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How to earn status tier points on Virgin Atlantic redemption flights

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Back in September 2020 – so it was easy to miss at the heart of the pandemic – Virgin Atlantic become the first airline in the world to give you tier points when you booked a redemption flight using your air miles.

This allows you to earn elite status in Virgin Flying Club without necessarily ever purchasing a cash ticket! This could, in theory, be possible if you earned all your Virgin Points from credit cards or other non-flying partners.

Indeed, my wife and children will have Virgin Atlantic Silver status by May because we will have done two Upper Class redemptions inside five months. None have ever taken a paid Virgin Atlantic flight.

Virgin Atlantic gives tier points on redemption miles flights

This was a genuine shake up for the industry. Virgin Atlantic said at the time that it wanted to ‘ensure members are rewarded every single time they choose to fly with Virgin’. I’m a little surprised that British Airways has not yet followed, potentially by letting Reward Flight Saver fees count for tier points under the new structure.

How do you earn tier points on Virgin Atlantic flight redemptions?

This is how it works:

  • You only earn tier points when you redeem on Virgin Atlantic flights. It does NOT apply for redemption flights on partner airlines, even when those flights are codeshares with Delta, Air France or KLM.
  • You do NOT earn tier points if you redeem miles from other programmes for Virgin Atlantic flights. You cannot book a Virgin Atlantic ticket using Flying Blue or Delta SkyMiles and earn tier points. Only tickets booked with Virgin Points count.
  • The tier points you earn are based on the lowest amount offered for that ticket class. For example, if you book a cash ticket in Economy on Virgin Atlantic, you would earn between 25 and 50 tier points each way. On a redemption, you earn 25 tier points each way.
  • You do not earn redeemable Virgin Points when you fly on a reward ticket. You only earn tier points.
Virgin Atlantic gives tier points on air miles free flights

How many tier points will I earn?

You can learn about tier points on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

On redemption flights, you will earn the following:

  • Economy: 25 tier points each way
  • Premium: 50 tier points each way
  • Upper Class: 100 tier points each way

How many tier points do I need for Virgin Atlantic status?

There are two elite tiers in the Virgin Atlantic programme:

Silver status

Silver requires 400 tier points in a rolling 12 month period.

The key benefits are free seat selection in Economy Light, use of premium check-in and 30% bonus points on cash flights. You do NOT get lounge access.

Your Virgin Atlantic credit card annual voucher is now worth 150,000 Virgin Points instead of 75,000.

You can see full details of Silver status on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Gold status

Gold requires 1,000 tier points in a rolling 12 month period.

Virgin Atlantic offers tier points on redemption miles flights

The key benefits are access to Clubhouses and the Heathrow Revivals lounge, use of Upper Class check-in, use of the Upper Class drive-thru wing in Heathrow Terminal 3, additional luggage allowance and 60% bonus points on cash flights.

Your Virgin Atlantic credit card annual voucher is now worth 150,000 Virgin Points instead of 75,000.

You can see full details of Gold status here.

Note that, unlike British Airways Executive Club, Virgin Atlantic status is initially earned on a rolling 12 month basis. There is no defined ‘year end’. Instead, each time you earn tier points, Virgin looks back at the previous 12 months and if your tier point total takes you above the tier threshold, you are promoted.

Once you earn Silver status, you move to a fixed year. You have 12 months to earn enough tier points to renew. If you don’t, you drop back to the base level and back onto the rolling basis.

Is this a good deal?

Yes. You can’t argue that this is an excellent opportunity to earn Virgin Atlantic status.

Realistically, I doubt many people would redeem enough miles on Virgin Atlantic to be able to progress beyond Silver status if they had no cash flights as well.

Of course, once you have earned some tier points using ‘non flying’ miles, you may well be tempted to buy some cash tickets to push you over the next status tier.

For people who already fly Virgin Atlantic for cash and manage 400 to 600 tier points per year, Gold status could now be within reach. It would only take a couple of Upper Class redemptions within a 12 month period.

Virgin Atlantic offers tier points on redemption miles flights

There is an interesting link to Virgin Atlantic credit card vouchers

When Virgin Atlantic moved to ‘dynamic redemption pricing’ last year, it changed how the annual credit card voucher worked.

As a reminder, you receive a voucher each year when you spend £20,000 on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card (3,000 Virgin Points sign-up bonus, review here) or £10,000 on the £160 Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card (18,000 Virgin Points sign-up bonus, review here).

The voucher is usually worth 75,000 Virgin Points off a flight for a companion or off a flight upgrade for a solo traveller. When you have Silver or Gold status, the value of the voucher increases to 150,000 Virgin Points.

Interestingly, Virgin Atlantic allows you to have BOTH of its credit cards and earn two vouchers per year. You’d need to have £30,000 per year of Mastercard spending to do this of course – £10,000 on the paid card and £20,000 on the free card.

Earning two vouchers per year would open up an interesting cycle.

You generate two vouchers per year …. you redeem them for two Upper Class redemptions per year …. you earn 400 tier points from these redemption flights to retain Silver …. you use your Silver status to maximise the value of the next set of vouchers you earn …. and so on.

In theory, you could permanently keep your Virgin Atlantic Silver status by doing two Upper Class redemption trips per year. Keeping that status means that your future credit card vouchers are worth 150,000 Virgin Points each which makes it easier to take two more redemptions and continue the cycle.

You can find out more about earning tier points from redemption flights on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

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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 (43)

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

  • Guillaume says:
    24 Feb24 February 03:35

    “I’m a little surprised that British Airways has not yet followed.”

    Hmm… If you followed the recent developments with the BA Exec Club, you wouldn’t be surprised 🙂

    • zapato1060 says:
      24 Feb24 February 06:00

      Swoosh.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      24 Feb24 February 06:55

      Due to HfP commitments to sustainability many articles are recycled. This one was written a few years back with only minor alterations.

      • Rob says:
        24 Feb24 February 07:03

        I deliberately kept that in. It wasn’t an oversight. I thought BA could easily make RFS spend count towards status.

        • Barrel for Scraping says:
          24 Feb24 February 07:43

          Actually it’s not as silly as it sounds. Now status on BA is revenue based it makes Avios less attractive if you need to spend every pound on chasing status. Also they’re trying to get people to pay real cash for Avios using things like subscription and Avios boost. The more I think of it the more I agree that BA has to offer something for redemptions in the new Avios world

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            24 Feb24 February 07:59

            If they had included earn TPs from reward flights in the new scheme it might have taken some of the anger away.

        • LittleNick says:
          24 Feb24 February 08:42

          Would they not then have to deduct Tax and airport charges from the RFS fee to determine TPs earnt from the reward fare? So you’d potentially be left with peanuts

          • Rob says:
            24 Feb24 February 09:05

            No because RFS fees are not linked to taxes and charges – indeed on short haul are lower than the actual taxes and charges.

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            24 Feb24 February 09:57

            They could just give a fixed number. It doesn’t have to be thousands of points but something.

            I don’t know but something like 50 for economy and 150 for club on short haul and more for long haul.

        • PH says:
          24 Feb24 February 22:44

          I spend over the new silver threshold per year on reward flights (both paying the cash component and buying Avios) but it seems my ‘reward’ is the flexibility to change/cancel til T-24h (which is not insignificant!)

    • daveinitalia says:
      24 Feb24 February 08:20

      What BA needs to do is come up with a value for Avios and use that as the ‘revenue’ for each rewards booking. Otherwise there’s just no incentive anymore to spend them on flights if you’re also wanting status. I’d normally only use Avios once I knew my status was secure for another year

      • LittleNick says:
        24 Feb24 February 12:52

        I’d rather they didn’t come up with a avios value as that could open another can of worms in relation to potential value for tax etc, still rather avios remain the property of BA with no cash value 🙂

  • Dominic Barrington says:
    24 Feb24 February 04:12

    I’m making my first US business trip on Virgin/DL/AF, as a refugee/divorcee from BA following the great cull. Today I’ve just flown a pair of domestic DL flights in the mid west, and was bemused (to put it mildly) that VS Gold does not get you into a Delta Sky Club. I have a Plat Amex, so I did get in, but find it astonishing that top tier status with alliance partners does not cut the mustard with Delta, in the way in which it does with OneWorld (and, I think, Star A).

    • Catalan says:
      24 Feb24 February 06:48

      Should have checked the pre-nuptials before the divorce?

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      24 Feb24 February 06:59

      SkyTeam rules are very clear that you only get lounge access on international flights. However they’ve now published a list of exceptions where some airlines do allow access on international flights. You can’t assume that all alliances behave like the one you’re used to. Oneworld is probably the best alliance for elite benefits – it’s the only one that has three elite tiers too.

      • Bagoly says:
        24 Feb24 February 08:19

        I was even more surprised when I discovered that paid Domestic First does not get one into lounges.

        • CamFlyer says:
          24 Feb24 February 10:22

          That has always been the case in the US. It results from the fact that lounges in the US have historically been membership clubs with paid subscriptions, not for premium class travelers.

    • AL says:
      24 Feb24 February 13:19

      This is, in large part, because Big Daddy Delta needs to make sure that its own lounges are saved for its credit-carders, not lowly partner fliers, who it’s already part-funding. It is less annoying on a long-haul/short-haul trip, but is especially annoying on different-day domestics. Once I hit my 600 for the year, I bring American back in for the domestics giving me choice, as at least I have lounge access there, but I do also appreciate a few hours extra in bed (plus Delta keep me sweet by giving me an upgrade every few flights).

      Swings, roundaboots.

    • Stuart says:
      24 Feb24 February 15:00

      It’s a Delta thing, not a wide spread SkyTeam thing: https://www.skyteam.com/en/about/press-releases/press-releases-2025/changes-to-skyteam-lounge-access-policy

  • Georges says:
    24 Feb24 February 04:26

    Actually, during the pandemic BA were doing exactly that. I earned silver two years in a row just from long haul redemption flights. It wasn’t just a one off glitch, it was consistent for almost two years. It had to be intentional. I think nobody talked about it because they didn’t want it to end.

    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      24 Feb24 February 07:44

      It was BA’s dodgy IT, were any of your flights in the booking cancelled or otherwise changed?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      24 Feb24 February 08:03

      It wasn’t a specific policy though. I don’t think you’ll find it online.

      No articles or posts on here about it other than some whispering about “is this right?”

      It was variable as well. Robs daughter gained a status through it but @Rob got nothing and this was on the same bookings.

      • NorthernLass says:
        24 Feb24 February 08:50

        It was an IT glitch with bookings which had been cancelled and then re-booked into a different class. Not sure about Rob’s daughter, though, as IME it was the lead passenger who got the status. OH accidentally retained Bronze for an extra year this way.

        • JDB says:
          24 Feb24 February 09:13

          It wasn’t an IT glitch and it still happens when an agent incorrectly reissues rerouted reward tickets that have been booked into revenue fare buckets which is why it can also happen to any individual passenger or all passengers within the same PNR.

          In the new system, in theory, it shouldn’t be possible for this to happen on BA/AA/IB flights to earn TP in BAC as there’s no revenue on which to award any TP, but when rerouted on another carrier or when another OW scheme is used, the error may replicate itself as agent ticketing skills are unlikely to improve unless it becomes more automated.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
          24 Feb24 February 10:03

          Well @Rob wrote about it a couple of times.

          Think he was a bit miffed about it as he paid for the tickets and got zilch and she got TPs and status out of it.

          • Man of Kent says:
            24 Feb24 February 20:41

            My experience was that it was nothing to do with cancelling and rebooking. We had two CW trips that were flown as booked where Mrs MoK got the tier points but I got nothing as lead booker.

    • Daniel says:
      24 Feb24 February 09:00

      Pretty sure it was a glitch that only happened when your flight was rebooked. My cancelled BA BKK reward flight in late 2021 was rebooked onto Finnair and I gained Silver from it. It’s never happened since.

  • Dee says:
    24 Feb24 February 07:38

    You say here that that the paid virgin card gets 25,000 sign-up bonus but their website says 18,000? We recently got this card and that’s what we got..

  • SG says:
    24 Feb24 February 09:10

    Does switching from Reward to Reward plus get you a welcome bonus?

  • Ramsey says:
    24 Feb24 February 09:49

    Rob, thanks for this article, I didn’t realise you could have both cards, would you get the sign up bonus for the free card if you’ve already got the rewards+ card? The earnings for the free card are 0.75 points per pound so putting £20k on this card rather than the rewards+ card would get you 15,000 less points. But if you are Silver, this is more than offset by having an extra voucher worth 150,000 points.

  • William Shortall says:
    24 Feb24 February 11:25

    Hi Rob,
    I recently flew Virgin from JNB – LHR on an award flight, I bid for an upgrade to premium economy and was successful. My partner was awarded 50 tier points + Miles and i was only awarded 25 tier points with no miles. What is the right tier points and if the later should I phone up to resolve?

    • AL says:
      24 Feb24 February 12:12

      I was about to write a separate comment about this, but you only earn based on your revenue ticket, not your reward one, if you upgrade.

      You used to be able to swap Virgin Points for tier points, but they stopped that at some point last year.

  • AL says:
    24 Feb24 February 12:14

    Something that wasn’t mentioned (that I saw). If you buy a revenue ticket, then upgrade with points, you will only get the tier points for the revenue ticket, not the upgraded ticket. If you buy a ticket outright (bar TFS) as reward, then you get the lowest TPs for the cabin you’re in. There is, therefore, incentive to burn more points rather than spend cash, weirdly, but there we have it.

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