News: get 20% off Harvey Nichols drinks, 100% bonus buying IHG points, win a Virgin cruise

News in brief:

Use your £50 Amex Platinum credit for two bottles of Harvey Nichols champagne, delivered

If you have an American Express Platinum card (Amex Platinum review here), you have a new benefit – £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols.

This is split into 2 x £50 credits, one for January to June and one for July to December.

Until 20th February, Harvey Nichols is offering 20% off most of its own brand wine and champagne.

The ‘food and wine’ home page is here.

This link takes you to the own-label champagne. It is reduced to £23.60 per bottle. Put two in your basket and, with UK delivery, it comes to £52.20. After the Amex Platinum credit, it costs you £2.20!

Remember to join the new Harvey Nichols Rewards scheme before ordering. Our article on why you should join Harvey Nichols Rewards is here.

Thanks to Andrew for flagging this in our forum. There is a dedicated thread on the Harvey Nichols / Amex Platinum offer here.

Get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points

IHG Rewards has launched a new 100% ‘buy points’ bonus, which is as generous as you ever see.  This is the first time that we have seen a 100% bonus since last October, assuming that everyone is offered the same target.

The maximum number of points you can buy is 300,000 (ie 150,000 plus the 150,000 bonus). 

The page to buy points is here.

With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy up to 300,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates for $1,500) £1,105.

I usually value IHG Rewards points at 0.4p.  You are paying 0.37p here so from that point of view you shouldn’t lose money. The skill is to use them at hotels where you can get substantially more than 0.4p per point of value, although this got a little harder since IHG moved towards revenue-based redemption pricing recently.

You can buy points via this link. The offer runs to 18th March.

Win a Virgin Voyages mini-cruise

Virgin Red is offering you the chance to win one of 10 cabins for two people on the second Virgin Voyages cruise ship, Valiant Lady.

You won’t be heading to the Caribbean, unfortunately. The prize is for a 3-night trip from Portsmouth to Zeebrugge and back, including a day in Zeebrugge itself – or Bruges or Ypres if you want to travel further afield.

There is a choice of travel dates between 18th March and 2nd May. All food and entertainment is included.

The competition runs across Virgin Red, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Money, Virgin Media, Virgin Active, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Experience Days, Virgin StartUp and Virgin Wines, with 65 cabins in total to be given away. If you are a customer of any of these businesses apart from Virgin Red, you will be contacted separately and given an additional chance to enter.

You can enter via the Virgin Red app or go to virg.in/vvcomp. The competition closes on 28 February 2022.

Our two-part in-depth tour of Scarlet Lady, the first Virgin Voyages ship, is here.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (March 2023)

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):

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 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points.

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

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. The bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

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.)