FINALLY: Check progress towards your annual voucher in the Virgin credit card app

One of the criticisms of the two Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit cards was that there is no way of knowing how near you are to triggering your annual voucher.

Finally, and it has only taken them six years, a tracker has appeared in the Virgin Money app. (Thanks to ns for flagging in our forum.)

I will show you how to find it and then run through the benefits of the Virgin Atlantic credit card annual voucher again.

Remember that Virgin Atlantic recently made a permanent improvement to the sign-up bonuses on the two cards, and that a rule change now allows you to have BOTH cards and get two bonuses and two vouchers. We expand on this below.

To see your progress towards your next voucher you need to:

• open the Virgin Money credit cards app

• click on your card on the opening screen to go to ‘Your Summary’

• in ‘Your Summary’, click the ‘More’ button in the bottom right

• from that page, click ‘Rewards Lounge’

On the next screen you will see this:

In my case, I have already triggered my voucher for the current year so the progress bar is all the way to the end.

It’s a bit scrappy though. Whilst I have deleted the exact numbers, under ‘Remaining’ it shows a negative number because my current spend is already over £10,000 ….

This is a genuine improvement to the cards, and will save you from scrabbling through monthly statements trying to work out what you have spent since your card year ticked over.

And once you have your voucher ….

As of earlier this year, you can now see your unused credit card vouchers on the Virgin Atlantic website in the account section.

How do the Virgin Atlantic credit card annual reward vouchers work?

Let’s run over how the vouchers work again.

One of the key benefits of the Virgin Atlantic Reward and Reward+ credit cards is the annual reward voucher.

This voucher can be hard to get your head around. Is it a companion voucher? Is it an upgrade voucher? Is it a Clubhouse pass? Is it actually all three? And how do the rules change based on your Virgin Flying Club status?

How to earn a Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher

As a reminder, you receive a voucher:

• when you spend £20,000 per year on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card, or
• when you spend £10,000 per year on the fee-paying Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card

Vouchers are deposited into your Flying Club account within 30 days of hitting the spending target and can be used immediately.

The voucher is valid for 24 months, and you need to have booked and flown the outbound flight (if that’s what you’re redeeming for) within that time frame. Your return flight can be after the expiry date.

Unlike a British Airways American Express voucher, the expiry date – two years – is the same irrespective of whether you have the free or paid-for credit card.

What does the reward voucher do?

This is where things can get confusing, because you can use your annual Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher in a number of ways. These include:

• as a companion voucher, for cash tickets AND redemption bookings
• as an upgrade voucher
• as a Clubhouse lounge pass if you are a Silver or Gold Flying Club member

Let’s go through them one by one:

Using the Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher as a 2-4-1 companion voucher

One of the best value options is to use your credit card reward to redeem a companion ticket.

This lets you book two Virgin Atlantic tickets for the price (in points or money) of one. It can offer a massive saving on what you would normally pay.

The voucher is non-transferable and can only be used by the person who earned it, unless you have Gold or Silver status in Virgin Flying Club. A Gold or Silver member can gift their voucher to someone else.

Virgin Atlantic now lets you use the voucher for a points or cash booking, massively increasing flexibility.

The voucher works in the same way, regardless of whether you’re using cash or points to pay for your flight:

• there needs to be reward availability for the second seat in the class you want to book. You can check this on the Virgin Atlantic website here but you can see full calendar availability with a service like SeatSpy. This is important – if you have bought a cash ticket, you can only use your voucher to get a 2nd free ticket if a reward seat is available.

• you must pay taxes and fees on the second ticket, irrespective of whether the first ticket was bought for points or cash

The second point is worth noting, because the taxes and fees on a reward ticket can be quite steep. On a return flight from London to Los Angeles, for example, you can expect to pay:

• £288 in Economy
• £548 in Premium
• £1,020 in Upper Class

That said, a companion voucher still offers exceptional value, particularly in Upper Class. £1,020 to take a friend with you in Upper Class doesn’t seem bad.

Using the voucher for an Economy booking is poorer value, as cash tickets are often available for little more than the taxes and charges on a reward booking.

There’s one other catch. When used for a companion ticket in Upper Class, you’ll also have to pay 50% of the points needed for a standard Upper Class reward flight, unless you have Flying Club Silver or Gold status.

That means – in our example above – you’d also have to stump up up to 77,500 Virgin Points for your second ticket to Los Angeles if you did not have elite status. It’s really a ‘buy one, get one for half price’ voucher in this scenario.

This rules does not apply to Economy or Premium cabin flights. Here, you simply pay the taxes and charges on the second ticket – no extra points required – if you don’t have Virgin Flying Club status.

Using the Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher as an upgrade voucher

Another great use of your annual reward voucher is to upgrade a flight.

One voucher will upgrade a single round trip – or you can choose to upgrade two one-way flights for two people. The voucher can be used to upgrade to the next cabin, where there is reward seat availability, is available to all Flying Club tiers and can be part used on single leg journeys.

You can only use the voucher to upgrade by one cabin class – so from Economy Delight to Premium or Premium to Upper Class. (The only way to upgrade by two classes, from Economy to Upper Class, is to use Virgin Points.)

You can read our review of Premium on Virgin Atlantic here as well as our review of Upper Class on the A350 here. Our review of Upper Class on the new A330neo fleet is here.

You can upgrade both cash and redemption tickets.

Once again, there are a few ground rules:

• there needs to be reward availability in the class you want to upgrade to
• there does not (for a reward booking) need to be reward availability in the class you are upgrading from
• you need to pay any additional taxes and fees for the upgraded cabins compared to the one you booked

It’s easier to NOT think of this as an upgrade voucher but as a ‘book a reward ticket and pay either the cash or the ‘points and taxes’ for the next cheapest ticket class’ voucher. I admit that ‘upgrade voucher’ is snappier though ….

You can upgrade to all classes, regardless of your Flying Club tier. This means even Flying Club Red members can book into Upper Class, so long as you have bought a Premium ticket.

Using the Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher for a Clubhouse lounge pass

You can also trade in your credit card voucher for a Clubhouse lounge pass but only if you have Virgin Flying Club Silver or Gold status.

Whilst Virgin Clubhouses are very good (our review of the Heathrow Clubhouse is here) this is by far the least valuable way to spend your voucher.

The Clubhouse Pass is emailed to you as a code that you need to use when you check in to the lounge.

The pass is for one person only, for one visit. It is valid at any Clubhouse worldwide, although you need to be flying Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Air France or KLM internationally.

You cannot guest anyone in with you. If you’re a Flying Club Gold member, you get two passes instead of one if you choose this option, although that’s slightly redundant as you can use the Clubhouse anyway! It would only benefit a Gold travelling with three guests, as the Gold could guest one person regardless.

How to redeem your Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher

Once you’ve decided how and when to redeem your reward voucher you’ll need to call Virgin Atlantic to make the booking, as there’s no online functionality.

You get an improved sign-up bonus too

Earlier this year, Virgin Atlantic improved the sign-up bonuses on its two cards:

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The free card comes with a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points. There is no spend target to hit.

You trigger your annual voucher after spending £20,000. The voucher is valid for two years.

Our full review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard is here.

Click here to apply.

The representative APR is 26.9% variable.

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

The £160 per year card comes with a sign-up bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points. There is no spend target to hit.

You trigger your annual voucher after spending £10,000. The voucher is valid for two years.

Our full review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard is here.

Click here to apply.

The representative APR is 69.7% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 26.9% variable.

Remember that you can now have BOTH cards at once

If you have one of the two Virgin Atlantic credit cards, you can now apply for ‘the other one’ AND receive the sign-up bonus.

This would also allow you to earn a second voucher each year.

If you have recently cancelled one of the two cards, you cannot reapply for the same card until a six month gap has passed.

There are no restrictions if you have another Virgin Money credit card which does not earn Virgin Points. There are also no restrictions if you are currently a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s Virgin Atlantic credit card.

Conclusion

Virgin Money has finally made it easy to see how close you are to triggering your annual reward voucher on the Virgin Atlantic Reward credit cards.

If you don’t have one, you may now be persuaded to apply.

If you DO already have one, remember that you can now also apply for the one you don’t have and pick up a second sign-up bonus.

You can apply here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

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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):

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 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 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.)