LAST DAY: Get a 30% Virgin Points bonus when you convert Amex Membership Rewards points

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has been running a 30% bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into Virgin Points.

The offer ends today, Thursday 21st November.

It is very, very rare to see an American Express airline transfer bonus in the UK so this is worth serious consideration.

The usual transfer rate is 1 Virgin Point per 1 Membership Rewards point. Under this offer, you will receive 1.3 Virgin Points per Membership Rewards point.

Given our 1p valuation of a Virgin Point when used for premium cabin Saver flights, this means you are getting 1.3p per Membership Rewards point.

Before we get into the details, here is the small print:

• the offer only applies to UK-domiciled Membership Rewards accounts, for both personal and business American Express cards

• the offer ends today, Thursday 21st November 2024

• there is no minimum transfer to receive the bonus, apart from the usual ‘Amex to Virgin Points’ minimum of 1,000 Membership Rewards points

• you can receive the bonus on multiple transfers

• the bonus should post alongside the standard points, and transfers from American Express to Virgin Points are usually instant unless additional security checks are required

This offer can be found on the Virgin Red website

This offer is not listed on the Membership Rewards website.

You can verify it exists, however, from this page of the Virgin Red website or by looking in the Virgin Red app where you should see it in the activity section in your account.

If you want to test the offer, do the smallest 1,000 Membership Rewards points transfer. This should post immediately as 1,300 Virgin Points instead of the usual 1,000. You can then go back and do a larger transfer.

Here is a test transaction I did when the deal launched which shows it works. Here is a screenshot from the Amex website showing a 1,000 Membership Rewards points transfer to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club:

I then went into my Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account and could immediately see the 1,300 Virgin Points showing:

Is this a good deal?

We value airline miles at 1p when used for a premium cabin redemption, so this bonus would increase our estimated value per Membership Rewards point to 1.3p.

As it happens, we recently ran a 13-part series of articles on how to spend Virgin Points. Click through to read:

• How does Virgin Red differ from Virgin Flying Club?
• How many Virgin Points do you need to fly to ….?
• How to redeem Virgin Points on Virgin Atlantic flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on ANA and other partners
• How to upgrade your Virgin Atlantic flight with Virgin Points
• How to convert Virgin Points to Hilton or IHG hotel points
• How to use Virgin Points for a Virgin Holidays discount
• How to redeem Virgin Points for hotel rooms via Kaligo
• Is Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Points Plus Money’ feature a good deal?
• What’s the best non-flying use of Virgin Points?
• What is the cheapest way to top up your Virgin Points?
• Get cheaper Virgin Atlantic redemptions with a credit card voucher

Note that a couple of these articles need reworking to reflect the move to dynamic pricing for Virgin Atlantic redemptions.

How to use this offer alongside Virgin Atlantic’s big changes

As we have covered extensively, Virgin Atlantic made substantial changes to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club on 30th October.

The key change is that reward pricing for Virgin Atlantic flights switched to a new model.

Instead of the previous fixed price reward chart, subject to peak and off-peak dates, the scheme adopted ‘dynamic pricing’.

There are two levels of dynamic pricing. ‘Saver’ rewards will be available in every cabin and priced at no more than historic reward pricing, with flights to New York from 6,000 points one-way. However, there will no longer be a guarantee that any particular flight, class or route will have ‘Saver’ seats – and as our research showed, there are very few available in Upper Class.

There are good deals on some routes – New York, for example, has a lot of Upper Class Saver seats at just 29,000 points each way during the first half of 2025.

All other seats – every seat in every cabin – are available for points, albeit at a far higher price point than a ‘Saver’ reward.

What do we recommend?

Even if you are disappointed with the recent changes to Virgin Flying Club, this 30% transfer bonus may still work for you:

• it allows you to top-up your remaining Virgin Points before emptying them out on a final redemption

• it removes the sting from the new pricing levels by effectively reducing the points cost of a flight by 30%

Remember that partner airline flights are unchanged

Just because reward flights on your preferred route may no longer be feasible on Virgin Atlantic, it absolutely does not mean that you can’t get good value flight rewards with Virgin Points.

All other redemptions continue to price off the old-style redemption charts. You know how many points you need, and the level doesn’t move from day to day (or even flight to flight).

Air France and KLM can get you pretty much anywhere you want to go via a change in Paris or Amsterdam, and you have other SkyTeam partners such as Delta, Korean and Vietnam Airlines to work with too.

Take a look at these two articles for more information:

• How to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on ANA and other partners

Keen to use your points for something other than a reward flight?

If you don’t fancy a flight, that’s not a problem!

Here are some examples of the many other redemptions available with Virgin Points via Virgin Red:

• two tickets to see Slipknot in the Virgin Red Room at The O2 in London (image above) on 20th December are 50,000 Virgin Points – this would only require a transfer of 38,147 American Express Membership Rewards points

• a £200 Eurostar voucher is 40,000 Virgin Points – this would only require a transfer of 30,770 American Express Membership Rewards points

• a two-night off-peak stay at Sir Richard Branson’s Mont Rochelle resort in the Western Cape in South Africa is 60,000 Virgin Points – this would only require a transfer of 46,154 American Express Membership Rewards points

• a Virgin Voyages sailing starting from 140,000 Virgin Points – this would require a transfer of 107,692 American Express Membership Rewards points and gets you a 4-nighter in the Caribbean

Note that transfers from American Express must be made in multiples of 1,000 points.

Conclusion

It is very rare to see a conversion bonus from UK American Express Membership Rewards to an airline, so this offer is worth serious consideration.

If you’re not familiar with what you can do with Virgin Points, the articles I listed above are a good place to start.

Even if you no longer feel that Virgin Atlantic redemptions are suitable for you, due to the lack of Saver seats in premium cabins on key leisure routes, there is still a lot of value with partner airlines.

You can find out more about the 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Points on the Virgin Red website here or in the app.

You need to transfer your points by tonight, 21st November, to receive the 30% bonus.

PS. Don’t forget that you will not see the offer showing on the American Express Membership Rewards website. If you are unsure, do a test transfer of 1,000 Membership Rewards points first, check that 1,300 Virgin Points have arrived in your account and then follow up with a larger transfer.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Virgin Points. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Virgin Points! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

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.)