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Virgin offering extra bonuses to Reward and Reward+ cardholders when booking flights

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Virgin Atlantic has launched a short-term promotion for holders of its Reward and Reward+ credit cards.

This offer runs to 31st October. If you are planning to book a Virgin Atlantic flight or Virgin Atlantic Holiday before 31st October, you may want to apply for a credit card before you do so.

You apply for the Virgin Atlantic credit cards here.

Extra bonuses for Virgin Atlantic credit cardholders

What is the deal?

It comes in two parts.

The first part is for all Virgin Atlantic Reward and Reward+ credit card holders.

All cardholders will receive double miles when bookings flights or Virgin Atlantic Holidays before 31st October.

Bookings must be made directly with the airline or via the Holidays website to qualify.

‘Double miles’ means 3 Virgin Flying Club miles per £1 spent on the free Reward card and a whopping 6 miles per £1 spent on the Reward+ card.

Extra bonuses for Virgin Atlantic credit cardholders

The second part is even more interesting.

Holders of the Reward+ card (the one with the £160 annual fee) with also receive a free Virgin Atlantic upgrade voucher.

There is a minimum spend of £500 required at either Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Atlantic Holidays.

The upgrade voucher is valid for 24 months and allows the cardholder to upgrade either one return flight or (if two are travelling) one leg each of a return flight.

You can upgrade from either Economy to Premium or Premium to Upper Class. There must be reward seats available in the higher class and additional taxes and charges may be due.

This is a very attractive offer for Reward+ cardholders, especially as the upgrade could be worth more than the £500 minimum spend required to earn it. The two year validity period is also very useful.

The only problem, unless you want to take a punt on a US route for travel in 2021, is finding a route to book …..

Cardholders will receive an email from Virgin Atlantic very soon outlining the offer in detail. It runs until 31st October.


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 (42)

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

  • Tom says:

    As a Reward+ holder with a large miles balance that I can’t use at the moment, I am slightly concerned this relentless campaign by VA means the limited supply of reward seats won’t be able to keep up with the surge in demand. Post pandemic I can see it being extremely difficult to get any decent redemptions as is the case with BA. If they’re trying to stimulate demand for flights why not look at ways of doing this that don’t just relate to their frequent flyer programme? It’ll just be funny if, having not cashed out to Hilton when insolvency looked all but certain, I end up doing just that anyway as I can’t use the miles!

  • insider says:

    It does feel like VS are storing up a lot of problems for themselves in the future!

  • New Card says:

    Seems like there might be some interesting interactions at play given your earlier article. Say you wanted to go to Vegas/Caribbean in UC. Sounds like you could book a £500 Virgin Holiday but pay with 90,000 miles instead of cash, then get an upgrade voucher worth 80,000 miles (= price difference between PE and UC to Vegas). Net result is you’ve paid 10k miles for £500 worth of Virgin Holiday?

  • WaynedP says:

    Just received the offer, and am tempted.
    I acknowledge the points made about potentially squeezing availability of future reward flights, but can’t help admire Virgin’s creative thinking.
    Am also reminded of how much better I feel after a VA flight with their good product offering.
    Perhaps when it comes to future staff morale and predisposition towards passengers, VA might be ahead of the competition…

  • James. says:

    Little concerning Virgin and throwing these reward vouchers everywhere. I was over the moon with how the vouchers could be used in the future but seems like any chance Virgin and offering vouchers.

    Is this a ploy to get more custom or water down the rewards?

  • Harold R says:

    Is there a double points promotion for regular credit card spend?

  • Jimmy says:

    Virgin Atlantic is fast becoming the best loyalty scheme out there. BA needs to sort itself out.

    How long after spend does the upgrade voucher last? Could do it for the same trip?

  • Adam says:

    This could be the conversion cherry on the cake for me. Just this week I’ve been weighing up booking a summer 21 NYC city break (most likely US travel corridor?). I already have one voucher so I like I can leverage my miles even more. I’m also happy to take the booking risk and cash flow hit. Fortunately she doesn’t see my credit card statement.

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

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