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Virgin Atlantic delays the relaunch of Orlando flights

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Unsurprisingly, Virgin Atlantic has pushed back the relaunch of its Orlando services.

The Heathrow service will now start on 10th December, using an A330-300.

Virgin Atlantic delays relaunch of Orlando

The Manchester service will relaunch on the same day, also using an A330-300.

Both services are scheduled to operate daily, although clearly a lot can still change before then.

Remember that you earn double Virgin Points on all Virgin Atlantic flight bookings made by 15th October – full details here.

HFP Virgin Atlantic Rewards credit card

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (June 2021)

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, one has a bonus of 15,000 Points):

Virgin Rewards credit card

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review

Virgin Rewards Plus credit card

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and the most generous non-Amex for day to day spending 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:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes 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.)

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Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (36)

  • ChrisW says:
    6 Oct6 October 06:37

    Who on earth would be going to Orlando in December???

    • Doug M says:
      6 Oct6 October 07:33

      Agree it seems a strange one. Not an obvious freight route either. Cash tease maybe? But the volume of people prepared to book a December flight given the current situation I’d have thought was trivial.

      • ChrisW says:
        6 Oct6 October 08:14

        Is it technically illegal to sell tickets to flights they have no intention of operating purely to collect cash and they delay refunds as long as they possibly can?

      • Nick says:
        6 Oct6 October 14:20

        @Doug, you’d be surprised how much cargo goes through Orlando (well, not once you’ve thought about the reasons anyway). Miami is a major cargo gateway to south America. But while the US will allow ‘Freeport’ transshipping through a single airport, anything moving overland has to be landed and formally im/exported first. It’s such high volumes that what VS/BA do is fill up MIA flights with connecting freight, and use MCO for anything actually heading to Florida/Alabama.

        Added to that of course are the fairly large volumes of second home owners / British expats across Florida, many of whom have taken green cards or US passports, are exempt from travel restrictions, and want to go for winter.

        • Doug M says:
          6 Oct6 October 20:07

          Do you have any references to cargo and MCO, I couldn’t find anything after 2017 when it was the 29th in the USA in terms of tons of cargo. Memphis is top, which is all about FedEx. I’ve thought about it and I still don’t know why MCO would be a big cargo base.
          Is second home owners seriously going to fill 2 x A330-300 daily?

    • TripRep says:
      6 Oct6 October 08:10

      If you had FL residency and owned your own property there?

  • mradey says:
    6 Oct6 October 06:50

    Christmas Vacation?

    • ChrisW says:
      6 Oct6 October 07:08

      They don’t allow British travellers entry, travel insurance is invalid in a country with some of the most expensive healthcare in the world, and Florida is one of the worst covid hotspots on the planet. Plus 14 days quarantine on return the U.K.

      Merry Christmas!!

      • Henry says:
        6 Oct6 October 07:17

        Surely this will be all over by Christmas!

      • J says:
        6 Oct6 October 08:01

        A lot of British people own property there?

      • Andrew says:
        6 Oct6 October 08:40

        That’s not exactly true.

        If you are the right kind of British traveller, there’s no problem whatsoever with entry or healthcare. There is the inconvenience of quarantine, but sometimes the reason for travelling is more important than the incovenience in either direction.

      • Jessiefan says:
        6 Oct6 October 09:09

        Fake news! Daily cases in Florida are no worse than UK and on a steep downward curve…unlike the UK

        • Anna says:
          6 Oct6 October 09:12

          That’s good to know. Florida might be a possibility for next Easter if we can surmount all the hurdles associated with foreign travel by then!

          • Jessiefan says:
            6 Oct6 October 09:22

            Yes! I’m looking at using up some points for a trip EDI-ATL next Easter. SO long as FCO restrictions are lifted then there’s very little risk if you stay away from houseparties and busy bars.

          • Anna says:
            6 Oct6 October 09:45

            Though NY Times is reporting that Florida’s infections have increased 16% in the last fortnight!

          • MT says:
            6 Oct6 October 10:05

            I’ve booked avios redemptions from DUB to MCO on Lingus for Spring Half Term in May. Hotels are v cheap looking right now even on flex rates. Will only loose a hundred or so if we need to cancel.

          • Genghis says:
            6 Oct6 October 10:50

            @Anna Not sure how useful percentages are in this. If a small villages has 1 person and then has 3, that’s a 200% increase.

          • Anna says:
            6 Oct6 October 11:46

            Ghengis, I get your point but I wouldn’t really compare Florida to a small village!

        • Rob says:
          6 Oct6 October 09:16

          I doubt there are many places on the planet where the infection rate is higher than the 500 per 100k in Manchester ….

          • Anna says:
            6 Oct6 October 09:46

            I know! I think I’m the new Harry T. My last 3 trips were to Newcastle, Solihull and Manchester 🤦‍♀️

          • TGLoyalty says:
            6 Oct6 October 09:48

            They must all have been on holidays to Ibiza and Mykonos. The virus doesn’t spread in the UK …

          • Lady London says:
            6 Oct6 October 12:48

            Seriously, what is causing this in Manchester?

          • dezbez says:
            6 Oct6 October 21:57

            On my son’s new Fallowfield campus, it’s 558 out of approx 3,500….
            They’ve been there less than three weeks

          • dezbez says:
            6 Oct6 October 22:04

            Figures across all the other campuses across the city total approx 1,500, which actually means students account for 50% of total cases (if you assume m/cr pop = 600k)

          • TGLoyalty says:
            6 Oct6 October 23:00

            @LL

            you are constantly told ONLY to get a test if you had symptoms yourself or if told by a health care professional. Yet Schools and universities had been telling everyone to get tested regardless of symptoms.

            So it’s not like for like

            Also as the economy opens up and people return to life there will be more symptomatic cases.

  • ChrisBCN says:
    6 Oct6 October 08:16

    Thanks for the Santander news, one I will look at closely! The current Iberia Icon credit card (€90 per year) gives the same benefits as the Santander deal (equivalent to BA bronze) – the pay a little bit for a little bit of status seems to be the model!

    • marcw says:
      6 Oct6 October 09:15

      Be aware that the criteria to have a “free” (new) ONE Santander bank account is hefty: you need to pay in your salary/pension, + at least 3 direct debit, +mortgage/insurance or investment. If you don’t meet the requirements, there will be at least a monthly 10€ fee. This does provide you the bare minimum: if you want status and additional perks, expect to pay on top a minimum of 4€ per month. The “new” Santander Avios card will give you 1 Avios every 3€ spend on the card.
      Do you honestly pay 90€ per year to have the ICON card? Have you not learnt the Spanish way? call, say you are planning to leave and question what they can provide? They have different options, including pay full fee + free 9.000 Avios, 50%/75%/100% discount on the fee, extra Avios per months,… oh! the same applies to Amex Spain.

      • AndreasJ says:
        6 Oct6 October 09:42

        Marcw what’s the best you usually get for threatening to cancel AMEX Gold in Spain? Gracias

        • marcw says:
          6 Oct6 October 09:49

          Either 50% discount on the fee, or you pay full fee + 1MR point for each (fee)eurocent

      • ChrisBCN says:
        6 Oct6 October 10:02

        No, I don’t pay the €90 fee

  • James says:
    6 Oct6 October 11:04

    Many people all over the world, including British, travel to Orlando in December and all year around. It’s always busy there. Regarding Covid 19, UK isn’t safer than Florida. And Corona isn’t worse than regular seasonal flu. One should be careful anyway but not panicking

    • Anna says:
      6 Oct6 October 11:48

      I think for many of us at this stage, it’s not the fear of catching COVID that’s preventing us booking trips to the US, it’s the fact that we’re still not allowed in and even if we were we may well not be insured.

      • Bagoly says:
        7 Oct7 October 12:19

        At the beginning of Covid the most likely to happen risk seemed to be that one would be denied boarding if one had ordinary ‘flu or something else causing a temperature.
        Is that still a risk, or have they stopped checking temperature when arriving at airports?

  • ADS says:
    8 Oct8 October 09:50

    “This is a genuine expense to Eurostar – it represents the track access charges per passenger that Eurostar has to pay”

    Is it though ?

    Do we really know how much they actually pay per passenger ??

    • Rob says:
      8 Oct8 October 09:55

      Someone who used to work there told me it used to be £15, so very likely it is now £16 each way.

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