You can now earn and spend Virgin Points via Virgin Red – and get 500 bonus points

Virgin Red, the new ‘all Virgin’ loyalty programme, had a soft launch in November. The only people who were allowed to join in the first three months were members of the old ‘Virgin Vaults’ app.

As of today, Virgin Red is open to everyone. You can join here.

If you have a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account, you can sign up here. Once you have joined, you can download the Virgin Red app and link it to your Flying Club account. (Use the same email address as you use with your Flying Club account.)

Even if you are not currently a Virgin Flying Club member, you can register with Virgin Red from today and begin to collect Virgin Points. The link is here.

The Virgin Red app gives you new ways to earn and spend Virgin Points.

For clarity:

• it is not compulsory to register for Virgin Red if you collect Virgin Points via Virgin Flying Club, but

• you will be missing out on new ways of earning and spending Virgin Points if you do not join Virgin Red

How can you EARN Virgin Points via Virgin Red?

To be honest, the list of earning partners with Virgin Red is not very different to those currently offered by Virgin Flying Club.

Octopus Energy is the main addition.

Here is the list of earning partners:

• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin Holidays
• Virgin Wines
• Virgin Limited Edition hotels
• Virgin Experience Days
• Virgin Voyages (the new cruise business)
• A Virgin shopping portal
• Octopus Energy – you will be able to earn Virgin Points by taking out a single or dual fuel tariff for your gas and electricity with the well-regarded 100% renewable power company

What about Tesco Clubcard?

Whilst Tesco Clubcard is NOT listed as a Virgin Red partner, it is not going away. It will remain part of the Virgin Flying Club offering.

Many other partners, such as American Express, will remain Virgin Flying Club partners and will let you earn Virgin Points even though they will not be promoted via Virgin Red.

How do you receive 500 bonus Virgin Points?

You can join Virgin Red here.

Once you have registered with Virgin Red, you will receive 500 bonus points with your first ‘earn’ transaction triggered via the app.

The bonus does not apply to earning from external partners such as American Express. It must be from a transaction made through the Virgin Red app, such as a Virgin Wines order.

The points from your transaction must be credited by 31st July 2021 in order to trigger the 500 bonus points.

This offer is only available to new Virgin Red members. If you signed up before today you will not receive the bonus.

How can you SPEND Virgin Points via Virgin Red?

The spending list is more interesting. If you live near Manchester, there is an especially good one which I will come to in a minute.

Here is the most bizarre one:

Greggs. Yes, Greggs, king of the sausage roll, will now accept your Virgin Points if you register with Virgin Red.

In time you will be able to redeem Virgin Points for 37 different Greggs products. At the moment, the redemptions are:

• 325 points for any Greggs hot drink

• 200 points for a Greggs sausage roll

• 200 points for a Greggs doughnut or muffin

• 300 points for a Greggs savoury item (a ‘bake’ or pizza)

• 385 points for a Greggs Breakfast Roll Deal, which gets you any single filling roll plus a regular hot drink, 250ml orange juice or 500ml water

You redeem via the Virgin Red app for a code. The code has a 30 day life and should be shown at the till in-store.

Other redemption partners include:

• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin Holidays
• Virgin Wines
• Virgin Limited Edition hotels
• Virgin Experience Days
• Virgin Voyages, the new cruise business
• Virgin Money Giving – for those who want to give their points away
• London Theatre Direct
• EMI Records – order vinyl records (Taylor Swift’s Lover is currently available for 4,250 points, Emeli Sande’s Real Life is 3,000 points)
• Eve Branson Foundation – order an artisan tote bag or small soft camel from 1,750 points
• Various charitable causes
• Virgin-related books – the current offering is ‘Virgin By Design’ for 6,250 points (£27 on Amazon – click here, £40 RRP)

Further down the line will be redemption opportunities with Virgin StartUp. This will allow you to order products made by companies supported by Virgin’s small business investment scheme.

The first company from Virgin StartUp available on Virgin Points is Saint Fragrance. Saint Fragrance sells mood-enhancing luxury candles that are vegan friendly and made with sustainable ingredients. They are available for 6,250 points. This is one of the better value redemptions as the candles sell for £42, which works out at 0.67p per point.

There are some interesting companies backed by Virgin StartUp. I have met some of them at Virgin Atlantic events, such as Change Please Coffee, as some are on-board suppliers. It would be good to see more redemptions like this.

And if you live near Manchester ….

This is, for me, the most interesting new redemption option.

Virgin Red has purchased a suite at the AO Arena in Manchester. Tickets for concerts and events at the AO Arena are available to Virgin Red members for Virgin Points.

Regular HfP readers will know that I am a big fan of the Marriott Bonvoy Suite at the O2 Arena in Greenwich. I have redeemed Bonvoy points for numerous sold-out concerts here (U2, Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Sting, Celine Dion [my wife insisted], Katy Perry, Madonna etc – good old Dad Rock!) from the spacious suite, which comes with a hot buffet and a free waiter-served bar.

Only two concerts are currently bookable.

• for 65,000 Virgin Points, you can book two tickets to see Celine Dion on 15th April

• for 20,000 Virgin Points, you can book two tickets to see Blossoms on 3rd April

The Virgin Red suite does not come with free food and drink, although you can order items for delivery to the suite. You will also receive a car parking pass for the Arena and can use the Prime Experience Suiteholders Entrance.

Conclusion

If you are a Virgin Flying Club member, you should sign up here and then download the Virgin Red app (use the same email as your Flying Club account when you register) and link your accounts.

The app is lacking personality at the moment, which is a surprise given how successful the old Virgin Vaults app was at building user interaction. It is still early days, however.

You will immediately have access to some new redemption options, although Greggs is the most exciting one at the moment.

More promising for those who earn a lot of points is the option of spending them to see top acts in a private suite at Manchester’s AO Arena.

Remember, however, that virtually all of the redemptions are only worth 0.5p per Virgin Point. You will continue to get substantially better value, hopefully 1p+, by redeeming for premium cabin flights via Virgin Flying Club.

As a reminder of what I said earlier:

• it is not compulsory to register for Virgin Red if you collect Virgin Points via Virgin Flying Club, but

• you will be missing out on new ways of earning and spending Virgin Points if you do not join Virgin Red

You can find out more about Virgin Red, and register, on its website here.

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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):

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

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.)