Is this the sweet spot for using Virgin Atlantic credit card vouchers?

The move to dynamic pricing for Virgin Flying Club redemptions last October effectively killed off any hope that most people had for flying in Upper Class.

There is virtually no Upper Class reward availability at a sensible price (ie a price similar to that charged before last October.)

There are, for example, literally ZERO days when you book Upper Class from Heathrow to Cape Town at a Saver rate. The four return tickets we have booked for December for 460,000 points under the old system now cost 1.56 million points for the same flights.

The same goes for other key leisure routes. The only slivers of light are on US East Coast routes and India.

After five months, however, a sweet spot – of sorts – has appeared for anyone with a Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher and who is travelling alone.

As a reminder, you earn a voucher each year when you spend:

• £20,000 on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

• £10,000 on the £160 per year Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard

The voucher is valid for two years and for flights in all cabins.

The voucher is worth:

• 75,000 Virgin Points if you have no Virgin Flying Club status

• 150,000 Virgin Points if you have Silver or Gold status in Virgin Flying Club

You can use the voucher to:

• upgrade a cash or points flight for yourself

• buy a companion ticket for the same cabin and flight if you already have a cash or points ticket

Here’s what you CANNOT do:

• use the voucher to pay or part-pay for a reward flight for yourself

If an Upper Class flight to New York is 110,000 Virgin Points, you CANNOT use your 75,000 points voucher to pay just 35,000 Virgin Points.

However ….

You’ll see from the rules above that you CAN use your credit card voucher to upgrade an existing points booking.

The one good thing to come from the Virgin Flying Club changes – although it doesn’t appeal to those HfP readers who prefer premium cabins – is that economy redemptions can be incredibly cheap. They can be as low as 6,000 Virgin Points each way, and this pricing is surpringly easy to find.

So …. this is what you do:

• You find a day with a cheap economy redemption on Virgin Points, which you book

• You call Virgin Flying Club and upgrade it, using your voucher, to Premium or Upper Class

Here’s an example to New York, for a four day trip in September, picking one of the daily flights.

Outbound on 9th September:

Return on 13th September:

As you can see, an Upper Class return ticket will cost you 145,000 Virgin Points + £586 + $494.

(Note that it is virtually impossible to get an Upper Class flight back to the UK from New York for under 110,000 points one way. The super cheap tickets are only available outbound.)

However, if you have a 75,000 Virgin Points voucher from the credit card, you can get this down to 70,000.

This is what you do:

• Step 1 – book, for Virgin Points, an economy ticket for this trip – it will cost you a total of 12,000 Virgin Points + £216 + $75

• Step 2 – ring Virgin Flying Club and use your credit voucher to upgrade your existing economy Virgin Points ticket to an Upper Class points ticket

In this example, Upper Class would usually cost 145,000 points return as I noted above.

However, the cost of the economy ticket is deducted from this, leaving a total to pay of 133,000 Virgin Points + £370 + $419.

You CAN use your 75,000 Virgin Points credit card voucher because it is an upgrade transaction.

The cost of the upgrade comes down to (133,000 – 75,000) 58,000 Virgin Points + £370 + $419.

The total cost of your Upper Class return flight is 70,000 Virgin Points + £586 + $494.

You have managed to use your credit card voucher to save 75,000 Virgin Points on the ticket, even though the rules don’t allow you to take a direct saving on a ticket for one person. Clever!

The only time that this loophole fails is when the price difference between economy and Upper Class is less than 75,000 points. In such a case, you wouldn’t get the full value of your voucher because the upgrade cost would be less than 75,000 points. However it is very unlikely you would find such flights.

You can confirm that this approach (upgrading a points ticket using even more points) works if you read the Flying Club T&C here. The key lines are:

5.2.1 Flying Club reward vouchers can be used either as an upgrade reward or a companion reward. You can choose how you wish to use it at the time of redemption.

5.2.2 A reward voucher can only enhance a primary booking with an upgrade or the addition of a companion seat. The primary booking can be paid for with money or Virgin Points (or a combination of both), and the reward can be added at the same time as the primary booking is made, or at a later date.

You cannot use a voucher to book a redemption flight alone; the reward voucher can only be used for an upgrade or companion reward.