Virgin Flying Club launches its own Reward Seat Sale – 25% off all seats

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Almost certainly not coincidentally, Virgin Atlantic has gatecrashed the Avios sale with own January reward sale.

Almost all economy routes are reduced by 25%. And, apart from Easter and the Summer school holiday period, you can book for any point you want over the next 355 days.

Here are the rules:

Book by 27 January

No travel between 4 April – 21 April and 16 July – 2 September (so OK for the rest of the next year!)

Economy travel only

Grenada and Tobago excluded

All other routes, including Little Red, included

100% miles redemptions only (no ‘Miles Plus Money’)

Can be combined with the Virgin credit card upgrade vouchers to Premium Economy

Open jaw flights (ie fly to San Francisco, come back from Los Angeles) OK

Virgin taxes on economy redemptions are already lower (by roughly £100) than British Airways for economy redemptions. Even without a promotion, the miles required are also lower than Avios for some destinations (a New York seat will cost you 35,000 miles return, compared to 40,000 Avios with BA.).

Here is a sample of charges for Economy flights from London on Virgin Atlantic using miles, WITHOUT knocking off the 25% discount:

New York £241 (British Airways: £355) 35,000 miles (40,000 Avios)

Barbados £237 (British Airways: £329) 45,000 miles (50,000 Avios)

Las Vegas £213 (British Airways: £353) 42,500 miles (50,000 Avios)

Johannesburg £362 (British Airways: £397) 50,000 miles (50,000 Avios)

Dubai £243 (British Airways: £335) 38,500 miles (40,000 Avios)

This sale is therefore pretty aggressive. A return to New York will cost you 26,250 Virgin Flying Club miles compared to 40,000 Avios. The taxes will be £241, saving £114 over BA.

Remember that Virgin also has a few departures from Manchester, so this sale is especially interesting if you live in northern England.

Because of the two week booking period, there is plenty of time to convert some Tesco Clubcard vouchers to Virgin Flying Club if necessary. The conversion rate is 625 per £2.50 voucher, so a little higher than the Avios rate.

You can also convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Virgin – these go across INSTANTLY as long as your Amex and Virgin accounts are already linked.

You can learn more about redeeming on Virgin Atlantic in this article I published last week. Don’t forget that there is also a big bonus on the Virgin Atlantic credit cards at the moment.

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.

Ian says:

14 Jan14 January 06:40

Thought I saw something about purchases and transferring of points earning a 25% bonus as well?
- Ian says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 06:51
  
  But the good news doesn’t stop there. You’ll also get a 25% bonus** if you top up your account with Buy Miles, Transfer Miles, Gift Miles or Miles Booster by 10 February 2014. So your dream ticket could be closer than ever. From world class shopping in New York and Dubai to the tropical climates of Barbados and Mumbai – where will you go?
  - Rob says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 06:54
    
    Yes, doing this bit tomorrow!
    - Ian says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 07:03
      
      Does this include transferring of say Clubcard or SPG points?
      - Rob says:
        
        14 Jan14 January 08:09
        
        Clubcard points will go across very quickly.
        
        SPG – you need to be careful. They usually go across within a week, but a Lufthansa transfer I did last year took a full month.
      - John says:
        
        14 Jan14 January 08:56
        
        If you’re referring to receiving the bonus miles through Tesco/SPG, then no. It says it is only for transactions through Points.com.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 06:55
  
  There is, I have split it into 2 posts
Adam W says:

14 Jan14 January 06:47

Trading Standards will be on their way soon!! Title says “25% off all seats”. Rules state “Economy travel only” and to make matters even worse the text is actually correct which states that “almost all economy routes”.
James67 says:

14 Jan14 January 06:59

Good promo for those already holding the miles. However, I would think twice before transferring other points in because flyers could be left with a bitter taste in their mouth if there is snother 50% transfer bonus soon. Disappointing that neither BA or Virgin have offered abything on premium seat redemptions.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 08:10
  
  True, if you are converting in from Clubcard with a 25% bonus (which they did last Spring) then it wouldn’t make any difference.
Bill says:

14 Jan14 January 07:35

Planning a NYC trip for Jan 2015, this promo misses my dates by a few weeks!
Volker says:

14 Jan14 January 07:46

“Virgin taxes on economy redemptions are already lower (by roughly £100) than British Airways for economy redemptions.”

Maybe it has been explained in one of the countless previous items on HFP or reader’s comments and I missed it, but could you please tell me why there are (sometimes huge) differences between these taxes (same route, different taxes)? If they are imposed by governments/authorities they should apply to all airlines, so are some airlines simply not passing them on to their customers (which seems hard to imagine)?
- Trickster says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 08:06
  
  Not all of the taxes and charges are government imposed; fuel surcharges for example. Virgin have chosen to reduce their charges and/or take a hit on taxes themselves to encourage take up of economy redemptions. Much like BA have done with their short haul RFS redemption offering.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 08:08
  
  Its a commercial decision to make economy redemptions more attractive. Upper Class taxes are the same as BA Club World.
richie says:

14 Jan14 January 08:26

I make that still £210 tesco vouchers plus £482 in tax , which is nearly £700. Based on 2 people. You can buy the same ticket on ba for a little over 400 each and earn a lot of avios. If silver or gold. Plus lounge access . And tier points. So not much of a saving for me personally. However for someone with non ba status with tesco points or virgin miles just wanting a redemption then its a good thing.
- AndyGWP says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 16:32
  
  I suppose it depends on how you earnt the £210 Tesco vouchers
  
  (I get your point though) 🙂
  - Richie says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 19:23
    
    But it’s still worth a minimum of £210 as you can always buy wine, food, or pretty much anything in any tesco store.
1967stuart says:

14 Jan14 January 11:01

I have nearly enough miles for 4 upper class one way flights Heathow to JFK and will be buying the additional miles (few hundred pounds only with the 25% miles purchase bonus helping a bit)) for a family holiday in August.

As I have never travelled first class and assumng that availability / flight time was not an issue, would welcome any HFP readers views on which are the better plane to fly on Virgin Upper (747-400 or A340-600 / A340-330

Thanks
- John says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 16:25
  
  Virgin doesn’t offer First class, Upper is equivalent to business
- Ed E says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 19:16
  
  Avoid A340-330 at all cost, you only have a 1 in 4 chance of getting on demand IFE, most A343s still have a loop system
2500 Free Miles, 25% Off Redemptions, and 15% Off Shopping (Bits 'n Pieces for January 14, 2014) - View from the Wing - View from the Wing says:

14 Jan14 January 14:04

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