Review: the Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard credit card

This is our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard credit card.

It is part of our series – in fact, the last in the series – of articles looking at the major UK loyalty credit cards and discussing whether or not they are worth applying for. These articles are linked to the relevant sections of the ‘Credit Cards‘ area of the menu bar. Our other UK airline and hotel credit card reviews can be found here.

Key link: Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard application form

Key facts: £160 annual fee

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

Reward credit cards generally have high interest rates and are not suitable for anyone who does not pay off their full balance each month. If you do not clear your balance, you should look for a non-rewards credit card with a low interest rate.

About the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ card

The Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card – issued by Virgin Money – is issued as a Mastercard.

Virgin Money does not have any other travel reward cards apart from Virgin Atlantic so it should not conflict with any other credit cards you hold.

You can find our review of the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card here. Whilst that version has no annual fee, it has a smaller sign-up bonus of just 3,000 Virgin Points and a lower earning rate of 0.75 points per £1.

What is the Virgin Reward+ sign-up bonus?

The sign-up bonus on the Reward+ Mastercard is 18,000 Virgin Points.

You will receive this after your first purchase. There is no spending target to hit.

You cannot apply if you have recently cancelled a Reward+ card. The website states that you can apply if: “You don’t already have a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card or have closed one in the last 6 months. If you have – don’t worry, you can apply for our Reward card instead.“

You CAN apply and get the bonus if you have the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card. You are allowed to hold both cards.

You can apply and get the bonus if you have a non-Virgin Atlantic credit card from Virgin Money.

You can apply and get the bonus if you are currently a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s Virgin Atlantic credit card.

Any other benefits?

Yes.

The Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus credit card comes with an annual voucher for hitting a spending target.

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

Following changes to Virgin Flying Club in October 2024, credit card vouchers now have 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 redemption, not when you fly.

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

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 a lower cabin 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 an Economy ticket is 50,000 points. You CANNOT use a 150,000 points voucher to cover the full cost of the Upper Class ticket. You need to spend 50,000 points booking the Economy ticket and then use the voucher to cover the upgrade.

How do you receive your annual voucher?

Your voucher is triggered within 1-2 weeks of passing the £10,000 annual spend threshold.

You should receive an email from Virgin Flying Club confirming this.

You can also see your voucher online by going to your account page on the Virgin Atlantic website. There is a ‘Vouchers’ option in the menu which will show unredeemed vouchers.

The voucher cannot be redeemed online. You need to call Virgin Flying Club to redeem it.

Is there an annual fee?

Yes. The Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card has a fee of £160 per year. This is not refundable pro-rata if you choose to cancel

What do I earn per £1 spent on the card?

You earn 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 spent.

This is an exceptionally good return for a Visa or Mastercard.  It is only equalled by the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard (£240 annual fee, 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus).

Bookings with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Atlantic Holidays earn double miles.

The number of miles you earn per month is restricted to your credit limit.  For example, if you have a limit of £10,000 then you will only earn miles on the first £10,000 of your spending each month.  This only impacts the small number of people who pay down their account during the month and then run it up again. Bonus miles from spending with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Atlantic Holidays are not included in the cap.

Is this a good card to use when travelling?

Yes, in Europe.

Virgin Money does not charge any fees when you pay for something in Euro, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei.

The two Virgin Atlantic cards are the ONLY ‘miles and points’ credit cards in the UK which waive foreign exchange fees on some transactions.

As Virgin Money adds a 2.99% foreign exchange fee on transactions in all other currencies, you might want to get a separate free credit card to use abroad.

Unfortunately there are no travel rewards cards without any foreign exchange fees globally. One option is to get a free card from Currensea. Currensea is a simple but clever idea. You pay abroad with your Currensea Mastercard debit card. Currensea translates the cost to Sterling with just a 0.5% fee (83% less than the Virgin card charges outside the EU) and withdraws the money from your bank account. You can find out more by clicking here. Currensea is free so there is no risk in giving it a try.

What is a Virgin Point worth?

This is clearly a ‘finger in the air’ exercise. However, I am happy to value Virgin Points at 0.75p – 1p each, in line with Avios, when used for a ‘Saver’ redemption in a premium cabin. Upper Class ‘Saver’ redemptions are hard to find on some routes, however – this article gives you an example of where you need to look.

You can transfer Virgin Points to Hilton Honors points at a 1 : 1.5 ratio which puts a floor under their value. You can also transfer Virgin Points to IHG One Rewards points at 1 : 1.

As Virgin Atlantic does not offer any short haul redemptions from the UK, except for those offered by Air France, SAS and KLM, you need to be confident that you can earn enough points to unlock a good long-haul redemption.

If you need more Virgin Points before you can redeem, Virgin Flying Club has a lot of partners. You can earn points by converting Tesco Clubcard points (details here) as well as Heathrow Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards points.

How does the Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus card compare to a cashback card?

The majority of UK credit cards offering ‘retail rewards’ – those from Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsburys, John Lewis, Amazon etc – give you 0.1% to 0.25% back on what you spend.

Offering 1.5 Virgin Points per £1, plus an added bonus for spending £10,000 per year, the Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus credit card is substantially more attractive than the best Mastercard or Visa cashback card.

Anything else I need to know?

Virgin Atlantic is part of the SkyTeam airline alliance. This allows you to redeem Virgin Points on many other airlines including Delta, Air France, SAS, KLM, Vietnam Airlines, Korean Air and many more.

Note that you can ONLY manage your account via the Virgin Money app or with paper statements. There is no ability to manage your account via a website.

Conclusion

The Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card is one of the top two airline or hotel Visa or Mastercards on the market. The only direct competitor for the title of ‘best non-Amex card’ is the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard.

18,000 points is a strong sign-up bonus and there is no spending target to hit. You receive the points after making your first purchase on the card.

You may want to consider downgrading to the free card after the first year if you are not triggering, or do not value, the annual voucher.

The real strength is the on-going earning rate. 1.5 Virgin Points for every £1 you spend is an excellent return.

Note that the application process is a little odd. You must go through the ‘Check Eligibility’ process first, although the data you supply is carried across to the application form so it isn’t much more effort.

The application form for the Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard credit card can be found here.

(Want to earn more miles and points from credit cards?  Click here to visit our dedicated airline and hotel travel credit cards page or use the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.