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Book a 14- or 16- day transatlantic Virgin Voyages cruise from 280,000 Virgin Points

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Got two weeks free at the end of this month or in December? Excellent, because Virgin Voyages is running a generous redemption offer.

You can book a 14 night full board Virgin Voyages cruise from Barcelona to Miami for just 280,000 Virgin Points for two people.

Alternative, book a 16 night full board Virgin Voyages cruise from Rome to Miami for just 320,000 Virgin Points for two people.

If you don’t have 280,000 Virgin Points in your account, you can buy the extra here. You should still come out ahead. There is a 70% bonus running at the moment too.

Virgin Voyages

What’s included with your cruise?

The cruises are full board. All your meals, soft drinks, fitness classes, entertainment etc are included – even tips.

The following are not included:

  • alcoholic drinks, although package deals are usually offered before departure allowing you to prepay for drinks credit at a discount if you wish
  • flights and transfers – you’ll need one-way flights to Rome or Barcelona and one-way flights back from Miami
  • someone to look after your children back home – these are adults only trips

A lot of HfP readers have jumped on these redemptions in the past. The feedback in our forum has been fantastic – from young and old, from those who wanted a bit of a party to those who simply wanted a quiet break after a tricky couple of years. There is a Virgin Voyages master thread in our forum for your Q&A.

If you are short of Virgin Points, options include:

  • transferring Tesco Clubcard points (should happen overnight)
  • transferring American Express Membership Rewards points (should be instant)
  • transferring Heathrow Rewards points (not clear about timeframe)

What is the itinerary?

The first departure, on Resilient Lady, is on 27th October and looks like this:

  • Day 1 – Barcelona. Departs at 5:00pm.
  • Day 2 – Sailing
  • Day 3 – Casablanca. Arrives at 9:30am, departs at 10:00pm.
  • Day 4 – Sailing
  • Day 5 – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Arrives at 9:00am, departs at 8:00pm.
  • Day 6 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife. Arrives at 8:00am, departs at 5:00pm.
  • Day 7 – Sailing
  • Day 8 – Sailing
  • Day 9 – Sailing
  • Day 10 – Sailing
  • Day 11 – Sailing
  • Day 12 – Sailing
  • Day 13 – Sailing
  • Day 14 – Sailing
  • Day 15 – Miami. Arrives 6:30am.

You will get a Central Sea Terrace or The Sea Terrace cabin, depending on availability.

Full details are on the Virgin Red website here or in the app.

Virgin Voyages

The second departure is on Scarlet Lady, departing on 28th November. It goes like this:

  • Day 1 – Civitavecchia (Rome). Departs at 6:00pm.
  • Day 2 – Sailing
  • Day 3 – Barcelona. Arrives at 8:00am, departs at 10:00pm.
  • Day 4 – Sailing
  • Day 5 – Malaga. Arrives at 8:00am, departs at 6:00pm.
  • Day 6 – Sailing
  • Day 7 – Funchal, Madeira. Arrives at 9:00am, departs at 5:00pm.
  • Day 8 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife. Arrives at 11:00am, departs at 10:00pm.
  • Day 9 – Sailing
  • Day 10 – Sailing
  • Day 11 – Sailing
  • Day 12 – Sailing
  • Day 13 – Sailing
  • Day 14 – Sailing
  • Day 15 – Sailing
  • Day 16 – Sailing
  • Day 17 – Miami. Arrives 6:30am.

You will get a Central Sea Terrace or The Sea Terrace cabin, depending on availability.

Full details are on the Virgin Red website here or in the app.

Cruises from Miami are bookable too

Virgin Red has also added a batch of Caribbean cruises departing from Miami. I won’t run through those but you can find details in the Virgin Red app.

Prices start from 140,000 Virgin Points per cabin and include a $100 bar tab.

How to book

If you want to find out more about Virgin Voyages, here is our report from an afternoon on ‘Scarlet Lady’, the first ship in the fleet.

If you want to top up your balance by buying Virgin Points, the link is here.

You can book via the Virgin Red app or online. Once you have redeemed you are sent a code, and you use that code to book on the Virgin Voyages website.

Read the instructions carefully before booking – you need to check there is still a relevant cabin available for cash before ordering your booking code, and once it arrives you should book ASAP before the availability disappears.

You should be offered the chance to upgrade your cabin for cash nearer the time of departure if you want something larger than a Sea Terrace.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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. 

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (32)

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

  • Mark says:
    13 Oct13 October 04:26

    I currently live in Singapore. I have 30.9k miles that I struggle to find a use for given Virgin is most North America / Europe heavy. Any suggestions?

  • Ian says:
    13 Oct13 October 04:32

    Undertaken many transatlantic cruises – but I would never after September.

    Weather is likely to be poor with weather systems coming across the Atlantic.

    This will be a more southerly route, which will help – but I will skip.

    If they offer cruises in the spring back again, they will be much better.

    • Andy says:
      13 Oct13 October 06:03

      We did a transatlantic with VV last year – Barcelona to Miami. 29th October to 12th November. Millpond conditions 90% of the time. There was a bit of swell around Madeira but the Captain avoided the worst. It had no impact on the crossing at all – and I’m definitely a landlubber. The ‘Ladies’ are modern vessels with good stabilisation. If you want a couple of weeks to relax or work (yes – I had to work, wifi the whole way) these are hard to beat.

    • Mikel says:
      13 Oct13 October 07:09

      Not many major cruise line TA’s before September tbh. I completed my first TA last November from Barcelona and it was excellent. Atlantic was on its best behaviour and it was warm and sunny most days.

    • mkcol says:
      13 Oct13 October 07:21

      I did my first cruise on Adventure of the Seas in November 2014, as a Southampton to Puerto Rico repositioning taking 14 nights.
      It was brilliant and other than bit of heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay was calm the rest of the way. The further south you go, as with these, the calmer the waters. There’s a reason there’s an area called the doldrums.

  • DW says:
    13 Oct13 October 05:49

    For those of us who don’t have any Virgin accounts … How much does 280k Points costs to buy?

    • Andy says:
      13 Oct13 October 06:19

      With current 70% promo, £2475. The cash price for a Sea Terrace on the 14 night crossing is £3922.

      • Ryan says:
        13 Oct13 October 06:59

        Coming up £2,800 for me for the cabin (Sea Terrace Limited) for the 14 night cruise. Therefore not quite the deal from previous years but still decent at 1p per point.

        Wonder if they will have a decent Black Friday / Singles Day offer this year.

        • DW says:
          13 Oct13 October 09:57

          I also find sometimes travel agents can get much better pricing than the VV official website

          • Colin MacKinnon says:
            13 Oct13 October 10:02

            I always use cuisecompete.com – leave it a few days and some very good quotes come in.

  • JM says:
    13 Oct13 October 06:00

    Days 9-16 of sailing would get boring for me. I went last year on one of the Med cruises and it was great, but the one day of sailing was enough. Would rather take a flight and use those seven days at a destination instead.

    • Andy says:
      13 Oct13 October 11:11

      Not for you then. Transatlantics do appeal to a particular type of traveller. It’s most definitely a time to relax & do very little. Although there’s plenty going on besides the food options soon no way boring.

  • executiveclubber says:
    13 Oct13 October 06:52

    We could just about manage a week on these boats, any more and the food would get pretty monotonous!

  • Roberto says:
    13 Oct13 October 07:17

    I have done 3 virgin voyages and its a warm weather cruise company in my limited experience. As such a transatlantic in November/December would not be something I would suit me for a holiday. However the wifi is good and if you’re looking for somewhere a little different to “WFH” and have miles to burn then it might be a fun trip albeit rough in places.

    Certainly a bit dearer than my first 7 day VV around the med @ 80,000 miles.

    • mkcol says:
      13 Oct13 October 07:22

      For the majority of the crossing the weather will be Canaries-like.

      • Roberto says:
        13 Oct13 October 07:29

        Prehaps , I live in Spain and its tipping it down in Malaga this morning. Rain expected in the Canaries this week. Even if it not raining November/December wont be warm weather.

        • mkcol says:
          13 Oct13 October 07:40

          Clearly living in Spain our perceptions of what is warm will be significantly different.

          • roberto says:
            13 Oct13 October 08:16

            TRUE. ..That’s a fact thats clearly lost on me .

            Anything in the teens or lower is “cold” to me. Visiting the UK in the last few days and waking up in Southend-on-Sea (Essex) where it was 3° at 7am was a bit of a shock to my senses!!!

  • mkcol says:
    13 Oct13 October 07:23

    With about a month’s sick leave starting today, this could work well as a recuperation cruise 😊

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    13 Oct13 October 10:11

    When the 747s were introduced, London to New York was scheduled faster than when BA withdrew them. It seemed the more important thing than “time in the air” was being able to get to the airport early, get through security and get work done in the lounges.

    Ten years ago, transatlatic “repositioning” voyages were cheap as chips – it was a long time to be out of touch. Now, with work from home and Starlink internet, it seems they are becoming more popular and prices are going up.

    However, I see Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 leaving New York for Southampton on 25 October, with a balcony cabin at £1,534 for single occupancy and £905 per person for dual occupancy (even cheaper for an inside cabin).

    Now with no jet-lag and WFH possibilities, that compares really well with business class airfares!

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

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