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NEW: Get up to 10,000 bonus Virgin Points when you book a Virgin Atlantic cash flight

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Virgin Atlantic has launched a generous Virgin Points bonus offer for anyone who books a cash flight in the next 10 days.

We don’t often see promotions like this for Virgin Points so it’s worth jumping in if you can.

Interestingly, it doubles up with the Virgin Atlantic ‘enhanced’ status match offer launched yesterday. Virgin Atlantic will match your BA Bronze card to Silver, your BA Silver card to Gold and your BA Gold card to, well, Gold.

Get up to 10,000 bonus Virgin Points when you book a cash flight

How many bonus Virgin Points can you earn?

You will earn:

  • 2,000 bonus Virgin Points for a return Economy Classic or Economy Delight booking
  • 5,000 bonus Virgin Points for a return Premium booking
  • 10,000 bonus Virgin Points for a return Upper Class booking

In terms of dates:

  • you must book between 9th February (today) and 18th February
  • you must travel between 10th February and 30th June

No registration is required. The bonus will be paid automatically as long as you book by 18th February.

There is no small print to catch you out, but I’d flag up:

  • only cash bookings receive the bonus, not reward bookings
  • one way bookings receive half the bonus points
  • Economy Light bookings do not receive a bonus
  • your flight must be Virgin Atlantic operated and marketed (ie carry a VS flight number and be on a Virgin Atlantic aircraft)
  • ‘Points Plus Money’ bookings are OK (ie cash bookings where you reduce the cost with Virgin Points)
  • cash flights which are upgraded with points or a credit card voucher will receive a bonus based on the cabin originally booked

This bonus represents a worthwhile return on the cheapest cash tickets. 10,000 points for an Upper Class booking is worth around £100 if redeemed for premium flights, based on our valuations.

Full details are on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Get up to 10,000 bonus Virgin Points when you book a cash flight

This offer is on top of the new status match promotion

This bonus points offer is running alongside a rare ‘enhanced’ status match opportunity for elite members of British Airways Executive Club.

Full details are in our article yesterday – click here. You can register here.

It is a simple deal:

  • you must have an existing Virgin Atlantic booking in Upper Class or Premium, or make one by 14th February (and this bonus points offer is a good excuse to book!)
  • your flight can be for any future date
  • cash OR REDEMPTION bookings count (it is not clear if a one way ticket is acceptable – I think it is)
  • your status will be upgraded 72 hours before your flight – this is actually a good thing, because Virgin Atlantic status works on a rolling year and this maximises the time you have to earn enough points to requalify
  • you must not have received a status match before – but you can apply if you previously held Virgin Atlantic status which you earned via flying

What match will you get?

This is how it works:

  • British Airways Executive Club Bronze members will receive Flying Club Silver status
  • British Airways Executive Club Silver members will receive Flying Club Gold status
  • British Airways Executive Club Gold members will receive Flying Club Gold status

Remember that having a cash OR POINTS booking with Virgin Atlantic is good enough to get you matched, but you must be booked into Premium or Upper Class.

You can learn more about the status match here.

You can find out more about the bonus Virgin Points offer on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

PS. I am writing this before the offer is live, on the promise that it will be showing first thing today. If it isn’t, check back later – although any cash booking made today will trigger the bonus regardless.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (October 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 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 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.

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.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (28)

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

  • Rizz says:
    9 Feb9 February 05:24

    An unrelated question, but a Virgin one:

    Why is award availability so wildly different through Virgin as compared to other Sky Team programs (e.g. KLM/AF Flying Blue). Is this something that will eventually get fixed?

    I’m sitting on a stash of VS miles but finding them hard to use because of that reason.

    • Rob says:
      9 Feb9 February 08:32

      Compared to who? FB makes all seats available to its own members but on a revenue basis (1c per mile or whatever) so you see flights at 1m miles. Alliance availability should not change.

      • Rizz says:
        9 Feb9 February 17:17

        For example China Airlines – booked some inter-Asia flights from/to TPE using Flying Blue – they were not showing through Virgin.

        Also some cheap KL/AF flights that were available through eg Delta but not through Virgin.

        • Jim Lovejoy says:
          9 Feb9 February 22:45

          China Airlines and many other SkyTeam partners you need to call in.
          Now for KL/AF flights that you can book through Delta you should see in VS.

          • Rizz says:
            9 Feb9 February 23:19

            Thanks, super helpful!

            Hopefully one day it will be possible to book them online…

  • Lou says:
    9 Feb9 February 07:53

    When was this launched? I booked flights yesterday, will I get the bonus?

  • Andrew. says:
    9 Feb9 February 08:13

    If chasing the discounts, both Barclaycard* and Virgin Money have a near-permanent rebate offer on Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays.

    At the moment I have 2.5% on Virgin Atlantic and 2% on Virgin Holidays with Virgin Money. It’s 1.5% on Virgin Holidays & Virgin Atlantic with Barclaycard*

    *Excluding Barclaycard Mastercard holders who aren’t eligible.

  • Chris says:
    9 Feb9 February 09:31

    Until when can you apply for the BA Status-March+upgrade? Can I book this weekend and submit my application next week? Reason: I should be hitting BA Silver early next week.

    • Rob says:
      9 Feb9 February 09:37

      14th is last date to ask for a match.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      9 Feb9 February 11:32

      It usually takes 3 days for a flight to post and then at least another 2-3 for a change in status to process so you may not have silver in time for this offer

  • Russell G says:
    9 Feb9 February 09:35

    Not sure how this can be described as “generous”, its 6% off maximum and that’s assuming you can fly the cheapest date return in premium economy. I’m really trying to get this and the other deal to stack up but honestly, BAEC, BAs T5 offerings, BA customer service and BAs deals with the Amex BAPP 241 and the Barclaycard mean that Virgin are going to have to go way beyond these two incentives to attract me away from BA. Gees, I mean even BA IT systems look good compared to Virgin (try searching for partner availability that’s not Delta). Add on top the OneWorld alliance is far stronger that SkyTeam. I’m sitting on a tonne of Virgin points (those award fees are crazy) and a couple of vouchers (2-4-1.5 for non gold in upper is weak) and every time I look at using them the BA alternatives are better. Am I missing something here?

    • cin3 says:
      9 Feb9 February 14:25

      It’s not generous.

    • Throwawayname says:
      9 Feb9 February 16:08

      The oneworld alliance is useless for Central/Eastern Europe, nowhere to be seen in Latin America, and has one African member airline which is extremely weak in both network and product. I suppose it’s a clear winner for those who want to travel within Australia and it’s also about to add MIAT Mongolian as a connecting partner, so that must explain why it’s so much better than Skyteam.

  • Hk747 says:
    9 Feb9 February 09:53

    From virgin regarding status match-

    ‘Instant Gold
    You need to be top tier of a competitor loyalty programme – Please provide proof of your valid top tier card or a screenshot of your digital card, which includes your expiry date.
    You need to have a future revenue flight booked with Virgin Atlantic in either Premium Economy or Upper Class -This has been provided. ‘

    Okay, I took a screenshot of the main screen, not the digital card but I had the full details of an Upper Class points booking so I assume they are saying that isn’t enough either.

    • Rob says:
      9 Feb9 February 10:28

      Points booking is totally fine if you are matching from BA. Not from any other airline.

  • paul-uk says:
    9 Feb9 February 14:44

    A £150 Gift Card for Virgin bookings over £3,000 with a smaller Gift Card for lower purchases

    https://www.groupon.co.uk/discount-codes/virgin-atlantic-airways

  • Jinesh says:
    9 Feb9 February 21:48

    Hi the article should be amended. Upgrade using points will earn the bonus for the originally paid flight NOT the cabin flown

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

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