Key takeaways

  • Virgin Atlantic's loyalty program, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, allows members to earn and redeem points for flying with Virgin Atlantic and its partners, among other options
  • According to our points and miles valuations, Virgin Points are among the most valuable airline rewards at 2.6 cents per point
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is also a transfer partner of several top credit card rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards

Virgin Airlines has long been known for its service, loud personality and high-end Clubhouse lounges. Today, the airline serves destinations across the world, including cities in the United States, United Kingdom, India and South Africa, among many others.

Virgin Atlantic’s spunky heritage stems directly from its founder, Richard Branson. Branson’s philosophy of “screw it, let’s do it” has served the airline well throughout its growth, and it still shows up today in its loyalty program, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club basics

You can join the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club for free by filling out a short enrollment form. As a member of the Flying Club, you can earn Virgin Points and redeem them for flights, travel with partners and more. Frequent flyers can also earn elite status, which comes with more perks.

Who is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club best for?

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is best for anyone who lives in or near one of Virgin Atlantic’s global destinations and wants to fly where Virgin Atlantic flies. Virgin Atlantic’s route network includes many major cities, but it is more restrictive than many full-service national airlines.

Still, if you want to go to these destinations, you’ll find that the carrier makes one of the most generous commitments to award space in the industry. In June 2022, it unveiled a commitment to make 12 reward seats — including eight seats in Economy, two seats in Premium Economy and two seats in Upper Class — available on every flight.

How to earn Virgin Points

Earning Virgin Points with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is easy and can be done in myriad ways.

Flying with Virgin Atlantic

You can earn Virgin Points by flying with Virgin Airlines. Instead of publishing a table requiring you to look up fare classes and determine your own earnings, Virgin Atlantic publishes a handy earnings calculator. Using the earnings calculator, you can find out how many points you will earn based on your routing, status level in the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program and type of airfare you purchase.

Flying with airline partners

In addition to earning points for flying with Virgin Atlantic, you can also earn points by flying with any of its airline partners. These partners include SkyTeam partners like Delta Air Lines, Air France, KLM and Aeromexico, along with Virgin Atlantic’s non-alliance partners, like Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia, South African Airways and Hawaiian Airlines.

Booking with hotel, car rental and other partners

You can earn Virgin Points by booking qualifying stays at one of Virgin Atlantic’s hotel partners or by renting cars with one of the program’s car rental partners. In most cases, you can earn a fixed number of points per stay or rental.

In addition to hotel and car rental partners, Virgin Atlantic partners with a handful of other travel providers offering services such as travel add-ons, airport parking and airport lounge access.

    • Virgin Hotels
    • Virgin Limited Edition
    • Best Western
    • Marriott
    • Hilton
    • Hyatt
    • IHG
    • Yotel
    • Rocketmiles
    • Kaligo
    • WorldHotels
    • Avis
    • Alamo
    • Hertz
    • National
    • Enterprise
    • Sixt
    • No1 Lounges
    • e-Rewards
    • Holiday Extras
    • Heathrow Rewards
    • Purple Parking
    • Business Traveler

Purchase points through Points Booster

If you need extra Virgin Points to book your next flight, consider using Points Booster. Points Booster can be used on past, future and reward flights. To use this feature, simply log in to your Flying Club account, find a booking and look for the “Points Booster” option to purchase additional points.

How to redeem Virgin Points

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers its members the ability to spend points on a variety of travel needs and services. But flying with Virgin Atlantic and its flying partners, or else upgrading flights with points, will provide the most value for members and are among the best ways to redeem points.

Flying with Virgin Atlantic

Using your Virgin Points is as easy as selecting “show price in points” when you search for flights on VirginAtlantic.com. If award flights are available, you will see flight prices in points, plus additional taxes and fees that must be paid in cash. You can also use Points Plus Money to purchase flights with Virgin Points and cash, but you must have at least 3,000 points to use this feature.

Virgin Atlantic prices its award flights using peak and off-peak award charts. Virgin Atlantic’s award charts can be found under “Standard season rewards table” and “Peak season rewards table.” The program’s reward prices are fixed and do not float with the cash price of the flights. For an Economy Classic flight, reward flights start at 18,000 points in off-peak season and 22,000 points during peak season.

Uniquely, Virgin Atlantic promises that the airline will make at least 12 reward seats available on every flight. This doesn’t mean that you will necessarily find available seats on every flight, as someone else may have taken the seats you’re looking for, but if you are able to book flights when Virgin Atlantic opens its schedule, you have a pretty good chance of finding a seat available on the exact flight you want.

Flying with airline partners

You can also redeem Virgin Points with any of its airline partners. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club often offers a few sweet-spot awards, including trans-Atlantic flights on Delta Air Lines. Your first step in finding these awards is to search on the Virgin Atlantic website; some results will be shown alongside the other flight results if they are available. Note that some partners, like Hawaiian Airlines, cannot be booked online.

Upgrading a Virgin Atlantic flight with points

If you have already booked a flight and want to upgrade it, look into upgrading with points. Virgin Atlantic offers upgrades to Premium or Upper Class. Upgrade awards are priced using an award chart, with prices varying based on region and peak/off-peak seasonality. To upgrade your flight with points, you must call the Flying Club team.

Using points for Virgin Atlantic Holidays

If you already have a vacation booked, you can use your points to pay off any outstanding balance. Otherwise, you can use your points to book a new vacation with Points Plus Money.

Redeeming points with hotel and other partners

You can redeem your points with select hotel partners, including Mariott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, Hilton Honors and Kaligo. You can also redeem points with Eurostar.

Transferring points to a friend or family member

You can transfer Virgin Points to other Flying Club members. Points must be transferred in increments of 1,000 and you can transfer a maximum of 100,000 points in a calendar year.

Donating points to charity partners

You can also donate your points to select charity partners. To get started, simply log in to your account and follow the prompts.

How much are Virgin Points worth?

According to our points and miles valuations, Virgin Points are worth about 2.6 cents per point. But how much value you’ll get will vary depending on how you use them and how you value the free flights you can get from the program. Since the program’s redemptions are based on an award chart, you may find that some redemptions, especially in international premium cabins, offer incredible value.

How do Virgin Points compare to other loyalty programs?

Here’s how Virgin Points compare to rewards values from other popular airline loyalty programs:

Airline loyalty program Bankrate value
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 2.6 cents
Alaska Mileage Plan 1.1 cents
American AAdvantage 1 cent
Delta SkyMiles 1.3 cents
Frontier Miles 1.3 cents
HawaiianMiles 1 cent
JetBlue TrueBlue 1.4 cents
Southwest Rapid Rewards 1.5 cents
Spirit Airlines Free Spirit 1 cent
United Mileage Plus 1.1 cents

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club elite status levels

When you fly with Virgin Atlantic or its airline partners, you will earn Tier Points in addition to your Virgin Points. Members who earn a certain number of Tier Points qualify for elevated status in the Flying Club program. The membership tiers are Red, Silver and Gold.

Red status

Red is the basic membership level in Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. It’s granted to every member who signs up for the program.

    • Earn points when you fly
    • Redeem points for Virgin flights or with partners

Silver status

You’ll earn Silver status when you earn 400 Tier Points in the Flying Club program.

    • 30 percent more Virgin Points on flights
    • One additional piece of checked baggage
    • Premium check-in
    • Free seat assignment in Economy Light

Gold status

Gold is the highest tier of status in the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. You’ll earn Gold status when you accumulate 1,000 Tier Points in the program.

    • 60 percent more Virgin Points on flights
    • Upper Class check-in
    • Access to Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses and London Heathrow Revivals
    • Extra luggage allowance in every cabin
    • Gold Reward Seats (for twice the usual points price, you can turn any seat into a Reward Seat)
    • 2,000 bonus points on your birthday
    • Silver membership for a friend
    • Cabin upgrade award when you earn 2,000 Tier Points in a year (subject to availability)

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club transfer partners

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a transfer partner of many airlines, hotels and major credit card loyalty programs. In particular, Flying Club members may be able to find valuable redemptions with some of the airline’s partners, such as premium cabins for a particularly low price.

    • Aerolíneas Argentinas
    • Aeromexico
    • Air Europa
    • Air France
    • China Airlines
    • China Eastern
    • Czech Airlines
    • Delta Air Lines
    • Garuda Indonesia
    • ITA Airways
    • Kenya Airways
    • KLM
    • Korean Air
    • Middle East Airlines (MEA)
    • Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAUDIA)
    • TAROM
    • Vietnam Airlines
    • Xiamen Air
    • Air New Zealand
    • All Nippon Airways (ANA)
    • Hawaiian Airlines
    • IndiGo
    • LATAM Airlines
    • SAS Scandinavian Airlines
    • Singapore Airlines
    • South African Airways
    • Virgin Australia
    • Marriott Bonvoy
    • IHG One Rewards
    • Hilton Honors
    • Kaligo

Top credit cards that earn Virgin Points

Virgin Atlantic currently offers one credit card in the United States that earns rewards in the Flying Club program, the Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard®*.

However, since the program is a transfer partner of nearly every major credit card rewards program, there are plenty of top travel credit cards that you can use to earn Virgin Points. Pay special attention to cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou points, all of which can be transferred to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard

The Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard, which is issued by Bank of America, comes with plenty of opportunities to earn points. New cardmembers can earn 30,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 or more in the first 90 days of account opening. Cardmembers also earn 3X points on Virgin Atlantic purchases and 1.5X points on all other purchases.

As for ongoing rewards and perks, cardmembers can earn up to 5,000 bonus points when they add additional cardmembers to their account and 25 Tier Points for every $2,500 spent (max. 50 points per month). This card also includes no foreign transaction fees and a $90 annual fee. Additionally, note that the offers mentioned with this card may be subject to change.

FAQs

    • As of Sept. 24, 2020, Virgin Points no longer expire.
    • Yes, you can log into your Virgin Atlantic account and transfer points to another Flying Club member’s account. You can also book a flight for someone else using your points.
    • Yes, you can buy Virgin Points either by logging in to your account online and buying points directly or by purchasing points through Points Booster. You can purchase points in increments of 1,000 points. Note that you must pay a transaction fee when you buy points.

*All information about the Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.