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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 ….

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

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. 

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.

  • New Card says:
    13 Feb13 February 09:00

    Are any of the fun Asian destinations actually available via the Virgin site? It doesn’t seem to recognise Male, Osaka, Taipei…?

  • Yorkieflyer says:
    13 Feb13 February 09:12

    Dashed European johnnies, why does everything happen at 12 CET ?

  • jc says:
    13 Feb13 February 09:29

    Have they? Everything in that article has been public for months – the new part today is the burn details, which they haven’t included.

    • TeesTraveller says:
      13 Feb13 February 09:38

      My mistake, I am more focused on whether to move to Virgin from KLM/AF..

      I was trying to work out if it is worth crediting to Virgin based on my last year’s KLM activity. Problem is that I had short haul segments in fare classes X, U, E, F and P which are not shown on the tables.

  • Anna says:
    13 Feb13 February 09:29

    OT – (I think) MAN-LHR-NQY in September would be £450 return in CE and I think would give me 160 tier points plus constitute the 4 legs I’d need to travel to qualify for status. Have I got that right and is it a good deal?

    • Grant says:
      13 Feb13 February 10:18

      Bronze requires 300 TPs and 2 legs; Silver is 600 TPs and 4 legs; Gold is 1,500 TPs and 4 legs.

      What is your current status and where are you trying to get to?

      Check the TP Run thread on FT for views on value and cheap runs.

      • The Original David says:
        13 Feb13 February 10:41

        Unless you’re really short of options, £450 for 160TPs is terrible value, I’d say. Especially if you have until September. CE to any of HEL, SOF, OTP, CTA, ATH, IST and the like is surely to come up in a sale before Sep for less than £450.

        • Anna says:
          13 Feb13 February 10:56

          Ok thanks, I have never done a tier point run so interested in the different options. I don’t want to have to go too far and there needs to be a convenient connection with MAN.

          • Harry T says:
            13 Feb13 February 11:47

            Aim for £2/TP. You can do even better – see the recent Helsinki prices.

          • AJA says:
            13 Feb13 February 12:35

            Anna ,
            Have a look at the ba-tier-point-runs-2019-master-thread over on FlyerTalk for some inspiration.Plenty of advice and examples of what you can do for very little spend. Also take a look at the find-me-good-british-airways-fare-ticket-clinic-beta-draft-ba-fares-only thread. The fare you found is not bad but I think you can do better but of course if you just want to visit New Quay then I’d say go for it. Also have you tried doing a BA Holidays booking for that route? You might be able to book a hotel into the bargain for not much more.

          • Jill (Kinkell) says:
            13 Feb13 February 15:56

            I did a TP run to Helsinki from Inverness [240TPs] but flight times necessitated a stop in London and a night in HEL. I left OH at home and thoroughly enjoyed my wee trip and sightseeing.This helped the TP pot to Gold,and worth doing for us. (I’ll never reach the dizzy TP Gold heights again!)The flights were sub £350 and my Hilton in HEL was in a sale and really nice.
            Enjoy your trip

  • James says:
    13 Feb13 February 09:36

    Still no dice on BRS-AMS, cash or mileage, various dates via the Virgin Atlantic site.
    Am I making a schoolboy mistake somewhere?

    • New Card says:
      13 Feb13 February 09:43

      I don’t think all routes are loaded. I guess that’s the same situation we currently have with Delta where some routes are searchable online via the VS website and others aren’t.

    • LewisB says:
      13 Feb13 February 09:46

      You need to enter BRS as normal then for location click on full airport, selection all destinations then select AMS.

  • James says:
    13 Feb13 February 10:43

    Having a quick look: it is not going to make BA quiver. Apart from direct flights from the regions to AMS or CDG, everything else Europe wise is more expensive than BA, apart from a small field of countries. VS miles will be useful for NCL to CDG or AMS in biz for me, and that’s about it. Further afield, I’d rather change at LHR than CDG or AMS.

  • Eli says:
    13 Feb13 February 10:47

    Is a domestic air France the same as European?
    Would a connection in Paris give me twice the amount of European flight earnings?

  • James says:
    13 Feb13 February 10:48

    Any idea if you can retrospectively claim miles of historical travel on a Delta coded Air France flight to Flying Club or is it just future travel from today?

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

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