How to use Virgin Points for a Virgin Holidays discount (Virgin Redemption University #8)

Is it worth redeeming your Virgin Points to pay, in full or in part, for a Virgin Atlantic Holidays package?  Let’s take a look.

This article is Part 8 of our new ‘Virgin Redemption University’ series to run alongside our existing ‘Avios Redemption University’ – which itself will get a much-needed update next month.

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.

Here are the other 12 articles in the series:

• How does Virgin Red differ from Virgin Flying Club?
• How many Virgin Points do you need to fly to ….?
• How to redeem Virgin Points on Virgin Atlantic flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on ANA and other partners
• How to upgrade your Virgin Atlantic flight with Virgin Points
• How to convert Virgin Points to Hilton or IHG hotel points
• How to redeem Virgin Points for hotel rooms via Kaligo
• Is Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Points Plus Money’ feature a good deal?
• What’s the best non-flying use of Virgin Points?
• What is the cheapest way to top up your Virgin Points?
• Get cheaper Virgin redemptions with a credit card voucher

If you are struggling to find redemption flights, Virgin Atlantic Holidays has a feature that might interest you – the ability to pay, or part pay, for your holiday using your Virgin Points.  But is it a good deal?

Full details can be found on this page of the Virgin Flying Club website.

If you want to learn more about Virgin Atlantic Holidays, however, you need to go to their own dedicated website here.

What value do I get for my Virgin Points?

Virgin Atlantic Holidays does not make this information easy to find.

You don’t discover the rate until you make a booking, start to input the guest names and then input your account number in order to earn Virgin Points from the booking.  It is only at that point you are offered the chance to spend Virgin Points too.

The deal is as simple as it gets.  You receive a £16.50 discount on your Virgin Atlantic Holidays package for every 3,000 Virgin Points you spend.  This works out at 0.55p per point.

Long term readers may remember that, when this offer launched five years ago, it offered £18 per 3,000 points.  There has been a quiet devaluation.

You can use miles irrespective of whether you book online, in a Virgin Atlantic Holidays store or by telephone.  You can also use Virgin Points to pay down an existing holiday balance, via Virgin Atlantic Holidays ‘Manage My Booking’ page.

There is no restriction on how many points you can use.  If you have enough, you can pay for the entire holiday with points.  This is one of the strongest benefits.

You can get extra perks at Virgin Atlantic Holidays as a Flying Club member

Before I look at whether 0.55p per Virgin Point makes sense, I wanted to remind you that there are extra perks for Virgin Flying Club members who book with Virgin Atlantic Holidays.  You get these whether you pay with cash or points.

Depending on the colour of your Flying Club membership card:

• Red members (you get Red just for signing up) – earn 2 Virgin Points for every £1 spent on Virgin Atlantic Holidays or a Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ package

• Silver members – earn 3 Virgin Points for every £1 spent on Virgin Atlantic Holidays or a Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ package

• Gold members – earn 4 Virgin Points for every £1 spent on Virgin Atlantic Holidays or a Virgin Atlantic ‘flight and hotel’ package

You would also earn double Virgin Points on your credit card spend if you paid with a Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card. The free card would earn 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 (usually 0.75 Virgin Points) and the paid card would earn 3 Virgin Points per £1 (usually 1.5 Virgin Points).

This is a rich offer. A Gold member with the Reward Plus credit card would earn 4 Virgin Points per £1 from Virgin Atlantic Holidays plus 3 Virgin Points per £1 from Virgin Money plus Virgin Points on the holiday flights, assuming they were with Virgin Atlantic or a partner.

You also earn tier points when you book

The lead booker (and only the lead booker) will also receive Virgin Flying Club tier points, at the rate of 20 points for every £500 spent.

You can earn a maximum of 400 tier points per holiday.

You earn this on top of any tier points you will receive if your Virgin Atlantic Holidays booking contains a Virgin Atlantic or partner airline flight.

Is it good value to use your Virgin Points at Virgin Atlantic Holidays?

No, not really.  I look to get around 1p per mile from my Flying Club points when redeeming for premium flights so the idea of accepting 0.55p via this route is not attractive. I also don’t like the lack of flexibility on a package holiday booking compared to a fully refundable flight and hotel redemption.

0.55p per point is better value than using your Virgin Points for Kaligo.com hotel redemptions, Virgin Vouchers or similar non-flying redemptions.  It is also better value than transferring your points into IHG One Rewards or Hilton Honors points, or redeeming them for 95% of the deals available in the Virgin Red app. On that basis, it is OK.

However …..

• Imagine you earn your Virgin Points via Tesco Clubcard.  You would be using £1 of Clubcard vouchers for 200 Virgin Points, worth £1.10 of holiday discount.  This is not a very impressive return given some of the other Clubcard deals out there.  £1 of Clubcard vouchers would get you £2 of Hotels.com credit for example.

• Imagine you earned your Virgin Points via Heathrow Rewards.  You would be giving up £1 of Heathrow shopping vouchers for 55p of holiday discount!

On the other hand, there are upsides:

• You have no problems with reward availability.  You can book any holiday offered by Virgin Atlantic Holidays with no restrictions on dates or travel class.

• You can pay for the entire cost of your trip including all taxes and charges.  If you have enough points, you can genuinely get a totally free holiday.

If you earn all of your Virgin Points from flying for work – so you haven’t actually paid anything for them at all – then Virgin Atlantic Holidays is an option to consider.

If you earned your Virgin Points from the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card, Virgin Atlantic Holidays isn’t a bad option.  At 0.75 points per £1, you’d be getting 0.41p of holiday discount per £1 spent on your card.  This isn’t a terrible deal given that most cashback Visa or Mastercard cards only return 0.2% or worse.  In fact, I am surprised that Virgin Atlantic Holidays hasn’t launched its own credit card offering a similar level of reward.

You can find out more about using Virgin Points for a Virgin Atlantic Holidays discount on this page of the Virgin Flying Club website.  If you want to learn more about Virgin Atlantic Holidays, their website is here.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (September 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Virgin Points. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Virgin Points. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

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.)