NEW: Get double tier points on Virgin Atlantic Holidays – a permanent deal

With only a couple of weeks left until British Airways Holidays ends its double tier points deal (and you would need to travel by 31st March, not just book), Virgin Atlantic Holidays has launched an identical offer.

In fact, in one way, it is even better. The Virgin Atlantic Holidays offer is permanent, not a temporary promotion.

As an extra carrot, for a limited time, the lead booker gets an extra 200 tier points on top if the booking is for £4,000 or more.

You can find out more, and price up some ideas, on the Virgin Atlantic Holidays website here.

Here are the key points:

• this is a permanent offer, with no end date

• your booking can include flight and hotel or flight and car hire (or indeed flight, hotel and car hire if you wish!)

• you must book at least three nights of hotel accommodation or car hire to receive double tier points

• failure to check-in to your hotel or pick up your rental car will disqualify you from the bonus tier points

• all passengers on the booking will receive double tier points

• you will only receive double tier points if your holiday includes Virgin Atlantic-operated flights – codeshares do not count

• for a temporary period, for bookings made by 30th September, the lead booker will receive 200 additional tier points if the total booking is for £4,000 or more

• irrespective of whether your booking qualifies for double tier points, the lead booker will continue to earn bonus Virgin Points based on your spending – 2 per £1 spent for Red members, 3 per £1 spent for Silver members and 4 per £1 spent for Gold members. This is totally separate to any Virgin Points earned from your flights.

What is interesting about this deal is setting the minimum stay for double tier points at only three nights. This makes it a realistic possibility for business travellers, especially the self-employed who have complete freedom to book their own travel.

This offer replaces the previous offer which gave the lead booker 20 tier points for every £500 spent but offered no bonus to the other travellers.

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

The tier point earning chart is here.

In simple terms, you receive (before any doubling):

• Economy Light – 25 tier points each way
• Economy Classic – 25 or 50 tier points each way
• Economy Delight – 50 tier points each way
• Premium – 50 or 100 tier points each way
• Upper Class – 100 or 200 tier points each way

Where a range is given, it is almost certain that you will receive the lower number. The higher numbers are only for refundable flexible flight tickets.

There are two elite tiers in the Virgin Atlantic programme.

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 miles on cash flights. You do NOT get lounge access. You will receive some benefits, but not lounge access, with other SkyTeam airlines. You can see full details of Silver status on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Gold requires 1,000 tier points in a rolling 12 month period. 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 miles on cash flights. You also receive lounge access, among other benefits, with other SkyTeam airlines. You can see full details of Gold status on the Virgin Atlantic website 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 and 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.

What does this offer mean for earning status?

These changes mean that everyone on your booking is guaranteed Silver status in Virgin Flying Club if you book an Upper Class holiday.

You would earn 100 tier points each way, so 200 tier points return, and this would double to 400.

If you spend £4,000 on a Premium or Economy Delight holiday, booked by 30th September, the lead booker would receive Silver status. This is because you would receive 50 tier points each way, so 100 return which doubles to 200. The additional 200 tier points received by the lead booker gets that person to the 400 needed for Silver status.

There are some losers under this new offer

Whilst this offer will work well for most people, there will be some losers:

• under the old offer (20 tier points per £500 spent) you could travel on ANY airline. The new ‘double tier points’ offer requires you to be flying on a Virgin Atlantic aircraft – even codeshares don’t count. Given Virgin’s limited route network, flying on Virgin Atlantic isn’t always possible. There is no incentive now for someone who wants Virgin Atlantic tier points to book their holiday via Virgin Atlantic Holidays if Virgin does not fly that route.

• in some circumstances, the lead booker will be worse off under this new deal. Someone spending £3,000 on an Economy Light holiday would receive 120 bonus tier points under the old scheme but only 50 under the new structure. However, EVERYONE gets bonus tier points with this new offer, not just the lead booker.

Find out more

The Virgin Holidays website is here. There is a link on that page which will take you to full details of the double tier points offer.