Our Quick Guide to Virgin Atlantic Points Flights
Virgin Atlantic points flights are one of the best ways to turn your hard earned loyalty points into stylish international travel on a budget. Virgin is considered by many as the coolest airline to fly long-haul from the UK. Why suffer the BA blues, when you could jet towards your own piece of paradise whilst enjoying the red hot service on Virgin Atlantic?
Virgin airlines rewards are easy to earn too. If you are based in the UK you’ll need to get yourself a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account. It’s free to join and will let you earn and convert the Virgin Points you’ll need to book Virgin Flying Club reward flights. If you fly Virgin Australia, your Virgin airlines rewards will come courtesy of the Velocity club. That’s also free to become a member of, but in this article we are focussing on Virgin Atlantic points flights.
What is a Virgin Atlantic Reward Flight?
A Virgin Atlantic reward flight is a ticket bought on the UK based long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic that has been purchased entirely with points.
You will still have to pay taxes such as air passenger duties or local surcharges, but you can save huge sums of money redeeming points for your flights instead of paying with cash.
Sometimes these types of bookings are referred to as Virgin Atlantic award flights, points flights, Virgin air miles reward flights or Virgin flying club reward flights. Ultimately these all refer to the same thing, but one piece of advice: Don’t use the term “Virgin air miles reward flights” if you speak to anyone from the airline. The UK rights to the Air Miles brand were bought by Virgin’s nemesis, British Airways, way back in the 1980s.
The points you can earn and spend with Virgin Atlantic are called Virgin Points. Ok, that might sound obvious, but they used to be called Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles, a name which was almost as long as the queue for immigration at JFK airport.
How to Earn Virgin Points —
Fly with Virgin Atlantic
Sometimes old school rules, the original way to earn points on an airline loyalty programme is to fly with the airline. Virgin Atlantic is no different. One thing that is different is that they also let you earn new points on flights you have paid for with points. Not many other airlines do that.
With a points booster
You can buy a Virgin Atlantic Points Booster to increase your points balance from either past or future flights with the airline, even if they were booked as reward flights.
Fly with partner airlines
If you link your Flying Club membership number to a booking on one of Virgin Atlantic’s partner airlines, you can earn Virgin Points even though you are flying with someone else. It almost feels like cheating on them, but you’ll get rewarded for flying flings with Delta, Air France, KLM, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, South African Airways, ANA or LATAM.
Use their travel partners
Virgin Atlantic lets you earn points with a huge variety of partners, from hotels and car hire companies, to travel magazine publishers and train companies. Among the bigger names on their partner list are Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Best Western, Avis, Hertz, Enterprise and Eurostar. Check out the latest partner list on their website.
Join Virgin Red
Virgin Red is the loyalty programme which lets you earn Virgin Points across all Virgin group companies and their selected partners in the UK. It’s free to join and you can link your account with a Virgin Flying Club account to spend the points you earn on flights. Outside the UK you can earn points with Virgin Hotels, Virgin Limited Edition and get spacey offers from Virgin Galactic.
When you shop
Virgin Atlantic is the exclusive airline partner of the UK’s largest supermarket loyalty scheme, Tesco Clubcard. Check out the latest offers for converting Clubcard points and vouchers into Virgin Atlantic flights on the Tesco website or the Clubcard app.
The rewards don’t end there. You can earn extra Virgin Points when you buy from John Lewis, Currys or Apple Store, just by clicking through from featured promotions on the Virgin Atlantic website. Virgin’s “Shops Away’’ portal awards points for purchases at hundreds of online stores and the airline also has its own inflight and online shopping service called “Retail Therapy”.
With a payment card
Virgin Atlantic promotes branded credit cards, in the US and UK, that award Virgin points across all the eligible purchases. Some American Express payment cards let you earn loyalty points called “Membership Rewards” on eligible spend. These can be converted to Virgin Points on a one to one basis.
We can’t recommend financial services to you and you should do your own research into whether any of these cards is appropriate for your needs, based on your personal circumstances.
How to Spend Virgin Points on Flights —
Virgin Atlantic Reward Flights
The highest pound-per-point value you’ll get with Virgin Points is by redeeming them for reward flights. You pay for the flight with your points, plus the cost of any taxes and fees. You can book a reward seat on Virgin Atlantic flights in Economy Classic, Premium Economy or Upper Class. The number of points you will need depends on where you are going, which class you are flying and the date of your trip. Virgin Atlantic divides its departure dates into “standard season” (dates outside UK school holidays) and “peak season” (dates that coincide with UK school holidays). In standard season, you’ll need as few as 18,000 points for an Economy Classic return flight, and in peak season you’ll need from 22,000 points.
Points Plus Money
If you don’t have enough points to book a reward flight, you can still use the points you have in your account to save on a flight. With Points Plus Money you can reduce the cash price you pay by part-paying for your ticket with as few as 3,000 points. The cash equivalent value of each point is likely to be lower than for a reward flight but can still give you a tidy saving.
Companion Seats
Virgin Atlantic is a sociable kind of airline, so if you’ve booked a flight with them and you’d like to take a companion with you, you can do just that by spending your points. Companion seats work in the same way as reward flight seats but allow a cash ticket and a companion seat bought with points within the same booking.
Cabin Upgrades
If you want to upgrade your seat or cabin class Virgin Atlantic lets you upgrade a new or existing booking to Premium Economy or Upper Class by spending your points, so long as there is availability in the posh seats. As with reward flights the points price will depend on the route, which season your flight falls within and of course which cabin class you are moving from and to.
Fly With Virgin Atlantic Partner Airlines
Virgin Atlantic isn’t the only airline you can redeem your Virgin points on flights with. You can also spend your points on reward flights with their airline partners, opening up hundreds of additional destinations.
On the Virgin Atlantic website you can book reward flights on routes operated by Delta, KLM, Air France, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia, South African Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, ANA and LATAM.
A little tip, flight taxes are lower in the Netherlands than the UK, so if you pay for a flight to Amsterdam Schiphol, then book a departing reward flight on a separate ticket number, you can save on the taxes you will need to pay too.
In Summary
Virgin Atlantic points flights offer a wide range of different ways to earn and redeem points, potentially saving you a fortune on your next holiday.
For the latest reward flight news, join Reward Flight Finder today!
