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Get a 70% bonus when you buy Virgin Points – worth it?

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Virgin Atlantic is repeating its biggest ever deal for buying Virgin Points – see here. The offer runs until 7th July.

To put this in perspective, before 2020 Virgin Atlantic had never even run a 50% bonus. 15% to 30% was the best you could expect. 50% was big but the current 70% is huge.

The bonus depends on how many points you buy:

Get a 70% bonus buying Virgin Points
  • 5,000 to 24,000 points – 20% bonus
  • 25,000 to 69,000 points – 40% bonus
  • 70,000 to 124,000 points – 60% bonus
  • 125,000 to 200,000 points – 70% bonus

The maximum number of points you can buy is 200,000 which is double the normal annual cap.

At the top end, 200,000 Virgin Points, which comes to 340,000 points with the 70% bonus, will cost you £3,000.  This works out at 0.88p each.

0.88p is exceptionally cheap for a direct miles purchase. Most Virgin Atlantic commercial partners will be paying the airline more than 0.88p for their miles. That said, as always, we don’t recommend buying speculatively.

Virgin Atlantic has now joined the SkyTeam airline alliance. This has opened up redemptions across new partners such as Aeromexico, Czech Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines. SAS will be added later in 2024. This article explains what it costs to redeem Virgin Points on the new SkyTeam partners.

The link to buy points is here.

The 70% bonus offer runs to 7th July. The discounts will then drop to 20% / 30% / 50% / 60% depending on quantity and continue at this lower level until 4th August.

If you want to earn more Virgin Points more cheaply, our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard credit card is here and our review of the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card is here.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (November 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

30,000 bonus points (TO 18 NOVEMBER) 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

Huge 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

(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 (28)

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

  • Peter K says:

    I wonder, is this Virgin points offer another sign of a softening in the market, especially going west?

    • BBbetter says:

      Travel demand has fallen in general. It was always going to be unsustainable to be spending ‘covid savings’ on ‘revenge travel’.
      But whats interesting is public appetite for trying premium cabins has gone up.

  • James says:

    Devaluation soon

  • Kevin says:

    I am on the Qatar flight Q-suite Doh to Man at 8am today but at 7am whilst in the lounge they changed aircraft from a Q-Suite aircraft and e-mailed saying I have been swapped seats as Q-suite is no longer available I can rearrange my flight once for free to a Q-suite? Although unfortunately I can’t undo the other half of my journey with 1 hour notice!

    • Nick says:

      Unless your seat type was contractual (e.g. they specifically said ‘q suite guaranteed on this flight’) then no, you have no right to change it. You can ask of course, but it would be as a customer service gesture and it’s fairly unlikely they would agree. They’ll still get you there safely and with their full service.

      • K says:

        They emailed me to say it was my right to change to another Q-suite flight. My point was it’s not really practical when you are already waiting in the lounge.

  • TimM says:

    70% off Virgin’s taxes fees and charges would be more appreciated. Buying points off them feels like making a large, interest-free deposit for which you have to pay to get your money back.

  • Robert says:

    OT I’ve received 100 tier points from my finance card, does anyone know why I’ve got this?
    Guessing it’s come from BAPP, as remember reading something about it ages ago and thinking the spend targets were insanely high, yet 100 TPs have dropped and no email to tell me why or how I’ve received them. Thanks in advance.

    • Tracey says:

      It was a BAPP spend.

      100 Tier Points when you spend £15,000; 150 Tier Points when you spend £20,000; 200 Tier Points when you spend £25,000. Spending by 21/5/24.

      • Robert says:

        Thanks Tracey, I must’ve only just qualified. Scary that much spend through the card, must cut back on Pret & Costa! At least it goes towards my lifetime TP collection, as this year I’m not renewing my usual 600/1500 targets for BAEC and lettting it lapse while they launch the new renewal dates and structure for earning as I heard it’s all going to be through spend soon anyway.

  • Paul says:

    Qatar offer flash sales every well and yet the sale fares become more and more ludicrously expensive. I now jut delete their email

  • OnTheRun says:

    Can a Virgin account holder use their points to book for someone else (when the account holder is not travelling themselves)?

    • Rob says:

      Yes. If you have status you can even transfer your credit card voucher I think.

  • El Capitano says:

    Anyone spot any headlining descent fare on QR?

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

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