Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: The Ultimate Guide

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, over 30 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.

To begin earning Virgin Points you’ll need to register for a free Flying Club account. Once signed up, you’ll be assigned Virgin Red status, Virgin Atlantic’s entry-level status and you’ll be eligible to start earning and redeeming Virgin Points.

Here are all the ways you can earn Virgin Points.

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 so 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 its economy class into Economy Light, Economy Classic and Economy Delight, each with its own unique earning structure

Depending on the class of service booked, members will earn more or fewer miles.

• An Economy Light flight as a Red-tier member, for example, will earn 25% Virgin Points of the base miles flown
• Virgin Atlantic’s highest earning fare class, Upper Class, on the same flight would earn 200% of the base miles flown.

Status Miles

Earning status is based on accumulating 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 member plus tier points on every Virgin Atlantic flight.
• Gold elite members earn 60% more Virgin Points than Red members plus tier points on Virgin Atlantic flights.

Elite status tiers and their qualification requirements are as follows:

• Silver: 400 tier points
• Gold: 1,000 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.

Tier points expire after 12 months, so if you’re not able to maintain the higher level during that 12 months, you’ll have a “soft landing” to the next lowest tier automatically.

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 such as Virgin Hotel perks and No1 Club Discounts.
• Gold: Upper Class check-in plus priority boarding, complimentary Clubhouse passes each year, companion tickets, elite status to share, one extra piece of hand-and-hold luggage and more.

Flights on Partners

Virgin Atlantic joined the Skyteam alliance on March 2, 2023 and it also has three joint-venture partners, which Virgin Atlantic describes as similar to codeshare partners but with a deeper level of commitment and cooperation. While these are a part of the new Skyteam alliance, they are laid out differently because of their joint-venture status. These include:

• Delta Air Lines
• Air France
• KLM

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

• Aeromexico
• Air New Zealand
• Singapore Airlines
• West Jet
• IndiGo
• LATAM
• Middle East Airlines
• Korean Air

Virgin Atlantic’s interline partners are:

• Aegean
• Aer Lingus
• Air India
• Airlink
• Air Malta
• Bulgaria Air
• Caribbean Air
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Hong Kong Airlines
• Icelandair
• ITA Airways
• Kenya Airways
• SAS
• TAP Portugal
• TAROM
• Turkish Airlines
• Vistara

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:

• SAS
• Singapore Air
• Air New Zealand
• Virgin Australia
• South African Airways
• ANA
• Hawaiian Airlines

Additionally, each of the Skyteam partners has its own chart. You can find out more about the individual partners on the Virgin Atlantic Skyteam page.

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 its partners and crediting their miles to their Flying Club loyalty account. Individual charts add a level of complexity but also help create some sweet 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 30,000 points after making a minimum of $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening
• Rewards: Earn 3 miles per $1 spent directly on Virgin Atlantic purchases; Earn 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases with no limit to the number of miles you can earn

Transfer Partners

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

• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• American Express Membership Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Points
• Capital One Venture Miles

Hilton Honors 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 One Rewards. 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 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 five 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 six to eight 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.

On Virgin Atlantic Flights

Since Virgin Atlantic is based in London, many of its flights will be hit with 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 round-trip flight originating in the Western contiguous U.S. to Japan, the mileage cost is 90,000 Virgin Points in business class. For flights from the eastern U.S. the cost is only slightly higher at 95,000 Virgin Points. ANA first class is quite a bit more at 140,000 and 175,000 respectively. 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. As always, make sure to call first before making any speculative points transfers. Once those points are transferred in, they can’t be transferred back to the bank’s program.

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.

Sweet Spots

A favorite sweet spot for Virgin Points is with its partner Delta Air Lines. Delta One, Delta’s premium international business-class product, from the U.S. to Europe for 50,000 Virgin Points and no carrier imposed fees. While an excellent value for your points, open flights can be incredibly hard to find.

Compare this to economy-cabin flights which run 30,000 points and have the same $5.60 in taxes and fees.

The below 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
• Caribbean
• Africa
• Oceania

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 leave. Members just need to contact Virgin Atlantic to enroll.

Infant Fees

With Flying Club an eligible lap infant must be under two years old at the time of travel. While extra fees are never fun, Virgin Atlantic at least makes its infant fees easy to understand.

• Babies up to the age of two riding as a lap infant: 10% of the adult fare (plus any taxes, fees or charges). For example, if an award flight costs 10,000 Virgin Points, you will pay just 1,000 more points for your lap infant.
• Children in their own seat, despite age, will be charged the standard adult fare.

Family Pooling

As one of the perks for 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 pooled automatically into the family account.

Combine Points With Another Flying Club Member

Previously transferring points to another Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Member was likely more costly than it was worth. Members were charged a fee of $22 per transfer plus $13.50 for every 1,000 miles transferred. Under the new policy, members can transfer an unlimited number of miles for a flat fee of $15, a massive improvement.

Transfers between 1,000 and 100,000 points must be done in 1,000 point increments. Transfers of 100,000 points to 2,000,000 are processed by Points.com while transfers beyond the first 2,000,000 will require contacting Virgin Red’s member support team at membersupport@virgin.com.

If you transfer 100,000 points or less, the transaction should be complete within 24 hours. Transfers of more than 100,000 points, meanwhile, could take up to seven days.

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 round-trip upgrades. You’ll need to call to request the upgrade as it cannot be done online.

For peak season, upgrades require an extra 10,000 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 its 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 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.

Virgin Voyages

In recent years since the launch of their cruise line, Virgin Voyages, Virgin has made booking a cruise with points available on a few occasions. This is one of the few methods to book a cruise on points, and the value has been impressive with a seven-night cruise for two people starting at 80,000 points.

To find out if Vigin has any cruises available to book on points, start by logging in to your Virgin Red account and clicking the Spend tab on the top navigation. Virgin Voyages traverse over 100 destinations and are adults-only. Cruise fares include food, essential drinks, Wi-Fi, tips, fitness classes and entertainment.

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 its 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.