Is it worth it? Virgin points to Avios

[paul-uk]

We’ve been collecting Virgin points for a few years and used to get 1 or 2 UC Returns to the USA using a voucher each year.

We currently have 200,000 Points and a Voucher each which we are struggling to use for any UC redemption – so I ask myself, what’s the point accruing them.

Now it’s near impossible to get a value UC points redemption and not being Silver the Voucher has a lower value.

So, for someone who puts around £35k a year through a rewards card Is it worth starting from scratch to save Avios? We could have cards each and put £15k-£20 on each one to boost sign-ups.

We’ve been restricted to LHR-USA routes with Virgin so a change of routes would be quite nice (we only ever fly to meet or depart a cruise so no land based trips)

[Man of Kent]

Likewise I’m thinking about whether to continue with Virgin points as I’ve just priced up return flights to Toronto for June 2026 and even after using 2 Virgin vouchers (75,000 points value) Virgin come out £750 more expensive than BA using one Companion Voucher. It’s the Virgin cash element of redemptions that get you as it’s over £2,100 in the example I’m looking at even though the outbound was priced as a saver seat!

We have 2 BA cards which we prioritise for the Companion Vouchers and a Virgin card for non-Amex spend. For the moment I’m hanging on to the Virgin card in the hope Virgin Atlantic make some improvements to their redemption pricing but will look at it again when it comes up for renewal.

Other factors to consider are that Virgin points can be used on Air France and KLM and there are still odd bargains out there but they are few and far between. BA has a much wider network and you can use Avios on Qatar, Iberia, Finnair etc.