Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get a bespoke bonus when you buy Virgin Flying Club miles

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Keen to magic up some extra Flying Club miles?  Virgin Atlantic has launched a ‘mystery’ Buy Miles promotion, running until 13th November.

This promotion gives Flying Club members the opportunity to buy Flying Club miles and receive an additional mileage bonus when they do so.

But here’s the mysterious part… you have to log in to your Flying Club account to find exactly how big that bonus is.

You can find out your bonus by logging in at this page of the Flying Club website.

You will receive a bespoke bonus offer.

It’s not clear how this is worked out.  From our unscientific research across the HfP office and family members we’ve found Red members with a 20% bonus and others with a 30% bonus.  A Silver member got a 40% bonus, but there may be additional offers out there too.  We don’t have any Gold members here so we can’t tell you what they get.

Here’s a couple of examples to show what you’d get with your bonus:

If you are offered the 20% bonus:

Buy 10,000 miles for £150, get an additional 2,000 mile bonus (12,000 miles in total)
Buy 50,000 miles for £750, get an additional 10,000 mile bonus (60,000 miles in total)

If you are offered the 40% bonus:

Buy 10,000 miles for £150, get an additional 4,000 mile bonus (14,000 miles in total)
Buy 50,000 miles for £750, get an additional 20,000 mile bonus (70,000 miles in total)

Does the bonus increase if I buy more miles?

In the past, some of Virgin’s Buy Miles promotions have had a sliding scale for the bonus, so the more miles you purchase, the higher the bonus.

However, with this promotion the bonus is the same regardless of if you buy 2,000 miles or 100,000 miles.  You do have to purchase a minimum of 2,000 miles to qualify for the bonus.

How many miles can I buy with the bonus?

You can buy a maximum of 100,000 miles plus whatever bonus you are offered.

Virgin Atlantic has reset your annual purchase limit.  Even if you bought miles between January and September, your annual cap has been reset to zero and you can buy an additional 100,000 miles – plus bonus – via this deal.

According to the terms and conditions of the offer, the miles will be credited to your account straight after purchase.

What is the cost per Virgin Flying Club mile?

Of course, it all depends on your mystery bonus. Using the 20% and 40% offers we know are out there:

20% Bonus – 1.25p per mile
40% Bonus – 1.07p per mile

At 1.07p you should do OK – you’ll struggle to lose money at this price if you redeem for a premium cabin flight.  1.25p is getting a little high, and I wouldn’t necessarily buy miles speculatively at this price.  Of course, if you have a firm plan for spending them where you know you will get better than 1.25p per mile then it is a different story.

If you are just topping off your account with the final few miles before you make a redemption, the exact price per mile doesn’t make a lot of difference anyway – but you can buy in the confidence that you paid less than you otherwise would.

How do I find this offer?

If you’d like to buy some additional Flying Club miles, this offer ends on 13th November 2019.

The link to the Mystery Buy Miles Bonus can be found here.


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.)

Comments (51)

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

  • The Original David says:

    As someone who’s never flown VS and has a balance of 37k miles, I’ve been offered a bonus of 20%. I’m not a buyer…

    • Andrew says:

      37,000 without flying VS?

      Were you a regular on “Little Red” or just do all your grocery shopping in Waitrose?

      • Alex says:

        I have just over 50k and have never flown with them either. 30% bonus as red so won’t be a buyer. We have the Virgin CC so maybe effects the % you are offered?

        • LewisB says:

          I have 68,000 miles and I’ve never flown VS. No intention of either, saving for a sweet ANA redemption.

          • LewisB says:

            Just to add I got offered 20%. Obviously no status and I only have the free VS credit card. I say it every few days but if someone from VS is reading can you let me upgrade to the premium card already!?

          • Jonathan says:

            I’ve just pocketed 60,000 VS miles paying my stamp duty. Will get £20k back off HMRC once old flat sells so nets out at 3 miles/£ which I’m pretty happy with.

      • Brian W says:

        Man states he’s never flown VS………you ask him if was a regular on Little Red (VS)?!

        Give yourself a shake Andrew!

  • Planning Geek says:

    30% with no status.

    Not a big buyer of miles, so unlikely to partake. Only have 60,000 miles so a long way from buying two premium returns to the USA.

    • Alex says:

      I’m in the same boat as you, slowly building a pot for 2 premium seats somewhere. Ideally I’d like New York or Boston but anything is going to take time.

  • Neil says:

    Been offered 30% with no status, I’m sitting 385,000 miles at the mo with no specific redemption planned or in mind yet … +30% makes is 1.15p a mile …think it’s worth a punt?

  • John says:

    With Gold, it’s offering me 40%

  • silver says:

    Silver and 40%.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    Silver (though only from Delta metal) and offered 20%.

    The fact they not only offer this bonus but reset the entire customer base’s limit for the year indicates they’re very keen for this to be taken up by as many as possible and as much as possible – and if one side of a deal is especially keen it’s my experience that the other side is not getting the value they think they are…

    • Lady London says:

      They may just need cash in for the end of the financial year if it’s December. Cash all comes in now and can be booked this year. Whereas the miles created are a liability that can be spread out over time, can be discounted as some miles issued will never be used, and their value can be manipulated by VS at any time by program changes.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        Well, they’re a cost that can be spread out over time as they are redeemed but they will sit as a liability in their entirety at their notional nominal value on the balance sheet right away.

        Airline loyalty programs generate profit so he logic still works bit the cash in is still largely offset by the liability on the balance sheet

        • Rob says:

          I think you’ll find cash is substantially more attractive than a balance sheet liability, even if one comes with the other!

  • Ian says:

    I’m Red and have a 30% bonus offer – maybe because I also have the Virgin Atlantic premium credit card?

  • NigelthePensioner says:

    Yes, Gold is 40% in my case. Although waiting for revised new seats on “proper” routes to use what I already have!

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

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