The earning rate varies by account, and seems to change based on how much you spend at Waitrose and how your spending pattern fluctuates.

For purchases under £20, you earn a flat 1 Flying Club mile per £1

For £20+, you need to log in to your Virgin Flying Club account and check.  I am currently earning 3 Flying Club miles per £1 until 26th April.

This is, for £20+ purchases, more miles than I would earn at Tesco via Clubcard (1 Clubcard point per £1 which converts to 2.4 Avios or 2.5 Virgin Flying Club miles).

This would also allow John Lewis shoppers to buy Waitrose / John Lewis gift cards in Waitrose and collect the extra miles.

This offer is part of the Virgin Atlantic in-store shopping scheme.  To sign up, you need to visit this page of the Virgin website and register your credit cards.   Make sure you register your partners cards as well if they are also likely to visit Waitrose.

If you don’t already have a Virgin Flying Club account, you may want to sign up purely to take advantage of this deal.  At the very worse, you can redeem 12,500 miles for a £50 voucher valid at many Virgin Group companies or for Theatre Tokens.  It is also worth remembering that you can transfer Virgin Flying Club miles into Hilton Honors points (at 2:3) and IHG Rewards Club points (at 1:1) with a minimum transfer of 10,000 miles.

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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):

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

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.)