Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Come back at 11am for full details of Air France and KLM redemptions using Virgin Atlantic miles

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Today is the official day for the start of Virgin Atlantic mileage redemptions (and indeed mileage earning) on Air France and KLM.

Reward seats were actually bookable on the Virgin Atlantic website yesterday, as you may have seen if you saw our comments section.  If you can’t wait, pop over to the Virgin Atlantic website and have a play.

The Virgin / KLM page is here and the Virgin / Air France page is here.  They were not updated last night but may be when you read this.

The good news is that we have everything in advance – the award charts, the peak and off peak dates, the list of countries in each zone etc.

The bad news is that we had to agree to keep it under wraps until 11am today.

Pop back at 11am (or, if you are reading this email, visit the site at 11am as it won’t be emailed until Friday morning) and take a look.

What we can say from dummy bookings yesterday is that mileage pricing is similar to Avios points pricing, but with sharply reduced taxes and charges as long as you start your trip in Amsterdam or Paris.  KLM is likely to be your preferred choice in most cases – it has lower taxes than Air France, a better business class seat (Air France is not fully flat on some of its fleet) and of course flies from far more UK airports than Air France.

We won’t be covering mileage earning on Air France and KLM for another day or so – there is a limit to what anyone can handle.

More later …..

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 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 – 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

Air France KLM and Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (50)

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

  • BJ says:
    13 Feb13 February 05:31

    Don’t you people know I have a dental check-up at 11am!

    • The Original Nick says:
      13 Feb13 February 06:20

      I’ll be in T5 at 11am so that’s good timing.

    • Eli gold says:
      13 Feb13 February 06:37

      So you’ll be reading the jaw dropping news open mouthed!
      Just don’t dribble on your phone

      • BJ says:
        13 Feb13 February 06:41

        Maybe dentist can let me mirror my phone on his LED screen.

        • Rich says:
          13 Feb13 February 06:52

          Christ, we people on here are even nerdier than I thought

          • BJ says:
            13 Feb13 February 07:31

            Every cloud has a silver lining, a good chat up line to introduce my dentist to our hobby and hopefully an amex referral or two. He owes me anyway, I still didn’t get a referral bonus for shoving new patients his way, our relationship is too one-sided so that’s got to change.

      • ankomonkey says:
        13 Feb13 February 10:07

        LOL

    • TripRep says:
      13 Feb13 February 09:13

      BJ, reschedule to a more appropriate time.

      Say 2:30pm?

      😀

      • BJ says:
        13 Feb13 February 09:34

        Nope, if he cancels I will pop into Martin Wishart for lunch and claim duty of care.
        Btw, did you see my comments on Hilton Aberdeen TECA? It was a bit disappointing, DT City Centre remains a better option if you don’t want the leisure facilities, and especially if you are Diamond.

      • Michael says:
        13 Feb13 February 10:01

        Tooth hurty deserved a better reaction. Kudos.

        • TripRep says:
          13 Feb13 February 10:21

          Thanks, it’s a groaner but I couldn’t resist.

          I missed the TECA comment, ty.

          Down in Edinburgh this wknd, might have to go for Cocktails in the WA and/or Balmoral.

  • Luckyjim says:
    13 Feb13 February 07:25

    We’ve been able to book KLM flights online using Virgin Miles for several days now. Lots of availablity between London and Amsterdam. No so much trans atlantic.

  • James says:
    13 Feb13 February 07:32

    I couldn’t find any BRS – AMS but maybe it’s limited routes to start with?

  • David D says:
    13 Feb13 February 07:47

    I’d be interested to know why KLM has short haul business class tier point and mileage earning rates but Air France does not. My assumption, given all the rates are the same anyway, is they would be equal. However, you would have thought they would be posted correctly on the website.

  • Jon says:
    13 Feb13 February 07:50

    Europe-Asia’s looking like 220,000+ miles return plus about £400 or so, in Business, when I checked just now. Whereas LHR-HKG on VS metal was showing 80k off-peak… Ouch.

  • Go says:
    13 Feb13 February 08:06

    Belfast city to Amsterdam returns a message saying we don’t fly this route but KLM does have flights 6 days per week. Are KLM cityhopper flights not included?

  • vol says:
    13 Feb13 February 08:14

    OT:

    Have applied and been accepted for the Capital on Tap (COT) Business Rewards (BR) card on the deadline date for the bonus points (phew!)

    A couple of queries (which may seem a bit silly, so bear with me 😁)

    Firstly, on their website, the BR card is navy blue, the standard is yellow – I have received a yellow card

    I don’t care about the colour so much, I just want to know that it would function the same as a BR card and if anyone has experienced the same thing.

    Secondly, I have added the COT card to my Curve card, and the currency is showing up as USD.

    When I try and change the currency to GBP, the app informs me that USD has been detected and I might be charged for any spend in a different currency

    Ironically I’m quite happy for it to be a USD card 😎👍🏽 but again, I just wanted to know everyone’s experiences here with this

    vol x

    • Ian_h says:
      13 Feb13 February 08:40

      Don’t worry about the colour my card is yellow also and has the correct Business Rewards Scheme attached (you can check this in the app/online). It looks like the BIN (Number Range) used by CoT must have previously been used somewhere in $ Land, changing the underlying card currency to GBP in Curve will not incur charges – but also remember that there is no markup on non GBP transactions with CoT so can be used directly also.

  • James says:
    13 Feb13 February 08:45

    Unless I am mistaken the below destinations are the only direct flights From the UK correct?

    Paris
    New York
    Boston
    Amsterdam

    Everything else are stop off?

    • Paul says:
      13 Feb13 February 08:54

      With which airline? On VS metal there’s a lot note direct routes. On KLM/AF you’ll have to route through their hubs, and they don’t fly direct from London to NYC or Boston…

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

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