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Virgin Atlantic spring sale now on – decent US flight deals in all classes

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Virgin Atlantic has launched a Spring Sale with deals to the US in Economy and Upper Class.

Until 19th April you can find reduced fares on flights to the US from London Heathrow and Manchester.

Full details are on this special website.

Looking at the Upper Class deals, the cheapest offer looks like London Heathrow to Boston at £1,914.  This is available to book until 19th April, as long as you book 120 days in advance and include a Sunday night.

Virgin Atlantic The Loft A350

Other Upper Class prices to the USA out of London include:

New York £1,939

Los Angeles £2,479

Miami £2,704

To get flights at these prices you generally need to book at least 60 days in advance, travel in July or August and include a Sunday night.

Here is our last review of Virgin Upper Class and here is our last review of Virgin’s Clubhouse lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3. Virgin’s official Upper Class website is here.

You can read more about the new A350 Upper Class seat here although this won’t be available until at least August – and even then it will only be on selected Heathrow to New York JFK flights for now.

There are also some decent Economy deals out there. Destinations from London include:

New York £278 (for travel outbound 27th October – 12th December and 8th January 2020 – 27th March 2020)

Boston £270 (for travel outbound 27th October – 12th December and 8th January – 27th March 2020)

Miami £305 (for travel outbound 27th October – 12th December and 8th January – 27th March 2020)

Seattle £568 (for travel outbound 27th October – 12th December and 8th January – 27th March 2020)

Orlando £314 (for travel outbound 27th October – 12th December and 8th January – 27th March 2020)

Destinations from Manchester include:

New York £350 (for travel outbound 4th January – 14th February 2020)

Orlando £470 (for travel outbound 27th October – 12th December and 8th January – 27th March 2020)

Los Angeles £406 (for travel outbound 8th September – 28th October)

All fares need to be booked at least 28 days in advance and include a Saturday night except for Seattle which needs to be booked 120 days in advance with a minimum stay of 7 days.

Here is our review of Virgin’s new Economy Delight product, and this is why the maths says you should book it.

Travel dates and full details of what is available can be found on the Virgin Atlantic sale website here.

You need to book these deals by 19th April at the latest, but there is limited availability and it is worth jumping in now if you want to secure key dates.

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 Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 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 – 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

Huge 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

(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.)

Comments (76)

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

  • Lee CB says:

    Hi. Would you not be better off buying 140,000 miles (inc 40% bonus) in the current Sale for £1515 and taking a reward flight in UC say to NYC for 115,000 miles (or 95,000 off peak)?
    Or am I missing something?

    • Leo says:

      Plus carrier fees and tax?

    • Doug M says:

      Yes. As Leo says the fees and charges, plus a little tax. Also on the redemption you’ll earn no miles or tier points as you would from the cash fare.

      • Lee CB says:

        Ok understood, thanks. Not very familiar with Virgin Flying Club yet, just joined recently (to pick up Rob’s “cheeky” 10k miles on the free Virgin Credit Card)
        Interesting though as (now I’ve looked!) some dates in August fees and tax are only £464 so if you bought just enough miles = 83000 (+ 40%) = £1260 plus £464 it still beats the £1939 price?

        • Kathy says:

          Availability of redemption seats will be an issue at peak times.

        • Ricatti says:

          But at this level (of yet “low” surcharges)

          £1260 plus £464 = 1724

          £1939 price

          is not an interesting proposition to collect miles — even if we are talking collection vs purchasing the miles. You are paying close to the full market prices, which is definitely not “a deal”.

  • Paul Stevens says:

    OT – no bits – If I book a BA 241 in business and later F becomes available, can I phone up and get upgraded for some extra avios plus £35 pp charge?

    • Optimus Prime says:

      Yes. There may also be a difference in taxes/surcharges you have to pay for.

    • SimonW says:

      Yep, ive been checking every day for my flights this weekend to Miami but no luck….

      • Paul Stevens says:

        Thanks guys. Good luck SimonW

        • Stu N says:

          You might find something opens up between 72 and 24 hours before departure, worth checking right up to the wire IME.

    • SimonW says:

      But in some positive BA news – we have 2 separate bookings as used 2 x 241s, and no way was I going to pay £350 odd to book us 4 middle seats in CW. So I called up and they allocated us the seats for free. 3 days before the flight. Very pleased with that as a lowly Blue jub too….

      • Nick_C says:

        Good of BA to do that. Although at T-3 days they had probably already allocated seats for you which you would have seen at check in.

      • Michael says:

        Did you call up with the intention of asking about seats? or did they offer to do it when asking about another query.

        • SimonW says:

          Called up to link the 2 bookings with intention of them hopefully giving us 4 together when we checked in. Maybe they had already allocated us the middle 4 though…..

        • Nick_C says:

          Sorry, I missed the fact it was two separate bookings. Good service!

  • Russ says:

    Interesting. I still get points for OTA bookings as I’m a regular and hotels want to keep the business. So effectually some hotels are unofficially already supporting this.

  • Doog1000 says:

    Slightly OT has anyone received their 6000 miles from the VIrgin life insurance offer – I paid for 6 premiums and cancelled after that but no miles have hit my account and a couple of months have no elapsed

    • Matt says:

      Mine were paid very timely a week or so after 6 months. Others reported similar things. I think this was back in January/early Feb.

  • Nick_C says:

    I wish the big chains would simply offer the best prices on their web sites. I’ve had plenty of stays with Marriott and Hilton in recent years, but it’s been 7 years since I booked directly instead of through an OTA.

  • DaveL says:

    OT – can anyone recommend the best seats in F for a couple on a 773 (BA). 1A/1K/2E/2F are taken, and otherwise all free. Seatguru seems to suggest 1E/1F aren’t the best. Is it best to go 4E/F? Or better just to not sit together and go A or K in different rows? Hoping to get some sleep but would also be nice to sit together as first ever F… Thanks for any tips.

    • Michael says:

      Don’t think it really matters in F. Obviously 1A/1K are the golden seats but It’s not like Club where every seat has big pro’s and cons. perhaps not the ones nearest to the galley and toilet though.

      • Stu N says:

        The E/F pairs are all much of a muchness really. On the 777-300 the loos are at the back of the F cabin so I’d marginally favour Row 1 over Row 4. There really isn’t much difference between seats on the 777 though.

        We usually take a window seat, one in front of the other and use the buddy seat to eat together rather than a middle pair anyway.

    • ChrisC says:

      1A/K are reserved for Golds until a couple of days before the flight so they may become available.

      1A/K maybe the most private but they aren’t the best seats (due to cabin curve) Rows 2 / 3 are better.

  • ShouldntCare says:

    OT

    Random question but does a Corporate credit card affect my personal credit score? My company’s rolling out full-on enforcement of a non-Amex credit card which we all need to get…wondering if this will affect me negatively in any way.

    Thanks

    S

    • Matt says:

      Corporate cards (including joint liability ones) do not appear on your credit report.

  • Definitas says:

    Fares are available LHR to New York with BA in CW for less than £1500 on selected dates all the way from October to March and less than £1800 to LAX

    • Definitas says:

      Lots of flights to MIA sub £1700 in J and some flights in F cheaper than VS

      • Bootlace says:

        O/T sitting in LGA currently , AA asking for volunteers to take later flight, intially offering $250 in flight credit now gone to $375 what are readers experiences and how much should I hold out for?

        • Shoestring says:

          depends how long you have to sit around until the next flight, whether the delay bothers you that much etc and if you’d rather have $375 for some booze/ food/ compo for a couple of hours delay

        • Anna says:

          Where is the flight to? I’ve heard of people getting a lot more than $375 depending on the length of the journey.

        • Shoestring says:

          we got offered 5x EUR400 to delay our Xmas flight to the place in the sun but crucially (x2) they wouldn’t guarantee we’d get on the next flight in a couple of hours *and* my wife immediately said no way, it’s Xmas with a taxi waiting the other end

          bye bye £1500 for sitting around for 2 hours 🙂

        • Lady London says:

          Divorce?

        • Lady London says:

          and to make it worse, 5*400 EUR is 2000 EUR which is currently a lot closer to £1800 than £1500.

        • Shoestring says:

          not sure I wear the hotpants 🙂

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