Virgin Atlantic reward seats for 2024 have not appeared

In June 2022, Virgin Atlantic announced that it would guarantee a minimum number of reward seats for Virgin Points on all of its flights. This was a fantastic improvement to the programme.

You will now see:

• two seats in Upper Class (A350 review here)
• two seats in Premium (review here)
• eight seats in Economy

…. which become available as soon as ticketing opens. For Virgin Atlantic this is 331 days before departure, which compares with 355 days for British Airways.

Except, for 2024, they have not become available.

EDIT: 9pm Tuesday – Virgin Atlantic has now found a fix for their IT issue and the seats should be dropping in online.

Yesterday, Monday, cash tickets were bookable to 3rd January 2024. As far as I can tell, however, there are no reward seats in any class on any route available for travel after 31st December 2023.

Here is Economy class availability from Heathrow to Lagos for example:

It’s not clear if this is an IT bug, something to do with the upcoming SkyTeam migration or a change of policy. The head of Flying Club is away this week so I can’t get an immediate answer. We’ll let you know when we find out.

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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.)