What is the best Virgin Atlantic credit card for you?

Virgin Atlantic has two Virgin Flying Club credit cards, issued by Virgin Money.  They have proved hugely successful since their 2018 launch with, so I understand, over 200,000 applications so far.

Virgin Atlantic has permanently increased the sign-up bonus on the two cards. You will now receive 18,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase (there is no spend target) on the paid card, and 3,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase on the free card. This is up from 15,000 and zero points respectively.

On the back of this, I thought it was worth a ‘first principles’ look at the two Virgin Atlantic credit cards.

Remember that in early 2023 Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam airline alliance. This opened up many new airlines for earning and spending Virgin Points, including Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines for those looking to visit Asia.

You also need to know that Virgin Atlantic credit cards have no FX fees in the Eurozone – the only travel rewards cards to offer 0% FX in the region.

Full details are on the card website here.

In this article I want to run through the key benefits of both Virgin Atlantic credit cards side by side to help you decide which is best for you.

Here are the key features:

• You can choose between a free Virgin Atlantic Mastercard (3,000 points sign-up bonus) and a paid Mastercard (18,000 points sign-up bonus)

• You qualify for the bonus points as soon as you make your first purchase – there is no spending target to hit

• The earning rates are EXCELLENT.  You get 0.75 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the fee card.

• The Virgin Atlantic credit cards come with an annual voucher for Virgin Atlantic redemptions.  It is more powerful than the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher because the Virgin Atlantic voucher can also be used as a 2-4-1 or to upgrade a cash ticket.

• Solo travellers can choose, instead, to put their voucher towards upgrading a flight by one class.  This applies to BOTH cash and points flights.  You can go from Premium to Upper Class (the best deal) or from Economy Classic / Economy Delight to Premium.

• The vouchers are valid for two years

• You pay no FX fees on in-person spending in Euro, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei

Let’s look at the two cards in detail:

The FREE card – Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card

The representative APR is 26.9% variable.

As you can see from the picture above, the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card is pretty cool, as credit cards go.  There is NO information on the front.  No card number, no personal name (these are on the back) although there is the usual chip.  The card is coloured red on the edge which makes it stand out when you look into your wallet or card holder.

This is what you get (full details are on the Virgin Money website here)

• No annual fee
• A bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points when you make your first purchase
• 0.75 Virgin Points per £1 spent
• Double points on online or call centre bookings with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays
• 0% interest for six months on balance transfers (3% fee)
• Spend £20,000 in a card year and you will receive a voucher worth 75,000 Virgin Points (if you have no elite status) or 150,000 Virgin Points (if you have Silver or Gold status) – more on those below

You can apply for the FREE Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card here.

The fee card – Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card

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

This card is even cooler to look at, in my view, than the free card.  Again, your name and your card number are printed on the back, giving an impressive looking piece of plastic.  The card is also coloured red on the edges.

This is what you get (full details are on the Virgin Money website here):

• £160 annual fee
• A bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points when you make your first purchase
• 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 spent
• Double points on online or call centre bookings with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays
• 0% interest for six months on balance transfers (3% fee)
• Spend £10,000 in a card year and you will receive a voucher worth 75,000 Virgin Points (if you have no elite status) or 150,000 Virgin Points (if you have Silver or Gold status) – more on those below

You can apply for the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card here.

No foreign exchange fees in Europe

Whilst you will struggle to find any mention of this on the card website, the Virgin Atlantic cards are the only travel rewards credit cards which offer a partial respite on FX fees when travelling.

You pay no FX fees on in-person spending in Euro, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei.

This saves you 3% on your purchases and you earn Virgin Points on top. The 3% fee applies to transactions in all other currencies.

You receive an annual voucher when you hit a spend target

Your annual voucher is triggered IMMEDIATELY upon hitting the spending target.  The target is £20,000 in a card year for the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Credit card and £10,000 in a card year for the £160 Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card.

You can see details of your unused credit card vouchers on the Virgin Atlantic website. You will also see a line on your Flying Club account statement showing ‘Virgin Atlantic Credit Card Voucher – 0 points’ which confirms it has been issued. The voucher can only be redeemed by calling Virgin Atlantic.

Unlike British Airways American Express vouchers, there is no difference between the voucher you receive for spending £20,000 on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card and the voucher you receive for spending £10,000 on the £160 Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card.

Both vouchers are valid for two years and both vouchers have the same value.

How can you use your annual Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher?

There are two ways of using your voucher:

• if you bought a ticket, for either cash or Virgin Points, you can use your voucher to pay for a 2nd ticket (same flight, same cabin) for a companion
• if you are travelling alone, you can use your voucher to upgrade a cash or reward ticket by one class

Your voucher has a fixed value:

• Flying Club Red members can redeem their voucher up to a maximum of 75,000 Virgin Points
• Flying Club Silver or Gold members can redeem their voucher up to a maximum of 150,000 Virgin Points

The value of your voucher will be calculated by your status at the time of booking, not when you fly or when you receive the voucher.

No ‘change’ is given if you use your voucher for less than its maximum value.

Let’s talk about ‘dynamic pricing’

In October 2024, Virgin Atlantic opened up ALL seats for points redemption. However, most are priced at stupid levels, eg 700,000 Virgin Points plus £1,000 of taxes and charges for an Upper Class return flight.

The only good value flights are ‘Saver’ flights. These are priced at substantially lower levels and are no more expensive than reward seats were under the old structure. Virgin Atlantic does NOT guarantee to release ‘Saver’ seats on all flights, however.

You can top up your voucher

You can use your voucher even if it doesn’t cover the full amount of the companion ticket or upgrade, as Virgin Atlantic will let you top it up.

For example, if you book an Upper Class reward ticket to New York for 170,000 Virgin Points for yourself, you could book a second ticket for (170,000 – 75,000) 95,000 Virgin Points if you have no elite status, or (170,000 – 150,000) 20,000 Virgin Points if have have Silver or Gold status.

For a companion ticket, full taxes and charges are payable. For an upgraded ticket, additional taxes and charges may be payable if there is a difference between the cabin you booked and the cabin you are now flying in.

You can’t use your voucher for a totally free ticket for yourself

You cannot use a credit card voucher for a straight 75,000 or 150,000 points discount on a ticket for yourself. If you are travelling alone and only using points, you need to pay the points cost of the cabin below the one you wish to fly in and then use your voucher to cover the difference between the cabins.

For example, let’s assume an Upper Class ticket is 130,000 points and a Premium ticket is 50,000 points. You CANNOT use a 150,000 points to cover the full cost of the Upper Class ticket. You need to spend 50,000 points booking the Premium ticket and then use the voucher to cover the upgrade.

Which Virgin Atlantic credit card is best for you?

As usual, there is no easy answer to this question.  Here are my thoughts.

The free Reward credit card has a very good earnings rate of 0.75 Virgin Points per £1.  This isn’t as good as the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard, which earns 1 Avios per £1, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

The paid-for Reward+ credit card is also worth considering, especially for higher spenders.

Purely from a bonus point of view, you are spending £160 to get 18,000 Flying Club points which is a decent deal. And, of course, when you spend on the Reward+ card at the generous 1.5 points per £1 earning rate you do very nicely.

The on-going earning rate is EXCELLENT

Let’s not beat around the bush.  Looking first at the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card, 0.75 Virgin Flying Club points per £1 spent is a very generous return.

The only free card which beats it is the free Barclaycard Avios Mastercard which earns 1 Avios per £1 spent.

There is no other ‘open to all’ Visa or Mastercard which offers frequent flyer miles at a rate anywhere near this.

On the fee-based Reward+ credit card, I would value 1.5 Virgin Flying Club points per £1 at 1.5p which is a great return if you spend enough to justify the fee.

Again, the only card which matches this in terms of rewards is the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard. This earns 1.5 Avios per £1.

There is one bit of small print to note. The number of points you can earn per month is capped by your credit limit. If your credit limit is £5,000 and you choose to spend £4,000, pay it off mid-month and then charge another £3,000 before month-end, you will only earn points on the first £5,000.

You can now redeem Virgin Points across the SkyTeam alliance

In March 2023, Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam alliance. This opened up the following airlines for spending Virgin Points:

• Aerolíneas Argentinas
• Aeromexico
• Air Europa
• Air France
• China Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Garuda Indonesia
• ITA Airways
• Kenya Airways
• KLM
• Korean Air
• Middle East Airlines
• SAS
• SAUDIA
• TAROM
• Vietnam Airlines
• Xiamen Air

China Eastern will be added later.

You can read about how to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam partners in this article.

For clarity, you cannot use the 2-4-1 or upgrade vouchers from the credit card on SkyTeam partners.  They are only valid on Virgin Atlantic flights.

There is no dynamic pricing for partner redemptions with reward seats still priced off a chart. You know in advance what you will need. However, you will need a decent stock of points – more than your initial 18,000 credit card miles – to take advantage of SkyTeam redemptions.

The good news is that you can also earn Virgin Flying Club points through transfers from other partners:

• American Express Membership Rewards from Amex Gold or The Platinum Card (1:1)

• Tesco Clubcard (1 Clubcard point = 2 Virgin Points)

• Heathrow Rewards (1:1)

• Transfers from hotel loyalty schemes

There are also lots of partner promotions which we write about on Head for Points.  You CAN build up a decent stock of miles relatively easily – the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold has a 20,000 point sign-up bonus which will convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

Conclusion

From the perspective of day-to-day earning, the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are excellent.

From the perspective of the annual reward voucher, the ability to use it for your choice of a 2-4-1 trip, an upgrade or Clubhouse lounge access gives you exceptional flexibility.

If you are a casual Virgin Flying Club collector, 0.75 points per £1 spent on the free card will see your balance move along.  However, you would get better value from paying £160 for one year for the Reward+ card to get the 18,000 points bonus and the 1.5 points per £1 spent.

You can apply for the FREE Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card (3,000 Virgin Points bonus) here and the paid-for Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card (18,000 Virgin Points bonus) here.