Regardless of switching to dynamic pricing in 2024, Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership continues to supply noteworthy Saver-level fares and enticing companion award charts. Although reserving via this U.Okay.-based service loyalty program can generally be pricey when factoring in taxes and costs and extra surcharges on award tickets, some candy spots stay.
Plus, since Flying Membership companions with main bank card rewards packages, factors and miles fanatics can simply guide and benefit from these promotions.
Whether or not you are planning a visit to Europe or hoping to guide a home flight on Delta Air Strains, a fellow SkyTeam companion, Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership ought to be in your radar. Here is what to learn about incomes, redeeming and maximizing your Flying Membership factors.
Associated: How I booked lie-flat business-class seats to London for simply 21,000 factors
How you can earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership factors
You may earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership factors in quite a lot of methods. Listed here are those to deal with.
Fly with Virgin Atlantic
You may earn Virgin factors by flying with Virgin Atlantic itself. The variety of factors you earn is predicated on the flight distance, your ticket’s reserving class and whether or not you maintain Flying Membership elite standing. To calculate what number of factors you’ll earn in your flight, use the airline’s incomes calculator.
Since Virgin Atlantic is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, you may as well earn Virgin factors when flying with one of many service’s companions, together with Delta Air Strains, Air France and KLM, amongst others. To search out out the variety of factors you’ll be able to earn on companion airways, make sure you navigate to Virgin Atlantic’s companion web page and click on on the airline you might be flying. You’ll earn redeemable factors primarily based on the cabin, reserving class and distance flown.
Earn Virgin factors via bank card rewards
Flying Membership companions with most main bank card rewards packages. Due to this fact, it is simple to spice up your Virgin factors stability you probably have a rewards bank card that earns factors or miles inside the following packages:
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Be aware that Capital One miles switch to Virgin Crimson, not on to Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership. Nonetheless, you’ll be able to simply join your accounts and use your Virgin Crimson factors with Flying Membership.
If you happen to earn transferable rewards with a program, be looking out for switch bonuses.
Listed here are a couple of of our favourite journey rewards playing cards with notable welcome bonuses that earn transferable rewards:
Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card (see charges and costs): Earn 75,000 bonus factors after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see charges and costs): Earn 125,000 bonus factors after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.American Specific® Gold Card: Discover out your provide and see in case you are eligible for as excessive as 100,000 Membership Rewards factors after spending $6,000 on purchases inside the first six months of card membership. Welcome gives fluctuate, and also you might not be eligible for a proposal.Bilt Palladium Card (see charges and costs): Earn 50,000 Bilt Factors plus Gold standing after spending $4,000 on on a regular basis purchases within the first three months. Plus, earn $300 of Bilt Money upon approval (as much as $100 of Bilt Money earned rolls over to the subsequent 12 months).Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
Buy Virgin factors
Virgin Atlantic lets you buy as much as 200,000 Virgin factors per calendar 12 months at a fee of two.5 cents every in increments of 1,000 factors, plus a transaction payment of $22, whatever the variety of factors bought.
TPG values Virgin factors at 1.3 cents per level, in keeping with our April 2026 valuations. Since the price of buying factors is considerably increased than their valuation, it isn’t a superb deal to purchase them at full value. Nonetheless, Virgin Atlantic generally runs bonus promotions on buying factors. This may carry the worth all the way down to a extra cheap price and could also be price it to high off your account or to guide a selected upcoming award flight.
Virgin Atlantic Factors Booster
If you happen to’re on a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight — whether or not you paid money or redeemed factors for it — you should use Flying Membership’s Factors Booster to earn additional Virgin factors inexpensively. You may often discover offers for almost 1.3 cents per bonus level.
You may even use the Factors Booster for flights taken as much as six months in the past.
Different Virgin Atlantic incomes companions
There are a number of companions via which you’ll be able to earn Virgin factors by procuring or touring:
Resorts: You may earn Virgin factors by reserving stays with Virgin Resorts, Virgin Restricted Version, Marriott, Greatest Western, Hilton, Kaligo, IHG, Rocketmiles and Hyatt.Automobile rental companions: Virgin Atlantic companions with Avis, Alamo, Hertz, Enterprise, Nationwide and Sixt.Virgin Trains Ticketing and Eurostar: Earn factors for prepare journeys throughout Nice Britain and Europe.Heathrow Rewards: You may earn factors for procuring or parking at Heathrow Airport (LHR) and switch them to Flying Membership.Retailers Away: Earn Virgin factors if you select to buy at over 1,000 retailers via Virgin Atlantic’s procuring portal.
There are additionally methods to earn Virgin factors via airport lounge purchases, on-line surveys and airport parking.
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Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership elite standing
Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership gives three elite standing tiers: Crimson, Silver and Gold. Whenever you fly with Virgin Atlantic or its companions, you earn tier factors, and the upper the standing you will have with the airline, the extra perks you may obtain.
You will obtain the next advantages at every elite standing tier:
Crimson (new member)
Board first in economyPool your Virgin factors in a family accountDedicated telephone supportFree financial system seat choice seven days earlier than departure with Virgin Atlantic HolidaysDiscounts with Vacation Extras and Hertz Automobile Rent
Silver (400 tier factors required)
You will obtain the identical advantages as Crimson members, in addition to the next advantages:
Premium check-in for everybody in your reserving when flying in any cabin classPriority boardingPriority baggage supply when flying with Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Air France and KLM30% extra bonus factors on flights and bonus factors on Virgin Atlantic Holidays30% bonus factors if you fly with SkyTeam partnersStatus extension for maternity, paternity and adoptionMember advantages with Virgin HotelsOne extra checked bagAdvance seat task, together with on choose companion airlinesPriority telephone supportComplimentary room improve with Virgin Resorts
Gold (1,000 tier factors required)
You will obtain the identical advantages as Silver members, in addition to the next:
60% extra Virgin factors on flights and 4 factors per 1 euro spent on Virgin Atlantic HolidaysUpper Class check-in if you fly from Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic or DeltaAdditional checked and cabin baggage allowanceFree normal seat choice when flying with Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Air France and KLMFree financial system exit-row seat choice on Virgin Atlantic flightsPreferred seat choice on Virgin Atlantic flightsLounge entry for you plus one guestAccess to Heathrow’s Revivals Lounge2,000 bonus factors in your birthdayThe means to reward Silver standing to a pal for 12 monthsGuaranteed financial system seat on any flight (even when it is offered out)Lounge accessComplimentary breakfast with Virgin Resorts
For a complete record of advantages, go to Virgin Atlantic’s web site.
Moreover, Flying Membership has launched Excessive 5 rewards, which is able to award elite members with 12,000 Virgin factors if they’ve flown with this system for 5 years, beginning in January 2021.
How you can redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership factors
Each seat on a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight is, in idea, bookable with Virgin factors. As with money fares, seats booked with Virgin factors are priced in keeping with demand. Nonetheless, the variety of Virgin factors required to guide an award seat will not be linked to the money value; this has resulted in some wonderful and a few poor redemption charges.
When looking for award redemptions, search for Saver seats marked with a pink tag. These award seats are actually essentially the most reasonably priced choices, though they won’t be accessible on each flight.
You need to use Virgin Atlantic’s helpful Reward Seat Checker to search out the lowest-priced seats.
Sadly, the draw back of dynamic pricing is that the variety of factors required may be astronomical if you wish to journey on peak dates, comparable to faculty holidays and throughout the summer time. For some routes, the variety of factors required for a single flight can attain 150,000 in financial system or 350,000 in enterprise class.
At these charges, examine the money fare costs, as you might discover a higher deal than redeeming your Virgin or bank card factors.
A draw back to reserving with Virgin Atlantic is the carrier-imposed surcharges it provides to your ticket. In case you are reserving a business-class ticket from the U.S. to the U.Okay., anticipate to pay over $600 in extra charges. Moreover, when departing the U.Okay., it’s essential to pay the U.Okay. Air Passenger Responsibility.
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Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership airline companions
Apart from Saver fares, that are strictly restricted in capability and might not be accessible on peak journey dates, the actual magic of utilizing Virgin factors lies in companion award redemptions.
Redemptions on SkyTeam companion airways are distance-based, excluding flights operated by Air France, KLM and Delta. You’ll need the next variety of Virgin factors every method per particular person (although notice that some airways don’t provide premium financial system):
5,500
9,000
14,500
7,000
12,500
15,500
10,000
16,000
21,500
11,500
22,000
35,500
15,000
26,500
40,000
20,500
37,500
60,000
25,500
47,500
75,000
31,500
57,500
85,000
37,000
70,000
100,000
50,000
95,000
140,000
As for Air France-, KLM- and Delta-operated flights, make sure you examine the award charts for these carriers on Virgin Atlantic’s web site.
You will discover that companion redemption charts don’t embrace first-class fares. This implies you’ll be able to’t redeem your Virgin factors for SkyTeam airways that supply top notch.
Along with redeeming your Virgin factors with the SkyTeam airways, you may as well guide award flights with the next airways utilizing Virgin factors:
Air New ZealandAll Nippon AirwaysEl AlLATAMSouth African AirwaysVirgin Australia
You too can earn Virgin factors — however not redeem them — with companion IndiGo.
Every non-SkyTeam companion has a special award chart. Some are distance-based, and others are zone-based, so every airline can have completely different phrases and circumstances.
Greatest methods to redeem Virgin factors for max worth
With so many alternative airline companions, listed here are a few of our favourite methods to redeem your Virgin factors.
Saver fares on Virgin Atlantic
On dates with low demand, Saver fares for flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK); Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD) close to Washington, D.C.; and Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS) to Heathrow Airport (LHR) begin at 6,000 Virgin factors in financial system, 10,500 Virgin factors in premium financial system and simply 29,000 Virgin factors in enterprise class.
Taxes, charges and carrier-imposed surcharges for Saver fares are substantial at roughly $162 in financial system, $294 in Premium and $690 in Higher Class on a flight from New York Metropolis to London. Do not forget that taxes for flights departing from London shall be dearer than these to London because of the U.Okay. Air Passenger Responsibility.
These are the bottom redemption charges for flights to London amongst any main airline loyalty program.
All Nippon Airways
Contemplate Virgin Atlantic’s unimaginable redemption charges for ANA-operated flights if you wish to journey between the U.S. and Japan. This route is without doubt one of the finest award journey candy spots, although availability is tough to search out.
Check out Virgin Atlantic’s award chart for ANA flights. These costs are for one-way journey; double them for a round-trip redemption.
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If you happen to have been to guide a round-trip, first-class journey to Japan from the U.S. West Coast in one among ANA’s fancy suite seats, you’d spend simply 145,000 factors for a seat costing $20,000 or extra. A round-trip business-class seat from the West Coast to Japan would price 105,000 factors.
Air France-KLM
Virgin Atlantic has a number of award charts for each KLM and Air France. It divides the world into 10 zones and calculates your award value primarily based in your origin and vacation spot zones. Listed here are some notable value highlights from the U.S. on off-peak dates:
One-way financial system flight to Europe from the West Coast for 15,000 pointsOne-way financial system flight to the Center East from the East Coast for 25,000 pointsOne-way business-class flight to Europe from the East Coast for 48,500 pointsOne-way business-class flight to North Africa from the East Coast for 66,500 factors
Backside line
Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Membership program is intricate, and the dynamic pricing mannequin favors those that are versatile and might journey throughout off-peak durations. Those that need to journey over main holidays and peak summer time months could now must look to different packages for respectable award redemptions.
Nonetheless, this system stays extremely beneficial for worldwide journey, notably for these flying ANA, Air France or KLM in premium cabins when availability permits.
Moreover, as a result of this system has so many switch companions, it is simple to earn factors, so do not overlook this loyalty program.
