Tesco launches 30% bonus on Virgin conversions …. will BA match?

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Virgin Flying Club has announced a 30% bonus on conversions of Tesco Clubcard points!

This is, of course, not as generous as the 50% bonus that ran in January. Possibly a sign of the (improving) economic times.

There are few rules:

The offer is open to everyone it seems (although it is not showing on the Tesco website yet)

You must convert by 31st October

One converter will win 4 UK domestic flights on Little Red (woo!)

The bonus appears to post automatically with the base miles

There are two versions of this offer. One email also promises readers 1,000 Flying Club miles if they sign-up to autoconvert before 31st October. The other email does not. It is not clear if everyone will earn the extra 1,000 miles for switching to auto-convert. (The 1,000 mile auto-convert email seems quite rare, I only know one person who got it.)

Virgin has made real efforts recently to make economy redemptions more attractive in recent months. As I posted here, Virgin has cut taxes on many routes (New York is £120 cheaper than BA) and charges fewer miles at times (5,000 fewer for an economy ticket to New York.)

However, you need to remember that you lose 25 per cent of your miles if you cancel, and lose a crazy 100 per cent if you cancel within 7 days of travel. Truly shocking.

Virgin Flying Club miles can also be converted to Hilton HHonors at a decent ratio of 1:2 (and also to IHG Rewards Club at a poor 1:1!) so this is also a potential opportunity to bump up your Hilton balance as well.

That said, if you value Hilton HHonors points at 0.3p, as I do, then you are effectively only getting (1 CC = 3.25 Virgin = 6.5 Hilton =) 2p of value for each Clubcard point. Not outstanding, but OK if topping off a balance.

Now, the big question …. will BA match? They didn’t in January ….

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, one has a bonus of 15,000 points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and the most generous non-Amex for day to day spending Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points: