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Waitrose will no longer give you Virgin Flying Club miles from 26th March

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In a bit of a blow for our household, Waitrose will no longer be awarding Virgin Flying Club miles from 26th March.

This is not necessarily anything to do with coronavirus and/or the financial difficulties at Virgin Atlantic and indeed at Waitrose’s parent company John Lewis.

It may be to do with the relaunch of Virgin Red and the new Virgin-wide loyalty programme.  This was always due to happen at the end of March 2020 but I am guessing it is delayed.

It may also be to do with the recent launch of Morrisons as a Virgin in-store partner.

If you can still get down to your local Waitrose before 26th March, you could buy some Waitrose gift cards.  These would trigger the miles and you would be able to spend the vouchers over the next few months.  Waitrose gift cards are also valid in John Lewis.

The Waitrose earning rate is targeted and varies from account to account but you should get at least 1 Virgin Flying Club mile per £1 spent and potentially as much as 3 miles per £1.

This offer is part of the Virgin Atlantic in-store shopping scheme.  To sign up, you need to visit this page of the Virgin website and register your credit cards.

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 (150)

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

  • mark2 says:
    21 Mar21 March 07:37

    As Shoestring has reminded many times,you should still be able to get 8 Virgin miles per £ on John Lewis (or other) gift cards at Morrison’s until 25th March. And up to 10% statement credit from Amex.

    • mark2 says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:32

      Although all points since 9/2/20 are still showing as pending: a total of 24,900 plus 5,600 from 14/3 which do not even show as pending.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        21 Mar21 March 10:27

        They will take a couple months to post.

        • Shoestring says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:38

          that’s good going @mark2 – something like my pending total 🙂

          • TGLoyalty says:
            21 Mar21 March 11:32

            I have 42k pending not made any decisions based on their value as assumed just 10% off as per my amex offer. Be nice if they were worth something after all this.

  • KBuffett says:
    21 Mar21 March 08:04

    The actual loyalty cards from M&S and JL are, frankly, crap.
    I don’t understand how they work. Would anyone care to explain?

    • Chris says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:20

      I’ve had 10% off all food and flowers on my M&S card since the turn of the year. Have saved a fortune. If you are looking for points to mean something it is of course rather pointless but there are some decent savings available. I’ve also got 20% of mens clothing on there at the moment as well.

    • mark2 says:
      21 Mar21 March 08:35

      At Waitrose you get a cup of coffee every time that you shop (better than Starbucks – damning with faint praise, but not the same ambience). And free newspaper if you spend £10 (including the paper and coffee). Offers in the café. Also coupons posted out.

      • Harry T says:
        21 Mar21 March 08:49

        The coupons are pretty good – regularly get 20% off a £20 or £40 shop.

        • Mr. AC says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:07

          Interesting – never received one. I do get coupons, but they’re usually item-specific and hence cumbersome to use.

      • Kevin C says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:19

        I believe Waitrose are suspending free coffee.

        • AJA says:
          21 Mar21 March 09:51

          Yes they have suspended the free coffee. Not that I ever took advantage. Not sure if it’s a permanent enhancement a la BA….

    • Genghis says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:10

      M&S sparks is not great. Priority to sales. The offers do stack, however, so a xx% off clothes on your birthday offer stacks with 20% off shirts, stacks with the 3 for £90 / 2 for £60 non iron white shirts. It means you pick up the shirts for £14 or so a pop, decent.

      • The Original David says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:37

        Except M&S seem to tailor their shirts for a t-rex: tiny little arms and an enormous neck!

    • Rob says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:45

      JL does throw a lot of free coffee and cake at us, probably £30-worth per year.

      • AJA says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:52

        Not from today. They’ve suspended the free coffee and the cafe is closed.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:31

          Everywhere is closed from today. But they HAVE offered value

          The supermarkets would be bonkers to spend you a money off coupon right now.

          Bash them all you want but this sort of demand will be causing them tremendous pain as well as bumper revenues.

          Air freight costs will be sky high because capacity is at an all time low. Trucks and drivers demand must be at all time high and you can’t just get these things from no where. Especially when so much food comes from outside of the uk and cross border travel in the EU is extremely limited if not completely stopped.

      • Mikeact says:
        21 Mar21 March 10:01

        Shame, I shall miss the cream tea…

  • Marcw says:
    21 Mar21 March 08:54

    Why would anyone collect Virgin Miles. it’s unlikely Virgin Atlantic will look the same in the future as they did 4 weeks ago.

    Get rid of your Virgin Miles. This is going to be a tough ride for airlines – especially the smaller ones. Fasten your seat belt!

  • Novice says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:01

    True.

    I have OCD and thankfully I’ve not lost my marbles.

  • Lee says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:20

    What do we spend Virgin points on if they go under……

    • ChrisC says:
      21 Mar21 March 15:29

      Once they go under it’s too late though as VS flying club is a separate company it might last longer but with significant changes

      otherwise go to VS website and look at the various partners pages and look at the spend options.

      • Genghis says:
        21 Mar21 March 17:22

        How much cash does the loyalty entity maintain to buy all the rewards should VS cease? It’s existence relies on throughout of activity primarily from VS. Without VS, the loyalty entity is toast.

  • GaRy bus says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:21

    I never knew they did this . Or seen this mentioned anywhere. I’ll now look into Morrison’s

  • Craig says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:34

    Indeed?

  • Gomigo says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:36

    OT, can some one advice what should be I claiming in this scenario under S75 if worst happens to the airlines that I had made my purchase.

    I purchased a ticket for £550 in December last year but had to change the flight last minute so paid £150 change fee and fare difference of £75 for for a new ticket to fly in Easter. If the airlines goes to administration then under S75 rule, am I eligible to claim £550+ £150 +£75 or just £550 or only £75 + £150?

    • Lady London says:
      21 Mar21 March 19:37

      £625 would be fair.
      Hope there’s no small print in s75 that limits reimbursement to last payment or something. IIRC you’d be entitled to cost of replacement ticket even if different but availability might be the issue

    • Charlieface says:
      21 Mar21 March 20:15

      £550 + £75 for definite as that is the total ticket value. You may get also the £150 as that is also a cost to you. Alternatively ask for a new ticket instead of a refund, credit card would still be liable for that.

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