Delta to move to Heathrow Terminal 3 – Virgin Clubhouse to be overrun?

Delta Air Lines announced yesterday what has been expected for a while – that Delta and Virgin Atlantic will begin co-habiting in Heathrow Terminal 3.   Delta will (partially) move from Terminal 4 on April 2nd 2014.  This stems, of course, from Delta’s purchase of 49% in Virgin Atlantic earlier in the year.

Delta services to New York, Boston and Seattle will move across.  Other routes, such as Atlanta, will remain in Terminal 4.

Schedule tweaking has also been done to meld together the schedules of the two airlines.  Virgin’s Boston flight will depart two hours later to open up a bigger gap with Delta’s morning departure.  VS1, a Newark flight, will move to a morning departure.

In addition, Delta is adding a 2nd flight to Dallas – to depart from Terminal 4 – in June.

The key issue for many will be what happens to the Virgin Clubhouse in Terminal 3.  Whilst many people will moan about Virgin crew, Virgin seating and Virgin food, you will rarely hear anyone say a bad word about the Clubhouse.  It routinely ranks on lists of the top airline lounges in the world.

How it will cope with an influx of Delta passengers remains to be seen.  I foresee particular problems if SkyTeam elite members are given access when travelling Economy, although it is possible that Delta and Virgin will arrange access to a separate lounge for non-Upper Class passengers.

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.)