Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Save an extra £30 on Virgin Atlantic’s Economy Delight flights

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Until 4th September, Virgin Atlantic is offering an extra £30 saving on flights in its Economy Delight cabin to all destinations.

Full details are on the Virgin Atlantic website here. You do not need a promo code to book the offer.

There are two good reasons to book Economy Delight – one relating to comfort and one relating to miles.  Most people only look at the first one and don’t bother to work out the impact of the improved mileage earning, which is a mistake.

Virgin Atlantic Economy Delight

First up is comfort.

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

The second reason is 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

Here are two sample screen shots, based on being a base level (Red) Virgin Flying Club member.  Flying to Los Angeles in Economy Classic would get you:

Economy Class miles earned

…. whilst flying in Economy Delight would get you:

Economy delight miles earned

As you can see, you will earn an extra 10,908 miles on a return flight in Economy Delight.  These are worth £109 if you assume 1p per mile.  You can add in the very substantial benefit of the extra legroom for 24 hours of flying time.

In general Economy Delight is usually priced at £100 return above Economy Classic.  You should find the gap is lower during this sale, given the £30 discount.

On the longer Virgin Atlantic flights the additional cost of Economy Delight is virtually offset by the additional Virgin Flying Club miles you earn.  The extra leg room and other benefits are pretty much free!

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

If you want to find out more about the different Economy products, you can read our in depth comparison here.  This page of the Virgin Atlantic site shows you the differences between the fare classes.

You can book the £30 off Economy Delight fares on the Virgin Atlantic website here.  The offer runs until Wednesday 4th September.

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 (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

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (16)

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

  • Polly says:
    1 Sep1 September 07:28

    We have enjoyed couple of lovely trips from the luxury diary site. Bordeaux, Puglia and Rabat. Both gorgeous places. And you need to be v flexible w travel dates. Have one coming up in Oct to Thessaloniki. They do tend to quote v high value worth.
    A quick check on booking.com or similar will give you an idea of real worth and whether to bid or not.

  • Benylin says:
    1 Sep1 September 08:48

    OT: Going Japan first time next year, flying into Osaka and leaving from Tokyo. Have 13 full days.

    Recommendations for itinerary / where to spend my nights?

    • Genghis says:
      1 Sep1 September 09:06

      Stay at Koyasan for one night. That’s the best recommendation I can give.
      13 days is a good length. Probably sufficient time to head down to Hiroshima (and Miyajima), Himeji castle, Osaka itself, Koyasan, Nara, Kyoto (as long as you can), onsen at Hakone (not the best but v accessible) and Tokyo. If you have time, you might be able to go to Tokyo via Nagano and the Snow Monkey Park (in which case I’d prob not go to Hakone as there’s decent onsen around Yudanaka).

      There’s amazing food everywhere. For something a bit different I recommend the Molecular Tapas bar in the MO in Tokyo.

      • Nick_C says:
        1 Sep1 September 09:53

        Genghis – how much is the Molecular Tapas bar, and how formal is it (I live in jeans most of the time)

        • Genghis says:
          1 Sep1 September 10:07

          I went a year ago. From memory around 36k yen (the menu + mocktail pairing). “Tokyo is expensive”, is what i said when I put my expenses in. Not that formal. I wore chinos and polo IIRC.

          Food wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but it tasted good and the show was good fun.

      • Princess says:
        1 Sep1 September 12:57

        If you can, add Kanazawa too. It is much smaller than Tokyo and Kyoto but packed with things to see and do. It also show you a city with a more human scale.

      • meta says:
        1 Sep1 September 16:53

        +1 for Miyajima. I also love Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture. Think old wooden houses on the canal.

      • Andrew says:
        3 Sep3 September 12:15

        Just remember the Torii gate at Miyajima is under scaffolding for the next couple of years!

    • Nick_C says:
      1 Sep1 September 09:39

      I went to Japan for the first time last year and stayed 10 nights in Osaka and 3 nights in Tokyo.

      Osaka is a great base for visiting most of the places Genghis mentions. I also went to Hiroshima, largely because we had a JR pass and it seemed silly not to go.

      I preferred Nara to Kyoto, but I know I’m in a minority here.

      Because we flew in and out of Tokyo, we got a two week JR pass. If I hadn’t taken the trip to Hiroshima, we would have broken even on the train pass. The Hiroshima trip was effectively free. The Shinkansen is very expensive but local trains (to Himeji, Kobe, Kyoto) are quite cheap.

      I’m going again in December. Flying into TYO and home from Osaka. 5 nights in TYO, 6 in Osaka. Travelling with my partner this time, so repeating much of what I did last year. Because we are only travelling one way between TYO and OSA, I’m planning to fly. Avios redemptions are dirt cheap – £4 pp redemption fee. I’m looking at a regional rail pass for Kansai, which covers local trains to Kyoto, Nara etc.

  • Concerto says:
    1 Sep1 September 09:41

    I’m going to Hokkaido for the first time this October. Looking forward!

  • Big Jim says:
    1 Sep1 September 10:03

    If anyone looking for cheap j flights for Japan in Feb next yr..klm/Af txl -kix for £1350!!

  • JFSV says:
    1 Sep1 September 10:08

    The A350 from Air China is quite OK actually. Service not as smooth as SQ or QR but in general quite attentive. The seats were fine too.

    It is more the ground experience i.e. transiting in Shanghai in our case) where China jn general lacks behind. But having the transit without visa program for up to 144h helps.

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

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