See Elton John in Manchester with your Virgin Points

One of the most interesting elements about the new Virgin Red loyalty programme is its suite at the AO Arena in Manchester.

Our introductory article on Virgin Red is here if you are not already a member. You can register here.

In the same way that Marriott Bonvoy has a suite at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, Virgin Red will allow you to see top acts from the comfort of their private suite at the AO Arena.

Tickets have now appeared for Elton John’s farewell tour, on Saturday 30th October.

(EDIT: Virgin has now confirmed that the date is the 30th and that the date originally showing in the app – 31st – was wrong.)

The cost is 70,000 Virgin Points. This is for TWO tickets for the Virgin Red suite. A car parking pass is also included.

70,000 points isn’t cheap, clearly. Based on my 1p valuation of a Virgin Point, you are ‘paying’ £700.

However, I am also realistic:

• lots of people are sitting on Virgin Points with little chance of a flight redemption in the short term

• if you obtained your points from business travel in the first place, you didn’t pay for them and may be less worried about value

• you could earn priceless brownie points for yourself by giving a loved one your second ticket for the Elton John concert

If you have not already downloaded Virgin Red, you will need to do so – registering using the same email as your Flying Club account – and then link it to your airline account via the options in the app.

To order tickets, open the Virgin Red app and scroll down the ‘spend’ page. You should see the image above.

If it isn’t there, the tickets will have gone. It is only a small suite and there are lots of HfP readers out there ….

If you do miss out, I would expect Marriott Bonvoy to have tickets for the concerts at the O2 at some point. Marriott Bonvoy give you free food and drink – Virgin Red expects you to pay ….

You can register for Virgin Red, if you are not already a member, via this page.

PS. If you are reading this but are not a regular Head for Points visitor, please consider signing up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters. They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and deals to improve how you travel. To sign up, visit this page of the site or click any of the ‘Subscribe’ links on this page. Thank you.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (January 2025)

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 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.)