Virgin Atlantic Miles Plus Money

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Although on the smaller side when compared to global airline leaders, Virgin Atlantic (VS) is a strong competitor in the industry and a respected name throughout the world of travel. The airline stands out thanks to its fantastic product but especially thanks to its lucrative loyalty program, Flying Club.

Virgin Points, the currency of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, are loaded with value for a few distinct reasons. First off, they are incredibly easy to accumulate—thanks to co-branded credit cards, transfer options from various transferable bank currencies, generous shopping portal bonuses and frequent promotional offers for converting points to the airline.

Its partner award charts are the second feature that makes the Flying Club loyalty program stand out. And although Virgin Atlantic devalued their partner award charts during the Covid-19 pandemic and, like much of the travel industry, has faced hardships, there is still plenty of value and sweet spots to be found, particularly using Virgin Points for premium class redemptions on certain Delta and ANA airlines.

History

Established in 1984, Virgin Atlantic, the airline formerly known as British Atlantic Airways, took its maiden flight on June 22, 1984. Initially meant to charter flights from London to the Falkland Islands, the company quickly added more destinations as they grew. Today, Virgin Atlantic has expanded its list of destinations served to over 30 worldwide locations. They have also developed many codeshare agreements and partnerships making their list of accessible destinations much larger.

Now, 36 years later, the airline has undergone a complete transformation from its humble beginnings. In December 2012, Delta Airlines purchased a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic from Singapore Airlines. As of 2021, the Virgin Group owns 51% and Delta maintains a 49% stake in the company.

How to Earn Virgin Points

In order to begin earning Virgin Points, first register for a free Flying Club account. Once signed up, Virgin Red, Virgin Atlantic's lowest tier of elite status, will be automatically assigned and you'll be eligible to start earning and redeeming Virgin Points. Following enrollment, it's time to actually start earning Virgin Points and fortunately, there are several ways to earn them.

Flying Virgin Atlantic

Taking actual flights on Virgin Atlantic metal is the most obvious way to earn Virgin Points, but it's not always the most straightforward. Let's break it down.

Seats are divided into cabin classes—Economy, Premium and Upper, and each class is further subdivided into unique fare codes, which there are a lot of. And to make it a little more complicated, Virgin Atlantic further divides their Economy class into Economy Light, Economy Classic and Economy Delight, each with its own unique set of fare codes.

A list of Virgin Atlantic's fare codes

Depending on the fare code booked, members will earn more or fewer miles. An economy light (T) flight as a Red Tier member, for example, will earn 25% Virgin Points of the base miles flown compared to a seat in Virgin Atlantic's highest earning fare code, Upper Class flexible (J, C or D) on the same flight, which would earn 400% of the base miles flown.

Each class has its own fare code and each fare code has a unique earning rate.

Here's an example of what a Red Member could earn flying from London to New York.

Status Miles

Depending on a member's elite status, they can earn even more miles for flights. Status is based on tier points, which are a different beast from redeemable points.

Tier points are not awarded by revenue or even by miles flown, but by a standard rate determined by the fare class purchased. Silver elite members earn 30% more Virgin Points than the standard Red elite status holder plus tier points on every Virgin Atlantic flight. Gold elite members earn 60% more Virgin Points than Red elite members plus tier points on Virgin Atlantic flights.

Elite status tiers and their qualification requirements are as follows:

Red—automatically enrolled at signup
Silver—400 tier points
Gold—1000 tier points

In order to maintain elite status, tier points requirements need to be met yearly. Tier points are determined by calculating from one day following the date from when status is achieved, remember that Red status requires no tier points or qualifications, and continues for the rest of that month plus another 12 months. Currently, from March 2020 until further notice, Flying Club elite status members will have 24 months to earn tier points in order to maintain their status.

Elite status with Virgin Atlantic comes with some additional perks including:

Red—Ability to earn and redeem Virgin Points
Silver—Priority check-in and priority boarding, free seating assignment in economy light, and extra benefits when flying Delta, KLM and AirFrance
Gold—Upper class check-in plus priority boarding, complimentary Clubhouse lounge access for the member and an additional guest when flying Virgin Atlantic or Delta Airlines, and one extra piece of hand and hold luggage

Flights on Partners

Virgin Atlantic does not belong to an airline alliance, but it does have three joint venture partners, which Virgin Atlantic describes as similar to codeshare partners but with a deeper level of commitment and cooperation due to their joint business venture. These include:

Delta
Air France
KLM

Additionally, Virgin Atlantic has codeshare agreements with several airlines. These codeshares include:

Aeromexico
Air New Zealand
Singapore Airlines
West Jet

Virgin Atlantic's interline partners are:

AerLingus
Air Botswana
Air Malta
Carribean Air
Hawaiian Airlines
Hong Kong Airlines

And lastly, Virgin Atlantic's regular 'ol airline partners, which overlap some with the other categories of partners. Each of these partners has its own partner award chart with Virgin Atlantic:

Delta
KLM
Air France
SAS
Singapore Air
Air New Zealand
Virgin Australia
South African Airways
ANA
Hawaiian Airlines

These partnerships mean that Virgin Atlantic members can redeem their Virgin Points for flights on each of these airlines. Members can also earn miles for Virgin Atlantic when flying one of their partners and specify crediting the miles to their Flying Club loyalty account. Individual charts add a level of complexity but also help create some sweets spots, as you'll see below.

Credit Card Spending

Earning Virgin Atlantic Virgin Points through credit cards is an easy way to earn lots of Virgin Points quickly. First, there is the co-branded card offered through Bank of America.

Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard®*

Annual Fee: $90
Welcome bonus: Earn up to 50,000 bonus Virgin Points.30,000 bonus Virgin Points after spending $1,000 or more on purchases within the first 90 days of account opening. Earn up to 15,000 bonus Virgin Points every anniversary after qualifying purchases. Earn up to 5,000 bonus Virgin Points when you add additional cardholders to your account.
Rewards: 3 points per dollar spent directly on Virgin Atlantic purchases. 1.5 points per dollar spent on all other purchases.

Transfer Partners

Virgin Points can be transferred from most of the major transferable currencies at a 1:1 rate, the exception being Capital One. These transfer partners include:

Chase Ultimate Rewards
American Express Membership Rewards
Citi ThankYou Points

Hilton is also a transfer partner to Virgin Atlantic. The rate is pretty abysmal at 1,500 Virgin Points per 10,000 Hilton points. Points must be transferred in increments of 10,000 with a minimum of 10,000.

Another hotel transfer option is IHG. IHG points can be transferred to Virgin Atlantic at a rate of 10,000 IHG points to 2,000 Virgin Points. Points must be transferred in increments of 5,000 IHG points with a minimum of 10,000.

Marriott Bonvoy also allows transfers to Virgin Atlantic at a rate of 3 Bonvoy points to 1 Virgin Point. Additionally, when you transfer Bonvoy points in increments of 60,000, you'll receive a 5,000 mile bonus.

Shopping Portals

In order to use the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal, you'll first need to be a Flying Club member. Once enrollment is confirmed, make sure you are logged in. Then you can use the website's link to shop at your chosen store. Virgin Atlantic will track your purchase within 5 business days. Miles earned on the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal are in addition to the miles you earn on your rewards card.

Buying Miles

Buying miles with Virgin Atlantic, especially speculatively, isn't normally going to produce the best value, even when they are on sale with one of Virgin Atlantic's frequent buy miles promotions. It can make sense, though, if you are trying to top off your Flying Club account for a redemption.

Before you can purchase Virgin Points, you'll have to have some activity in your account or you'll receive this message: "Oops! Unfortunately you are unable to Buy Miles at the moment. Before you can Buy Miles, you must have made at least one Flying Club Earning or Spending transaction."

To bypass this the fast way, you can transfer in Virgin Points from a transferable currency like Chase Ultimate Rewards. You can also do it the longer, more traditional way and earn by flying with the airline. The last option is to use the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal, but miles can take 6-8 weeks to post to your account.

If buying Virgin Points, you'll want to wait around until the miles are on sale, which fortunately, is fairly frequent. Mileage sales usually run as a tiered bonus incentive where the more Virgin Points you buy the greater the bonus earned. Bonus miles are given starting at an extra 10% Virgin Points for the lowest tier, all the way up to an extra 50% bonus for the highest tier.

How to Redeem Virgin Points

On Virgin Atlantic Flights

Since Virgin Atlantic is based in London, many of their flights will be hit with the high surcharges. That said, you can find some deals on Virgin Atlantic flights, specifically in economy. For example, Virgin Atlantic flights from Washington Dulles (IAD) to London Heathrow (LHR) in economy class run as low as 10,000 Virgin Points and about $150.00 in taxes and fees one way.

You can redeem as few as 10,000 Virgin Points for flights such as New York JFK to London.

On Flights With Partners

Where the true value of this program lies is in its partner award charts. Virgin Atlantic uses a different chart for each partner airline, and some redemptions are better deals than others.

One of Virgin Atlantic's partner award sweet spots is with flights on Japanese carrier ANA in their premium cabins. For a roundtrip flight originating in the contiguous U.S. to Japan, the mileage cost is 110,000 Virgin Points. Taxes and fees will run you less than $300.

You'll have to search for availability via ANA's search engine and call into Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book, but it's well worth the extra steps to be able to experience this top of the line product.

Virgin Atlantic's award chart for ANA. The chart reflects the mileage cost for roundtrips.

Fees

Fees on award flights booked with Virgin Atlantic points can be insanely high as they pass along carrier imposed fees. But there are a few options where you can avoid those pesky "fuel surcharges." Delta flights originating in the U.S., for example, do not carry exorbitant fees along with ANA flights, Hawaiian Airlines and Domestic Virgin Australia flights.

Virgin Atlantic has waived change fees for flights booked up to April 20, 2022.

Sweet Spots

One favorite sweet spot for using Virgin Points had long been its Delta partner award chart, but on New Year's Day 2021, Virgin Atlantic surprised the world with a drastic devaluation when they introduced a new distance based award chart. A few days later, Virgin Atlantic lessened the blow and announced that it's original Delta partner award chart for Europe would remain intact, but other destinations would continue to be priced out at the new and more expensive rate.

Fortunately, you can still book flights on Delta One from the United States to Europe for 50,000 Virgin Points and no carrier imposed fees.

The new award chart is for non-stop domestic Delta flights within the U.S. when using Virgin Points to book and for non-stop award flights to the following:

Asia
Central America
South America
Carribean
Africa
Oceana

The award chart looks like the following:

Quirks

As far as quirks go, most of Virgin Atlantic's are overall positive. Expiration of Virgin Points, for example, no longer exists as of September 2020.

Another interesting feature of the program is aimed at new families. If a member is expecting a baby, Virgin Atlantic will cover any outstanding tier points to renew Gold status from the date of the start of maternity leave. Members just need to contact Virgin Atlantic to enroll.

Infant Fees

With Virgin Atlantic children considered eligible to be a lap infant must be under two years old at the time of travel. Fortunately, Virgin Atlantic makes their infant fees super easy to understand. The following list is how many Virgin Points you will need to fork over for a one way flight with your lap infant. Compared to other airlines, the rate is quite reasonable, especially for Premium and Upper Class flights.

1,000 points in Economy
2,000 points in Premium
5,000 points in Upper Class

Family Pooling

As one of the perks of Gold elite status with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, members can create a household account and add up to nine individuals to pool their Virgin Points. Miles earned through flying will be automatically pooled into the family account.

Other Ways to Use Virgin Points

Virgin Points can be redeemed for more than just actual flights, although, generally, redeeming for flights is where the best value lies.

Using Virgin Points for upgrades on a paid fare is one option. Note that you cannot use Virgin Points to upgrade an award ticket, only revenue fares. The following chart shows the cost in Virgin Points for various standard season roundtrip upgrades. You'll need to call to request the upgrade as it cannot be done online.

For peak season upgrades require an extra 10,00 Virgin Points for:

Economy classic or Economy Delight to Premium
Premium to Upper Class

And 15,000 extra Virgin Points to go from:

Economy Classic or Economy Delight to Upper Class

Virgin Atlantic also allows Virgin Points to be used towards their spending partners. Hilton is one example. Flying Club members can transfer 2 Virgin Points for 3 Hilton points. You'll need to transfer a minimum of 10,000 Hilton points in 10,000 point increments. You must also call into Virgin Atlantic to make the transfer. Transfers can take up to 30 days.

Another spending partner of Flying Club is IHG. Members can exchange their Virgin Points for IHG Rewards Club points at a rate of 1 Virgin Point to 1 IHG Rewards Club point. Neither hotel chain's exchange rate is particularly compelling.

Speculatively transferring airline miles to a hotel is generally not a very good use of points. If you need to top off an account for an upcoming stay, then it could make sense, but even then, other options like using a shopping portal or spending on a credit card should be considered first.

Bottom Line

Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club loyalty program is a massive program that can involve a lot of research to get as much as possible out of it, but with some patience and perseverance, there are some amazing sweet spots to be found with their partner award charts. And even their own chart can offer some value.

Overall, it's best suited for those who enjoy flying in premium cabins. Larger families or those looking to fly economy generally won't find as much value and may be better off pursuing other options.