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Virgin Atlantic launches a new reward seat sale – save 20% on 90% of routes, for ALL of 2024

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Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red have teamed up to offer a 20% discount on reward flights to (almost) all Virgin Atlantic destinations.

Impressively, you can travel for ALL of 2024. These offers often come with tight travel windows so Virgin Atlantic is treating you here.

Premium and Upper Class flights are included, as well as Economy.

Flight upgrades are included.

‘2 for 1’ bookings made using a Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher are included.

Get 20% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

Taxes and charges are unchanged and remain high, with an Upper Class redemption to New York pricing at 76,000 Virgin Points + £996 off-peak. The 20% reduction in points from the usual 95,000 does take the edge off.

You need to book by midnight on 31st January, departing before 31st December. You can’t yet book for late December 2024 because Virgin Atlantic only allows you to book 331 days in advance.

The offer does not apply to the ‘we will open up any seat, any flight for double points for Gold members’ benefit.

Where can you go?

To give Virgin Atlantic credit, this sale includes (virtually) all routes, all classes and all bookable dates.

The only 2024 flights you can’t book are for the final few days in December which are currently not available due to the 331 day booking window.

The list of current routes (we think) is in the pricing chart below. These are all from Heathrow.

The only excluded Heathrow routes for the 20% discount are:

  • Tel Aviv
  • Delhi
  • Lagos

From Manchester you can book:

  • New York
  • Atlanta
  • Orlando
  • Barbados (seasonal)
  • Las Vegas (seasonal)

There is also Edinburgh to Orlando which operates in Summer-only.

Virgin Atlantic now guarantees that 12 seats are opened to redemption on every flight – two in Upper Class, two in Premium and eight in Economy Classic. Obviously some of these may already have gone, as some of these flights have been on sale for almost a year.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

What do Virgin Atlantic redemptions cost?

Here is the current pricing chart, EXCLUDING the 20% discount – remember that Tel Aviv, Delhi and Lagos are not included in the sale:

Return pricesStandard economyStandard PremiumStandard Upper ClassPeak economyPeak PremiumPeak Upper Class
Antigua20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Atlanta25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
Barbados20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Bengaluru20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
Boston20,00035,00095,00040,00055,000115,000
Cape Town25,00050,000115,00045,00085,000135,000
Delhi20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
Dubai20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
Grenada20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Jamaica20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Johannesburg25,00050,000115,00045,00085,000135,000
Lagos25,00045,000115,00045,00065,000135,000
Las Vegas30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Los Angeles30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Maldives (Male)25,00050,000115,00045,00085,000135,000
Miami25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
Mumbai20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
New York20,00035,00095,00040,00055,000115,000
Orlando25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
San Francisco30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Seattle30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Shanghai25,00045,000115,00045,00065,000135,000
St Lucia20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
St Vincent20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Tampa25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
Tel Aviv18,00032,00056,00022,00040,00066,000
The Bahamas20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Tobago20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Turks & Caicos20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Washington DC20,00035,00095,00040,00055,000115,000

You can find peak and off-peak dates on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Virgin Atlantic redemptions now earn tier points

Don’t forget that, unlike almost any other airline, redemptions on Virgin Atlantic earn you tier points.

On redemption flights, you will usually earn the following:

  • Economy: 25 tier points each way
  • Premium: 50 tier points each way
  • Upper Class: 100 tier points each way

You don’t earn Virgin Points on reward tickets, for obvious reasons!

You can learn about tier points on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

What can you expect flying Virgin Atlantic?

Virgin Atlantic now flies three different Upper Class seats. We have reviewed them all:

In addition to the usual amenities you’d expect form a business class flight, Virgin Atlantic aircraft also feature a bar or social space for Upper Class passengers – a unique feature that only the Middle Eastern airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways usually offer.

You’ll also get access to the impressive Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow, which we’ve reviewed here.

You can read our review of Premium on Virgin Atlantic here.

Economy redemptions book into Economy Classic with a 23kg checked baggage allowance.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

Conclusion

Virgin Atlantic has launched a major reward flight sale. What’s important is that (almost) ALL routes and ALL classes are included and that you have a full 11 months to travel.

You need to book by 31st January, for flights departing before 31st December 2024.

The savings should be live on the Virgin Atlantic website here – although we wrote this last night so we are trusting Virgin Atlantic to have done it. Just enter your destination and dates. To find reward flights, simply click ‘Advanced’ and select ‘Points’.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 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 – 30,000 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

80,000 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

Comments (101)

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

  • Ac says:

    Does anyone know whether there’s a timeline for when the Upper Class will be updated to all the new ones eventually? Like for BA how they are hoping all LHR flights will have it by new years.
    Wouldn’t mind using VS as a connection to Asia but the old UC really isn’t that appealing

    • Chris W says:

      Lol. Virgin haven’t announced any plans to update the 787 or A330 fleet so I would think it would be at least 5 years before they are all refurbished or retired.

    • Chabuddy Geezy says:

      Virgin need to decide if they will extend the leases on their 787s so currently there is no timeline to replace the seats.

      • MrSJ says:

        When are the leases up on the 787s?
        I get that the old Upper Class seat isn’t as good as the NEOs and A350s, but it’s not awful. Certainly much better than the old BA Club World, in my opinion.

        • Rob says:

          Another 5 years I think Rhys told me (he’s in Bogota at the moment). Going to a full Airbus fleet would have benefits of course but if they want more A350/A330neo to arrive within 5 years they need to get a move on, given the order backlog.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      The seats are crap and not something this community would rate. But VS has the bar on board the 787s that gets instagrammed to f*ck so oddly why would they care to rip out the seats when the bar novelty is doing the heavy lifting for them of attracting in J cabin first timers. I’ve lost count of the number of (relatively) young people in London who have said to me that their first J experience was/will be on VS.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        Very true. You can’t argue that it has worked and continues to work as a marketing tool – James Bond has sat at that bar after all; and being “cooler” than BA (not hard!) is still an effective marketing position for them.

        • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

          It was the crap one amongst Daniel Craig’s five though, which sullies it IMO

  • MrSJ says:

    Maybe not the place to ask this, but does anyone know if you can retrospectively add a Virgin 2-1upgrade voucher (using points) to an already booked cash flight?

    • Paul says:

      worth calling, Virgin are usually brilliant and flexible with applying vouchers on the phone.

    • DanGK says:

      I was told they were not doing that anymore but did it as a goodwill thing. Phone and ask – they might repeat it once per customer.

  • Andy says:

    A possibly niche question: I have already flown the first segment of a booking that uses a 241 voucher. Can I cancel the 2nd segment in the booking and rebook for a 20pc discount?

  • rob keane says:

    Think it is LONG past the time to stop calling it “taxes and charges” and just simply refer to it as what it is, cash. So 75K points plus £996, which is frankly ridiculous, but at least it stops this charade of an implied presumption that it is fundamental regulatory fees outside the airlines control.

    • rob keane says:

      i.e. The Etihad cash sale yesterday, £1199 to india, in comparision to this redemption “sale” by Virgin which is £996 to new york + 75000 points.

      • Rob says:

        You seem to be living in a parallel universe to the rest of us where business class flights to New York are bizarrely cheap and where the points option above isn’t a bargain – especially if you need some flexibility and very much especially if you don’t want to stay over a Saturday night.

        Even those Etihad fares are 13 hours each way which will put off a lot of people who would pay more for a direct flight (or do a Virgin Atlantic redemption).

        • rob keane says:

          I’d suggest the parallel universe is one where the industry wants to continue to throwback to a time where most of the cash component on a redemption was indeed taxes and airport fees etc, when in fact the real world is one where much of the cash component (and this virgin payment is a good example) is a cash payment straight to the airline.

          If you pay £1000 for something, its £1000, I don’t care, if part of it is an airport fee, security fee, a departure fee, an import duty a luxury tax or any other tax that it is impossible to reclaim. I can’t think of any other products in the uk aimed at consumers that charge cash, where there is an attempt to blame someone else for the charge.

          • Rob says:

            Fly on ITA then – £75 return business to New York.

            Or do Virgin out and Delta back (not to UK) which is £5 tax for the return leg.

          • rob keane says:

            “£75 return in business class”…. see how easy it is just to state the cash without tacking on the smokescreen of “taxes and charges” ?

          • Rob says:

            We only started saying ‘taxes and charges’ due to reader pressure.

          • The Savage Squirrel says:

            “I can’t think of any other products in the uk aimed at consumers that charge cash, where there is an attempt to blame someone else for the charge.”

            You can’t get out much then, or have bought any of hundreds of items ranging from takeaway food to event tickets in the last decade 😀

  • cin3 says:

    Given the issue is the cash component, this is utterly useless.

    • dougzz99 says:

      Unless you have money but are tight on points.
      You’re getting a flex business ticket for £1K and some points, and at the moment less points than before. What is utterly useless? You don’t have to travel on this airline, you don’t have to collect points, it’s all choice, just move on.

  • Chris W says:

    Rob would you say that given the huge surcharges Virgin impose, as well as the regular discounting of award rates for promos like this, that Virgin points don’t have that much value, compared with Avios?

    • Rob says:

      Reward rates are virtually identical to Avios if you choose the ‘original’ variant, and even looking at RFS, 180k Avios + £350 to NY is no better than 95k (now 76k) Virgin + £990 if you don’t have a 241.

      You can fly on ITA from Rome to much of the world for virtually nothing in taxes. Delta redemptions to Europe have £5 of taxes. Air France KLM give you a lot of options to the Middle East / Asia, especially if you are outside the Heathrow catchment area.

      Where Virgin Points are inflexible is short haul, because apart from Paris, Amsterdam, Prague and Rome your options are limited.

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

        They’re also inflexible because you have to call up to book partner flights when your booking process fails after taking payment card details. The ideal is to quietly book online at work/during a dull event.

      • will says:

        I personally find the AF/KLM options worth it alone, dug myself out of an expensive peak/last minute flight with those a handful of times.
        My personal experience of KLM as an airline and AMS as an airport is also excellent.

      • DanGK says:

        Are there any resources to find Sky Team availability with Virgin Atlantic? I put two random dates in to the Virgin search and get “Sorry, no reward flights are available for your search. Try using our Reward seat checker to find availability.#101638_A”. Their Reward seat checker only includes Virgin and Delta.

        • Rob says:

          You can try the Delta website, which bizarrely is literally the same as the Virgin one but actually works – and then call Virgin if Delta sees seats. This won’t work for Delta flights but does for partners.

  • Wendy says:

    Should be aware that there appears to be an issue with refunds on points bookings. So if you are thinking of cancelling and rebooking for the slight discount, keep in mind that some people have been waiting for months for the cash element to return to their payment method.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      Yep, I got a very long winded refund invoice doc this week and the payment refunded 4 days later for a cancellation made in November.

      • PeteM says:

        I had to do a chargeback via AmEx for my cancelled TVL flights in the end – they then emailed to say that was indeed the quickest option…!

  • PeteM says:

    Help me with my workings, please. If I book a Premium return redemption for one person to JFK in early May for 28,000 points + £536 and then apply a credit card voucher there would still be c£460 to pay to bring up the taxes to the Upper taxes total of £996, right? And I can do this despite having no VS status?

    • Rob says:

      That’s the net result, but to do it you must call Virgin and book the entire thing on the phone, being charged 28k + £996 for an Upper Class ticket. I did this last November.

      • PeteM says:

        Super useful, Rob, thanks – I was going to do the first bit online and then call. Glad I didn’t mess it up!

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