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Virgin Atlantic news: save 20% on Economy redemptions, IndiGo codeshare extended

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Two bits of Virgin Atlantic news:

Save 20% on Economy redemptions on selected routes

Virgin Flying Club has launched a short term sale on flight redemptions.

It is quite restrictive:

  • you must book by 27th April
  • you must fly outbound by 31st July (Tel Aviv 31st May)
  • only valid in Economy
  • only valid on Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Johannesburg, Tel Aviv
  • full taxes and charges are due

You can combine this discount with a Virgin Atlantic credit card 2-4-1 voucher.

There is a chart showing the peak and off-peak points prices for each route on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

If you want to earn more Virgin Points, our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard credit card is here (15,000 bonus points) and our review of the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card is here.

Virgin Atlantic Indigo codeshare flights

Virgin Atlantic expands its codeshare deal with IndiGo

Virgin Atlantic’s flights to the Indian subcontinent originally started as a way to mop up traffic during covid, when its bread-and-butter routes to the United States were blocked from carrying tourists.

Whilst it has operated to Delhi since 2000, flights to Lahore, Islamabad and Mumbai were launched in Autumn 2020. Whilst Lahore and Islamabad are being dropped, this is reportedly due to the inability to get money out of Pakistan rather than low loads.

Virgin Atlantic is sticking with India and has forged a relationship with Indian airline IndiGo to offer better connections. IndiGo is India’s largest airline and operates under a low-cost model.

The codeshare deal began last year when Virgin Atlantic added its flight numbers to IndiGo flights to these Indian cities:

  • Ahmedabad
  • Amritsar
  • Bangalore
  • Chandigarh
  • Chennai
  • Coimbatore
  • Goa
  • Hyderabad
  • Indore
  • Jaipur
  • Kochi
  • Kolkata
  • Nagpur
  • Pune
  • Vadodara
  • Vizag

The following destinations have now been added, allowing you to book a ticket from the UK to any of these destinations on a single booking. You will earn additional Virgin Points and tier points for the connection.

  • Allahabad
  • Bagdogra
  • Bhopal
  • Bhubaneshwar
  • Goa Mopa
  • Guwahati
  • Gwalior
  • Jabalpur
  • Jammu
  • Jodhpur
  • Kanpur
  • Leh
  • Lucknow
  • Patna
  • Raipur
  • Ranchi
  • Srinagar
  • Surat
  • Varanasi

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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):

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 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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.)

Comments (10)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Manya says:

    When did the discount on economy redemptions start?

    Would have been good to know of this discounted redemption alongside when Virgin were running the buy points promo which ended yesterday.

  • m.s. says:

    Before you book flight with Virgin & codeshare Indigo you might need to check waiting time for Indian cities as it could be between 4 hours to 10 hours @ Delhi and Mumbai airport for Indigo connecting flight.

    • anuj says:

      Yep this is the issue, it’s a shame indigo haven’t synced some of their flights to virgin’s arrival times.

  • gs_mit says:

    Good, Virgin successfully expanded 19 more PoC airports in India. They need to add 15 more 2Mn+ plus airports notably Trivandrum, Kannore, Mangalore, Trichy, Madurai, Tirupati, Hubli and Vijayawada in south and the rest spread out in other regions. This will cover the whole sub continent with in 100 mile drive.

    • KP says:

      I really doubt they will be able to divert traffic away from Emirates especially from south India. They should focus on targeting BA customers from Tier 1 cities and some Tier 2

      • gs_mit says:

        Indigo ordered 500+ planes this year, which is combined fleet strength of Emirates and BA, similarly Air India also ordered 500+. They want to serve the western markets directly or with a max of 1 stop in Europe to USA completely bypassing the ME. Hence Virgin would benefit out of it. Tier2 cities like Coimbatore have more engineering R&D compared to even a decade back. Bosch and ZF has largest R&D division in Coimbatore than in Stuttgart/ Freidrichshafen combined.

  • paul says:

    Not surprised.

    Just had return LHR – LAX in UC which was full.

    Walked the plane mid flight to find Premium around 80% but Economy was less than 20% full.

    Do the armrests fold away in A350-1000 as sure 3 seats would be far comfier than UC flat bed !!!

  • 09R says:

    Does anyone know if the discount applies to gold awards?

    • Rob says:

      Not the ‘double points’ rewards, I saw that in the small print I was sent.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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