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Virgin Atlantic launches Delhi flights from Manchester Airport

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Virgin Atlantic is launching a new route from Manchester to Delhi in October.  It will operate three times a week on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays using an A330-200 aircraft, returning Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Flights start on the 26th October:

VS318 departs Manchester at 16:40 and arrives in Delhi the next day at 06:05

VS319 is a day flight and departs Delhi at 08:10 and arrives at 12:10

Virgin has gradually been mopping up the spare capacity between the UK and India after the collapse of former partner Jet Airways last year, as we wrote about here.

The new route from Manchester will be the only direct flight between Manchester and India. Jet Airways flew between Manchester and Mumbai before it went bankrupt, so Virgin appears to be targetting a slightly different market.

The A330-200 that will operate this route are the former Air Berlin planes Virgin brought in to assist with the industrial problems on the Boeing 787-9. These do not feature the usual Upper Class seat but an adapted and refurbished Air Berlin seat (pictured below), which Rob reviewed pre-refurb here.

Flights will go on sale on Monday, 3rd of March and you will be able to book on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

PS. If you want to know about Avios redemption ideas from Manchester Airport, this HfP article looks at Avios flights from UK regional airports.

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

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (179)

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

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    26 Feb26 February 07:54

    Why the pic of a BA A380?

    • Rob says:
      26 Feb26 February 08:01

      Hmm. There WAS a BA story in Bits but we moved it and then forgot to swap that picture!

  • Lee says:
    26 Feb26 February 07:55

    Shangri-La just extended my Jade status to the end of 2021.

    I gave up my platinum Amex around 2 years ago, but Shangri-La keeps giving me status. 🤔
    Hopefully, one day I’ll stay in one of their hotels and so benefit from it!

  • Brian says:
    26 Feb26 February 08:00

    off topic , but just been looking at BA Ex Club app and see that you can now register cards for high street spending /points collecting. Is this new have not noticed it before ? If it works might be another useful way of gaining avois.

    • Harry T says:
      26 Feb26 February 09:46

      It’s an old feature apparently but they’ve just started offering it again.

      As a data point, it says that you only receive Avios on Odeon tickets if you pay at the cinema but I paid online (queues were massive and my time is too important/life is too short) and did receive the Avios from Odeon.

      • LST says:
        26 Feb26 February 10:20

        I had to pre book online to ensure that we got tickets over half term and I didn’t get the points 😔. The ridiculous cost of pick n mix, popcorn and soft drinks meant that I did earn a decent chunk in the foyer 😳
        LST

        • Michael says:
          26 Feb26 February 12:56

          Interesting, I registered both my BAPP and my wife’s supp. I’ve not any Avios from a couple of recent trips to Odeon cinemas. Each time we bought our tickets in the cinema. It’s not a huge amount of Avios but still worth filling in a missing Avios form.

        • Roger C says:
          26 Feb26 February 14:25

          If you have an HSBC account you can get Odeon Unlimited – free films for a year – for around £156. You wouldn’t need to go that often in my local Odeon – it’s £12.50 a time – to make that work.

  • Don says:
    26 Feb26 February 08:03

    Asking Barclays what the MCC will be has resulted in a reply apologising for “Visa” changing the MCC and how all my transactions were treated as cash… wtf… in other words they don’t answer or understand anything. They’re very sorry how “VISA didn’t contact me”.

    All I asked was to find out what the pending transaction would post as.

    Anyone else got a Barclaycard data point for Revolut?

    I have screenshots from Revolut chat yesterday saying the MCC is back to their “old one” for both VS and MS and there are no more cash advance fees being charged. That should mean that Curve are now sending it as 6012, not 4829. I’ve asked Curve to let me know.

    • Jane says:
      26 Feb26 February 08:35

      Don’t get out much do you Don?!

      • Don says:
        26 Feb26 February 08:38

        It’s hardly the Don fan club around here…

        • fivebobbill says:
          26 Feb26 February 09:13

          Never mind the trolls Don, a lot of us are very interested in this.
          If your most recent Barclays transaction is no longer pending and has hit your online statement, any cash advance fee, if there is one, will hit your statement at the same time. At least that’s how it panned out for me on the last couple of occasions.
          Feedback much appreciated

          • Yorkieflyer says:
            26 Feb26 February 13:07

            Mmm endless grumbling from those.gaming the system doesn’t rock my boat

    • TripRep says:
      26 Feb26 February 15:51

      Don, please keep us updated how it pans out. As it stands I need to top up my Revolut account next Month

    • MarkH says:
      26 Feb26 February 17:43

      Topped up £100 to Revolut from Hilton Bcard on 22nd. Moved out of pending yest and no fee

  • Louie says:
    26 Feb26 February 08:17

    OT: how long are Amex taking to post the points for referrals from the Platinum card these days? Thanks.

  • Blindman says:
    26 Feb26 February 08:48

    Maybe a niche topic but who else is going to OZ for £195?

    We’re flying on March 5th and I’m looking for cheap ways to get into the Qantas lounge or any other in T3?

    I have the Dragon pass App, though have not bought any yet.

    Is this still current?

    • Harry T says:
      26 Feb26 February 09:42

      My gf and I are flying on March 3rd using golden tickets. We have prepaid the reservation fee for the No 1 lounge in T3 – we have priority pass through AMEX Platinum.

      I think the Qantas lounge is letting people pay £55 each on the door to use their lounge – we didn’t think it was worth it.

      • Blindman says:
        26 Feb26 February 10:07

        Thanks for the reply
        £55 ! I would expect 6 hours of first class service for that.
        I may spring for the $10 Dragon pass and see how that goes.

        Anyone have experience in T3 and being let in on these passes?

        • Rob says:
          26 Feb26 February 10:16

          Should be fine because if No 1 is full you can go to Aspire. Or pay the £6 No1 reservation fee to guarantee entry with your DP.

          • Harry T says:
            26 Feb26 February 11:08

            It’s £5 to reserve with a priority pass if you use the link Rob posted the other day (thanks, @Rob).

          • Blindman says:
            26 Feb26 February 15:06

            So which one is the best?

            Thanks

          • Doug M says:
            26 Feb26 February 21:33

            Number 1 seems a tad more upmarket, but Aspire has buffet breakfast that’s fine. I think in Number 1 you get one menu item included if Prio pass.

          • Shoestring says:
            26 Feb26 February 21:52

            yep but @Blindman you are possibly missing the important point – you could easily get turned away from both lounges due to capacity issues – the only lounge you can pre-book is No1

            No1 is the best anyway (unless you gobble up pasta like a big pasta muncher)

    • Rob says:
      26 Feb26 February 09:51

      Rhys!

      • Blindman says:
        26 Feb26 February 10:09

        I know that’s what reminded me.

        Looking for T3 lounge options Dragon pass ?

      • BJ says:
        26 Feb26 February 13:17

        Rhys/Rob, it would be helpful if you guys used different avatars I think…would make it easier for us to keep a tally of your respective clangers 🙂

        • Rob says:
          26 Feb26 February 13:52

          Shared responsibility!

          • Doug M says:
            26 Feb26 February 15:09

            So next time you’ll take an economy flight to Aus?

          • Rhys says:
            26 Feb26 February 16:00

            Rob isn’t sending me – I’m sending myself!!!

          • Rob says:
            26 Feb26 February 17:07

            Rhys believes that he is allowed time off. Sounds a bit unfair to me but apparently it’s the law.

            Luckily 29th February is a Saturday so I’ve dodged a bullet over the staff demanding extra pay for that 🙂

          • Lady London says:
            27 Feb27 February 11:47

            Some of us would enviously view Rhys’s actual job as time off. Private jets etc.

          • Rob says:
            27 Feb27 February 11:59

            I seem to remember lots of moaning from readers when it was originally advertised ….

            He’s off with Branson again in a couple weeks, to Sao Paulo.

          • Lady London says:
            27 Feb27 February 12:05

            You’re just making it worse Rob 🙂

  • DaveL says:
    26 Feb26 February 09:07

    OT – aware that lloyds avios voucher is non-returnable. However, some have said I believe that it is sometimes transferable to a new flight date/route. Can anyone confirm if they will transfer voucher to a new route, or just a different date with the same route? And also if the changes are made by calling avios direct, as with original booking? Thanks

    • fivebobbill says:
      26 Feb26 February 09:30

      Yes, yes, and yes.
      A voucher as you say is lost if you cancel, but can be re-routed/transferred without losing it.
      You must do this before the “use by” date on the voucher, however the travel date can be at anytime beyond this. And yes, you must phone the original Avios booking number to change.
      * Tip – try to call them weekday early in the morning, as the wait times can be horrendous.

  • Paul Pogba says:
    26 Feb26 February 09:24

    OT and annoyingly irrelevant given NZ have ditched the UK by they’re investigating an economy add-on bunk bed: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/26/lie-flat-beds-in-economy-class-air-new-zealand-skynest-bunks-budget-travellers

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

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