Big Virgin Flying Club sale on US routes … just 25,000 miles return

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Virgin Atlantic has continued to turn the screw on British Airways by announcing a redemption sale on Economy seats.

As I posted back in July, Virgin has recently lowered the taxes on Economy redemptions. On many routes, eg New York, you will pay over £100 less in taxes per person on a return flight redemption compared to Avios. You also need fewer miles on many routes – that New York seat will cost you 35,000 miles return, compared to 40,000 Avios with BA.

For bookings to the US and Canada made between September 6th and September 20th (so you might – might – be able to transfer Tesco Clubcard points in time to book and get the 30% bonus currently available), the rates are:

Boston – 25,000 miles + £240 tax

Chicago – 25,000 miles + £240 tax

Los Angeles – 25,000 miles + £290 tax

Miami – 25,000 miles + £240 tax

New York – 25,000 miles + £240 tax

Orlando – 25,000 miles + £215 tax

San Francisco – 25,000 miles + £240 tax

Vancouver – 25,000 miles + £260 tax

Washington – 25,000 miles + £240 tax

These truly are good deals for return, economy tickets. You can book as far out as you can find availability. However, Upper Class is NOT available at discounted rates. Upper Class redemptions, and Premium Economy, will require the usual miles.

Even better, Virgin has drastically changed its shocking cancellation policy. See our other article ….

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:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points:

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points.

(Want to earn more Virgin Points? Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Lyndon says:

7 Sep7 September 08:25

I assume we can’t transfer points from Avios back to clubcard points ? !!!!
- Alan says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 09:50
  
  LOL nice thought, but I’m afraid not 😛
ian says:

7 Sep7 September 09:41

Economy redemptions rarely make much sense to me, but these do.

I can’t find a non-stop revenue ticket for our dates in May to Vancouver for less than £700, but this offer coupled with the transfer bonus means I can do it for 20k MRs.

This means I’m selling MR points at well over 2p each even after taxes.

That’s quite good, yeah?
- Raffles says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 09:50
  
  That’s very good ….
Raffles says:

7 Sep7 September 09:49

By the way, my 250 Virgin miles for installing their shopping toolbar arrived today! Search for my old post on this if you missed out,
Henry O says:

7 Sep7 September 11:24

These are indeed good deals… unfortunately there is still no Virgin Little Red service from Belfast, so BA still edges out Virgin for me, even with the discounts (since the BHD – LHR leg would either be an additional redemption or a revenue ticket, which outweighs the tax savings).
Kiran Kaja says:

7 Sep7 September 11:40

Having built up about 150k Avios and also maintaining silver with BAEC, it is rather hard to switch to other loyalty programs. By the time I build up any meaningful points balance with Virgin, the offer would have been gone. The cheaper economy redemptions are still a great deal though. But I guess BAEC would know that there are probably enough of reluctant people like me who won’t switch to Virgin that easily. A couple of years ago in 2011, BAEC did offer 50% savings on redemptions. I remember using 25K avios instead of 50K avios for LHR-HYD-LHR. I think they ran a similar offer in summer 2012 as well. haven’t seen any sign of it this summer.
- Rob says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 13:19
  
  Virgin has run these discounts twice now in a year. But its only economy and only on certain routes – and, you’re right, BA may run another 50% off sale, although the economy is probably a little too healthy for that this year.
Carl says:

7 Sep7 September 11:54

Just booked the me and the wife to Vancouver in May, then taking my brother to NYC for independance day.
- ian says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 13:38
  
  Same here Carl.
  
  There’s some excellent deals on ex-Vancouver Alaskan cruises in May. 🙂
Simon says:

7 Sep7 September 14:01

Is this valid on DL as well? I also wonder whether this, and the change to the cancellation policy, might be DL’s influence – a step towards harmonisation for the JV?
- Rob says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 14:19
  
  I think the cancellation policy is definitely linked to DL, because anyone booking a VS flight with DL miles would be using DL’s more flexible cancellation policy, leaving Flying Club members at a disadvantage.
  
  What interests me about the 25k miles sale is that you can book right out into next Summer. I would understand it better if you could only book up to, say, January, when fares are pretty weak anyway.
  
  I just looked up a BA return to NYC in November over a weekend – £422 in cash, plus 10,000 Avios earned back. You’d be a fool to spend 40,000 Avios + £360 tax on that ticket. On the other hand, £240 tax plus 25,000 Virgin miles is not so terrible compared to £422 cash – it is about 0.75p per Virgin miles which is a level I consider acceptable (just about) on an Avios redemption.
Andy says:

7 Sep7 September 14:13

You have just made my niece very happy, she has booked to come out to Orlando with us, excellent!